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I spent the last 5 days on vacation; we traveled through Indianapolis to the western part of Indiana and then yesterday I went to Dayton (Ohio) for what I expected to be a quick trip that wasn't... While I picked up a few Cars for a friend, I ended up buying nothing for myself... it wasn't for a lack of trying... there just wasn't product available that I was interested in... or needed... or even wanted.
The only new items that I found were the Toys R Us 10 pack with the dancers, and the Target 7 pack with Frank Clutchenson and Lewis Hamilton... I have told myself I am not going to buy those, and so far I've managed to not purchase them.
Unfortunately, with the saturation of the first cases of Cars, retailers are stuck with product and are not getting in new product... some are actually sending product back to distributors so they can be sold to overstock/clearance stores... I'm not feeling very confident about the state of the Cars2 product line today (August 2, 2011).
Here are some general comments about the stores I've been to:
Toys R Us - I've seen the 10 pack at 5 stores out of 8... One store had a peg for Metallic Paint Jeff Gorvette but none in stock...others had 25 of the Metallic Paint Lightning McQueen.... Any of the newer (case E/case F) singles are long gone... the pegwarmers remain... Deluxe: I've only seen the case A and case B Cars... Launchers: I've seen 1 Miguel Camino - everything else is from case A... The first 3 exclusive 5 packs are not selling - the Porto Corsa Welcome is the worst offender - I have never seen the Chaos in London 5 pack with Mater the Bomb... TRU is the best of the stores I have been to... they still have some of the older Cars merchandise.
Target - Target stores are now doing the summer reset... 1 store had finished - they now have 1/3 the space for Cars2 items... they appear to have discontinued several items, including the Charge Ups... I've never seen any Deluxe newer than case A/B... I've only seen Miguel and Lewis launchers 1 time... I only saw case E singles once - nothing newer... There are way too many of the Racing Rivalry 7 pack (the first one) - I've only seen the new 7 pack at 1 store... the exclusive 4 packs are not selling well except for the one with the Blue Mini Cooper, and even it's been left behind at a few stores... Target has added the Action Agents line, but I'm not getting started on those (unless it's to get the Battle Ship set).
As I have no Target nor TRU near me, it's disappointing to go on a Cars hunt and come up empty.
Kmart stores continue to exasperate me... I've been to 10 Kmart stores in search of the new crew chief 2 packs... I've seen them at 3... 2 of the 3 still have all the McQueen/Fillmore sets that I did not purchase the first time... for that matter, it doesn't appear that Kmart Day 6 Cars or the Pit Crew Mater are selling well either... I saw one Kingpin Nobunaga and one Hyrdofoil Finn at one Kmart and left them... twice in the last 2 weeks... All other Deluxe are case A/B... all launchers are case A/B... the newest singles were case D... The old Piston Cup garage has been updated for Cars2 and includes 6 Cars - Guido/Luigi/Mater/Fillmore/McQueen/Sarge - for $52.00. I've seen case A and B Lights and Sounds Cars... There are plenty of left over Kmart 6 Cars although you have to ask them to bring them out from the back at some of the stores... One store yesterday actually had over 80 Kmart 3 Cars on the pegs - I sorted them by racer while I waited for an e-mail/PayPal payment to come in... The Carla/Carla Crew Chief 2 pack would sell if they'd get it to the stores - and whoever decided 4 Carla and 8 McQueen 2 packs in the case made a huge mistake.
Meijer - other than case D singles, nothing newer than case A in any product line... period... the local Meijer is one mile from work and I go by it at least 2 times a day... I've spent less than $50 on Cars at Meijer since May 16.
Walmart - I've had to drive to many different stores to find the newer 2 exclusive 2-packs (Holley/Fred and Tyler/Prof Z)... I've only seen case A/B launchers, Deluxe, and Lights and Sounds... I've seen case E singles but Miles and Petrov are pegwarmers... no new stock...
The smaller stores (Big Lots, Kohl's, Kroger's (a grocery store)) have just up to case D singles (perhaps), case A Deluxe, the first case of 3 packs, the A case of haulers and launchers... the local Kroger doesn't even carry Cars - I saw a few displays at a couple of out of town Kroger stores.
And even more disappointing than the lack of new Cars merchandise... it appears that the Blue Raspberry Crush product, my favorite soda (pop), has been discontinued after a short trial period... I couldn't find it at 20 different stores in the last week... when I spend more time looking for pop than I do for Cars, that tells you that the retail state of Cars is not in good shape considering that they went on sale less than 3 months ago and that the movie was released less than 6 weeks ago in the US... I don't remember what it was like when the first movie came out, as I didn't start buying Cars until several months after the movie had been released.
What's the state of Cars2 retail merchandise in your area?
The only new items that I found were the Toys R Us 10 pack with the dancers, and the Target 7 pack with Frank Clutchenson and Lewis Hamilton... I have told myself I am not going to buy those, and so far I've managed to not purchase them.
Unfortunately, with the saturation of the first cases of Cars, retailers are stuck with product and are not getting in new product... some are actually sending product back to distributors so they can be sold to overstock/clearance stores... I'm not feeling very confident about the state of the Cars2 product line today (August 2, 2011).
Here are some general comments about the stores I've been to:
Toys R Us - I've seen the 10 pack at 5 stores out of 8... One store had a peg for Metallic Paint Jeff Gorvette but none in stock...others had 25 of the Metallic Paint Lightning McQueen.... Any of the newer (case E/case F) singles are long gone... the pegwarmers remain... Deluxe: I've only seen the case A and case B Cars... Launchers: I've seen 1 Miguel Camino - everything else is from case A... The first 3 exclusive 5 packs are not selling - the Porto Corsa Welcome is the worst offender - I have never seen the Chaos in London 5 pack with Mater the Bomb... TRU is the best of the stores I have been to... they still have some of the older Cars merchandise.
Target - Target stores are now doing the summer reset... 1 store had finished - they now have 1/3 the space for Cars2 items... they appear to have discontinued several items, including the Charge Ups... I've never seen any Deluxe newer than case A/B... I've only seen Miguel and Lewis launchers 1 time... I only saw case E singles once - nothing newer... There are way too many of the Racing Rivalry 7 pack (the first one) - I've only seen the new 7 pack at 1 store... the exclusive 4 packs are not selling well except for the one with the Blue Mini Cooper, and even it's been left behind at a few stores... Target has added the Action Agents line, but I'm not getting started on those (unless it's to get the Battle Ship set).
As I have no Target nor TRU near me, it's disappointing to go on a Cars hunt and come up empty.
Kmart stores continue to exasperate me... I've been to 10 Kmart stores in search of the new crew chief 2 packs... I've seen them at 3... 2 of the 3 still have all the McQueen/Fillmore sets that I did not purchase the first time... for that matter, it doesn't appear that Kmart Day 6 Cars or the Pit Crew Mater are selling well either... I saw one Kingpin Nobunaga and one Hyrdofoil Finn at one Kmart and left them... twice in the last 2 weeks... All other Deluxe are case A/B... all launchers are case A/B... the newest singles were case D... The old Piston Cup garage has been updated for Cars2 and includes 6 Cars - Guido/Luigi/Mater/Fillmore/McQueen/Sarge - for $52.00. I've seen case A and B Lights and Sounds Cars... There are plenty of left over Kmart 6 Cars although you have to ask them to bring them out from the back at some of the stores... One store yesterday actually had over 80 Kmart 3 Cars on the pegs - I sorted them by racer while I waited for an e-mail/PayPal payment to come in... The Carla/Carla Crew Chief 2 pack would sell if they'd get it to the stores - and whoever decided 4 Carla and 8 McQueen 2 packs in the case made a huge mistake.
Meijer - other than case D singles, nothing newer than case A in any product line... period... the local Meijer is one mile from work and I go by it at least 2 times a day... I've spent less than $50 on Cars at Meijer since May 16.
Walmart - I've had to drive to many different stores to find the newer 2 exclusive 2-packs (Holley/Fred and Tyler/Prof Z)... I've only seen case A/B launchers, Deluxe, and Lights and Sounds... I've seen case E singles but Miles and Petrov are pegwarmers... no new stock...
The smaller stores (Big Lots, Kohl's, Kroger's (a grocery store)) have just up to case D singles (perhaps), case A Deluxe, the first case of 3 packs, the A case of haulers and launchers... the local Kroger doesn't even carry Cars - I saw a few displays at a couple of out of town Kroger stores.
And even more disappointing than the lack of new Cars merchandise... it appears that the Blue Raspberry Crush product, my favorite soda (pop), has been discontinued after a short trial period... I couldn't find it at 20 different stores in the last week... when I spend more time looking for pop than I do for Cars, that tells you that the retail state of Cars is not in good shape considering that they went on sale less than 3 months ago and that the movie was released less than 6 weeks ago in the US... I don't remember what it was like when the first movie came out, as I didn't start buying Cars until several months after the movie had been released.
What's the state of Cars2 retail merchandise in your area?
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