Those of us not in retail tend to question the distribution of retail product... In some instances, such as new movies, when new items are released, every store in a retail chain has them available for sale starting with the same day... and for other items, such as Cars and Planes, distribution is much more hit and miss... my wife doesn't understand that not every Target or Walmart store may not have the exact selection of Cars... a lot of different reasons factor into this... the person(s) who orders items... in some cases the decision is made at the local level... in some cases a corporate buyer makes the decision... in many cases people just don't get it.
I'm sure that a chain may get a better unit price if they buy 4000 of singles case A than 1000 each of singles cases A, B, C, and D... but there probably aren't 4000 people who go out of their way to buy what's in case A... it's much more likely that 1000 of us go out of our way to buy what's in singles cases A, B, C, and D.
And typically when a product line starts, stores order too many of an early case and get stuck with pegwarmers... so they don't order subsequent cases... they may skip cases or stop altogether... Product lines start and don't finish - it happens with store exclusives (Team Crew Sets, Team Sets and Neon Racers)... It happened with Haulers It happened with the Night Skyline series of Cars (especially the Deluxe Series and... with Cars 2... it happened with the 2013 Cars... it happened with the 2014 Cars... and it's probably going to happen with the 2015 Cars... I hope it doesn't happen with the new Ice Racers.
I've never been a huge fan of store exclusives... part of that has to do with the fact that I've got to travel over 50 miles to get to my closest Target or Toys R US... I'm also not a fan of how big box stores order and receive inventory... Many Meijer stores still have Finn McMissile singles, Submarine Finn McMissile Deluxe, and Race Team Mater/Zen Master Pitty and Finn/Tomber Movie Moments from the May 16, 2011 Cars 2 launch - 43 months after the release date... new items eventually sell... but when stores don't have product we want to buy it frustrates us... Meijer stores got 2 or 3 of the 2014 singles cases in and that's it... the Mama Bernoulli case (G) was the last one... Walmart was a little better, but I've not seen anything newer than the Louis Larue case (E) and that came within the last 2 months... Target dropped Movie Moments during the last reset... Kmart dropped the Cars Collector Events and only recently got one of the first 2014 singles cases (almost 12 months after other stores had them available)... many TRU stores have nothing but Lightning McQueen singles and the Bug Mouth McQueen single from the Radiator Springs Classic line.
As far as 2014 singles cases, Target appears to be the only store that's been getting in some of the most recent cases - Mama Bernoulli (G), Alberto/Sally with Tattoo, Henry Mattisse/Jonathan Shiftko (L)... I saw case K (Todd and Mama Bernoulli reissue) earlier this week at Target stores... Walmart stores got in lots of Todd/Denise Beam (case D) and then a sidekick with 6 common Cars with stickers and then nothing for months...
The newest series getting a release is the Ice Racers series... so far these are only at Target... and they may or may not be on shelves or pegs yet... Scavenger found 7 of the singles in New Jersey so I started looking for them... I went to stores in Dayton... Cincinnati... Indianapolis... and back to Dayton and Cincinnati... and eventually found Lightning McQueen, Max Schnell, Vitaly Petrov, and Raoul Caroul... I had to provide the DPCI (087-07-1595) and associates did bring out a box - if they could find it... when the scanner says there's in the stockroom but the workers can't find them I think that's a problem... I heard that someone in the Columbus, Ohio area found Lewis, Miguel, and Shu and saw a picture, so on Monday I made the 110 mile one way trip to Columbus to check out some Target stores... and I did find not only those 3 new Case C singles, but also the 4 pack with Francesco... Why did Columbus have case C but not Dayton, Cincinnati, Springfield, or Indianapolis? It's got to be where they get their merchandise... the distribution center.
Here's a link showing and listing Target distribution centers:
https://corporate.target.com/careers...nter-locations
Here's the list:
I suspect that the reason Cincinnati, Dayton, and Indianapolis all have the same stock (example, Ice Racers case A) because they all get Cars from the distribution center in Indianapolis... I found different Ice Racers in Columbus (case C) because they get their product from West Jefferson, Ohio (near Columbus)...
How many Cars and Planes Fire and Rescue items went straight to Amazon.com before we found them in stores? Ryker, Lil Dipper, Mama Bernoulli, Jessica Giampetrol/Nate Stanchion and Shawn Krash/Sal Machiani come to my mind... There are still Cars that I haven't found in stores... And I still think my favorite store find of 2014 was finding the missing Movie Moments from 2012 (Miguel Camino/Petra Cartalina and Miles Axelrod with cleaning pitties) at TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores...
I remember finding a couple of Deluxe Bessie several years ago at Burlington Coat Factory stores... Burlington Coat Factory... Why would I go to Burlington Coat Factory? I don't buy coats very often.
We didn't finalize the 2014 Cars product list until the summer of 2014 - almost 8 months after the Mattel year started... that couldn't have helped Cars sales... As of December 31, 2014, we are 2 months into the 2015 Mattel year... I've heard that 2015 Cars singles have been found at a handful of Walmart stores and All4Mase found one Kori Turbowitz at a Walgreens store... those are the only reports I've heard about... I received Movie Moments and a Deluxe case from PCD supporter Get Me Collectibles - thank you, Eli... and I received a set of the singles that I wanted from Ferris - thank you, Ferris... but that's it... I realize that we need new collectors to buy Cars to keep the line going and growing, but Mattel needs better case assortment and distribution to keep retailers ordering their products and us more dedicated collectors interested.
Niftynigel has posted many great items about UK distribution on the site - he has a great understanding of what's going on in the UK and what needs to happen to make it better... some of you may not read about UK finds or what's going on outside the US... but collecting Cars is a world-wide event that requires many people working together to make it happen... There are many Cars and Planes that I would not have in my collection if it weren't for people in the UK, Canada, Australia, and Europe and Asia... and those of you who have won Super Chase Frosty, Silver Frosty, or Neon Frosty from PixarCarsDiecast.com contests wouldn't have those without our overseas friends.
Hopefully we'll see better distribution of the 2015 product line... but I'm not going to hold my breath... I've been collecting Cars since late 2006... I've been through the Desert Back, Supercharged, World of Cars, Race O Rama, Final Lap, Night Skyline, Cars 2, 2013, and 2014 series products... those who don't learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them... but I'm still hoping for a great 2015, Cars-wise and otherwise.
Thanks for reading.
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