Postby Cephus » Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:20 pm
The problem with Target, and Walmart and Walgreens and all of the rest, is that Pops are such a tiny part of their business model that they don't care. Pop sales mean effectively nothing to them, Pops don't sell like, say, Barbie, which is why the Barbie aisle is always well stocked and the Pops languish. There's just no money in it for them. Target, for 75% of the year, barely has any Pops, at least around here. You might find 4-5 Pops in a half-filled display over in electronics, which is where all the Pops have migrated. Not toys, electronics. Meaning no one sees them unless they're specifically looking for them. Then, right around September, Target starts clearing their back room for Christmas, meaning all of those boxes of Pops that have just sat in the back all year that they didn't care about come out and you might be able to find some commons, but all of the exclusives are gone, all of the chases are gone, all picked through by employees for scalpers. So for a couple of weeks, you have full displays, but nothing that you didn't already find somewhere else. And right after Christmas, it goes back to 4-5 Pops and all of the boxes they get just sit in the back, cherry picked by employees.
I'm sure the same happens at other non-specialty big box stores. They don't care about Pops because Pops don't sell and that leads them to not put them on the shelves or get any more. It's a vicious cycle.