Anyone else guilty of buying something else non essential

[bcla]

What states are closing off nonessentials? They're going to have to rope off the 'nonessential' parts of stores here soon (Ohio) I fear. We're still getting people in just to browse or socialize. Apparel had to get special meetings and counseling because people were arguing about the no trying things on rule, cussing out workers, and taking photos of them. I've had a toy scalper who buys our stock up and sells on the flea market come in three times during one of my shifts. Three. Times. Looking for wrestling figures. Had an entire family of six come in last week and they only bought a decorative cake plate. People are gonna drive me batty.

To unwind I bought some enamel pins from a small online shop I love, then backed a pin kickstarter. I have a love for pins and Kickstarter is a great way to spend some cash right now. The product won't be made for months anyway.

Well - when we've made trips I'd taken the kiddo along because otherwise I'm going to go insane hearing all the complaining about being stuck in the house. And we've at least browsed through various toy aisles and even bought a few. That's keeping my kid sane. The only issue is that there's one particular Walmart we've gone to that's gone to placing Hot Wheels and similar toys behind locked glass sliding doors. I think they had an issue with shoplifting. I'd frankly feel guilty asking someone to come in to unlock it as it's kind of hard to distance and they'd need to stay there until we're done. But it's Hot Wheels. They sell for less than $1 each. It gets even weirder because they have some of them behind glass and some in the aisles unlocked in regular displays.

 

[DuskKodesh]

Well - when we've made trips I'd taken the kiddo along because otherwise I'm going to go insane hearing all the complaining about being stuck in the house. And we've at least browsed through various toy aisles and even bought a few. That's keeping my kid sane. The only issue is that there's one particular Walmart we've gone to that's gone to placing Hot Wheels and similar toys behind locked glass sliding doors. I think they had an issue with shoplifting. I'd frankly feel guilty asking someone to come in to unlock it as it's kind of hard to distance and they'd need to stay there until we're done. But it's Hot Wheels. They sell for less than $1 each. It gets even weirder because they have some of them behind glass and some in the aisles unlocked in regular displays.

Oh that's because Hot Wheels are darn odd toys. Normal ones might get some pocket theft, it happens, but there's rare inserts. 1 per case or 1 in every twelve case cars and apparently they go for serious cash. (I had no idea, had Hot Wheels collectors explain all this to me while I was working.) There's also collector lines which change rapidly and I've heard complaints that scalpers and dealers will buy half the stock and what stock they don't pick up they bend the cards on, so there are no good condition ones in the store. Never caught anyone doing it yet, but apparently that's a thing.

 

[bcla]

Oh that's because Hot Wheels are darn odd toys. Normal ones might get some pocket theft, it happens, but there's rare inserts. 1 per case or 1 in every twelve case cars and apparently they go for serious cash. (I had no idea, had Hot Wheels collectors explain all this to me while I was working.) There's also collector lines which change rapidly and I've heard complaints that scalpers and dealers will buy half the stock and what stock they don't pick up they bend the cards on, so there are no good condition ones in the store. Never caught anyone doing it yet, but apparently that's a thing.

So there are people deliberately damaging the packaging to make them less desirable to collectors? That's just weird. My kid always opens up the packages ASAP to play with the toy. Collecting for the sake of collecting never comes into the equation.

But for me it doesn't make sense that they're placing a large collection of Hot Wheel in a locked cabinet, while another set of them are in hanging boxes or floor displays. I've seen a variety of ones that hang from the shelves, are just open boxes/barrels (where they're just tossed in there without any organization), or this type:

The complaint I've heard is that some store employees have been finding limited edition toys and then stashing them in the storeroom so that they can buy them later. For the longest time it was impossible to find a Star Wars Darth Maul figure, and apparently employees intercepting them was one reason. I've even heard of some employees who were fired for buying toys that were relatively hard to find - like when Hatchanimals first came out.

 

[DuskKodesh]

So there are people deliberately damaging the packaging to make them less desirable to collectors? That's just weird. My kid always opens up the packages ASAP to play with the toy. Collecting for the sake of collecting never comes into the equation.

But for me it doesn't make sense that they're placing a large collection of Hot Wheel in a locked cabinet, while another set of them are in hanging boxes or floor displays. I've seen a variety of ones that hang from the shelves, are just open boxes/barrels (where they're just tossed in there without any organization), or this type:

The complaint I've heard is that some store employees have been finding limited edition toys and then stashing them in the storeroom so that they can buy them later. For the longest time it was impossible to find a Star Wars Darth Maul figure, and apparently employees intercepting them was one reason. I've even heard of some employees who were fired for buying toys that were relatively hard to find - like when Hatchanimals first came out.

oh yeah we had that problem too. It was bad at Toys R Us. We'd even get holiday temp workers who would get into our workforce specifically to steal or funnel goods to scalpers.. Now it's not so bad, the two bigbox retailers left in the game have very specific rules about buying hot items. They have to sit on the shelf for a certain length of time. Some people cheat, of course, but it cuts down on things.

I dunno then what your walmart is doing with the hot wheels then. Maybe the glass case looked terrible empty so they filled it with whatever they had?

 

[bcla]

oh yeah we had that problem too. It was bad at Toys R Us. We'd even get holiday temp workers who would get into our workforce specifically to steal or funnel goods to scalpers.. Now it's not so bad, the two bigbox retailers left in the game have very specific rules about buying hot items. They have to sit on the shelf for a certain length of time. Some people cheat, of course, but it cuts down on things.

I dunno then what your walmart is doing with the hot wheels then. Maybe the glass case looked terrible empty so they filled it with whatever they had?

It's literally all the die cast vehicle toys that come in hang-style blister packs. Some of them are the pricier Hot Wheels, but then they have the sub-$1 Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. My kid's favorites are the Disney/Pixar Cars series, and those go for about $3.75. They're also behind the glass. But then they have the overflow/seasonal displays the in the aisles or ends that aren't locked up. Go fig.