About a week ago, Matty Collector, the “boutique” site for Mattel action figure collecting, posted an announcement on Facebook regarding their delays in getting 2009 DC Universe product into the stores…
It is no secret that their has been a delay in getting new JLU figures into Target stores. This is entirely do to our factor[sic] shutting down last December. We have already found a new factory and we have new packs ready to ship, the problem is, while we waited for the new factory to produce the new 2009 figures, we had to continue and ship 2008 product to Target to hold the place in the toy aisle.
Stuff happens, especially on the distribution end of the action figure trade. But where Matty starts to lose me is in his pitch to clear 2008 inventory to make the newer items available…
So right now Target is full of 2008 packs. We need to get all of these sold before Target will take orders for new 2009 packs. So, to help, Mattel is funding a month long price reduction on 3 packs. So tell your friends and allies, swing by a Target and grab some JLU packs this month on sale. Once we move all of the older product, we have fresh new figures ready to ship and get into your hands!
Annnndd… that’s where you lost me. Having a Target about 5 blocks from my home, I get into the store at least once or twice a week, and I’m always checking the toy section in case something new or hard to find pops up. For what feels like months, I’ve been seeing the same stuff warming the pegs because Mattel had no business producing and distributing an excessive amount of certain figures that were never a guaranteed sale in the first place (see image above). But basically Mattel is saying, “Hey, we’re slashing prices, so hurry up and clear our inventory so we can make new merchandise available to you!” Over at a forum hosted by our friend and colleague, Action Figure Insider’s Julius Marx, the discussion on this has been robust.
Bear with me, I didn’t take any business or economics classes in college, so am I failing to grasp some supply and demand principles or something?
May 14th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Lowering prices will often help blow out stock. Clearance sales, you know. There’s lots of folks on the fence about buying a thing that a deep discount will push to the “yes” side”
The only problem is it still puts the onus on Target to move the merchandise. Getting the news out to the fans is a good idea, but it still puts Target in the position of getting rid of product before they get in the stuff the fans want. Mattel could do worse than to just take the figures back, dump them to job-lot and then push out the 2009 stuff.
This is not uncommon. I can remember lots of times the Star Wars pegs would be filled with dozens of the same commons (often the SAME one) from the last wave that the store stubbornly refused to move to make room for the hot next wave that would sell like mad.
It’s like demanding yesterday’s milk sell out before you put out more. Once something has died on the vine, you prune it and make room for more. It’s the same mindset that makes comic shops choked with above-cover books that the storeowner refuses to drop the price on because “he’d be losing money”.
May 14th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I hadn’t thought of it before, but Vinnie’s right. Around here, there are a number of liquidator stores, most prominently Odd Lots and Big Lots (I wonder if they’re any relation to Job Lots?), and I often see toys from “The Batman” and BTAS lines. So why can’t Mattel just get the toys returned to them and send them to the liquidators, freeing up those pegs at Target, Wal-Mart, et al?
May 14th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Is that Batman Beyond 3 pack new for 2009, because I haven’t seen that one.
I did find some cool single packs 2 weeks ago that I hadn’t seen before,
Batman with Wonder Pig (or just a pig)
Parasite
Superwoman
Sinestro
Booster Gold with Skeet
I can’t wait to get Task Force X.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Target is fairly quick to pull the clearance trigger on stuff, especially toys. And stuff they put on clearance doesn’t even always show up with a red price tag in the department it is supposed to be. Sometimes it pays to check out the endcaps in other departments.
May 14th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
That’s a good point, Rick. Similarly, in local Wal-Marts, I’ve been finding DCU Classics on clip-strip endcaps a couple of aisles removed from their usual home.
May 14th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I live in the UK, so I’m not familiar with US buying and purchasing (but I am familiar with UK practises), so were the dolls sold to Target on firm sale? If so, no chance of returning them, and they would have to clear old stock before purchasing
more – especially in the current climate.