We go through this EVERY year. On The Rocketry Forum. In the old days on r.m.r , etc.

Wal-Mart does inventory in January. They cleanse as much exisiting stock as they can. If they find anything in the back or in a shipping container (many of our Wal-Marts have extra shipping containers sitting in the Parking lot in December so they have enough stock to survive the Holiday rush), they throw it on the shelf and many items ar emarked down.

Then they "re-set the modulars", which means the MCP (that would be humor) decides what items to stock, and how to arrange them on the shelves. 8.5 x 11 sheets appear taped to shelves. They show the layout of the modular shelving (what products go where). Then they must wait for the items to arrive over a period of a week or two. The night shift will prepare the shelves for the new layout by removing old price sticers and applying new ones to the edge of each shelf. Then when the items arrive, they are put out.

This re-setting of the modulars occurs at least 2 or 3 times a year, but is most dramatic in January.

Some stores (Wal-Marts and Michaels, etc.) will eliminate Model Rockets seasonally and have a clearance sale. Others will eliminate them for years or forever (especially if they are in an urban area near a major airport or in a high fire danger area).

Please save the text of this message and repost it in the future when this comes up every year or 3 times a year.

__________________
-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

walMart has no clue as to what is going on in their stores. As I mentioned previusly, on CNBC, they did a piece on WM, and their giant computer system, yet, when you go to a WM, there are many empty spaces , or, no merchandise at all.

I blame part of it on the way the checker scans items, like it was mention here, if you buy 24 cans of cat food , and the checker only scans one and hits 24, then, according to their system, 24 cans of one particular cat food was purchased.

I have seen, that regular selling items are always out of stock, if their system is so good, why is it. Is it because their supplier of a particular item can't meet the demand? Then, you look for a new supplier. If the items aren't there to be purchased, then WM should not complain that they are not selling.

Like I had mentioned previously, at the WM on Highway 50 in Canon City CO, 10 miles west of Estes, they had a huge display of Estes rockets, but, I am told now, there is practically nothing.

Yes, I would agree the location and the season has something to do with it, but, you must agree, the amount of rocketry items at any WM at any given time has dwindled.

I guess it might be because WM offers the same thing over and over again, no selection. Also, the fact that their toy department people have no clue about model rockets. WM only carries basic starter sets and a handful of motors, and don't carry spare parts or "D" powered anything, especially motors.

I know this topic has been discussed not only here, but on the formeer Estes Forum to no avail. Nothing has changed at WM.

I sent an email two months ago to WM headquarteers
, not only about rockets, but, other item that they continually are out of, and, these are top selling items that they should have in stock.

Like I mentioned previously, if their suppliers cannot fullfill their obligations, then WM needs to look to another vendor.

In my opinion, WM needs someone in their purchasing department who is somewhat familiar with model rockets.

Enough on WM.......

Spot-on RD. People go to Walmart to purchase a train set or a slot car racing set, or even a rocket and for most of those people thats as far as that hobby related purchase goes. They just don't know how or where to purchase additional related items.

You can't go to Walmart to purchase more train cars or track or accessories. The same goes for slot car and track. You won't find more than a couple of rocket starter sets and some spotty engine selections from A-C at Walmart.

Walmart is all about making instant sales and cares nothing about providing any additional depth of product to support any additional hobby interest that may have been generated by the initial purchase.

Does a lot of what Wal-mart does make sense?!

In another thread, it was mentioned that things aren't the same since Sam W died. That makes sense. Interestingly enough, this is the kind of behavior I saw at K-Mart over the years which I attribute to their slow demise. They would have peghooks that remained empty - out of stock - for months at a time, and over a year in one case that I made particular effort to note.


My take is that the lack of enforced discipline at the checkout aisle has a lot to do with this. As RD and Fred S have both pointed out, in many cases they ring up a quantity under one UPC when in fact it may be 4 or more different UPCs mixed together - eg, A10-3Ts, C6-3s, C6-5s and C6-7s.

No matter how good the purchasing department, if the data going to marketing is skewed by the checkout process, then they will continue to have the wrong products on the shelf.

I don't wish to add extra burden to the checkers - they're trying to keep the line moving - ie, trying to provide good service - but if they don't cull like products, then they'll be creating incorrect point-of-sale summaries which then throw off the purchasing/marketing groups.

Doug


.

I rarely if ever buy rocketry supplies from the Wal Marts in my area due to the dismal engine selection.....they always have PLENTY of C6-7's and A10-PT's though.....in other words fairly useless (or very limed usage) choices. National purchasing and marketing groups should only have a small influence in how local stores should be stocked...if these corporations would "loosen the reins" and allow LOCAL store managers to actually MANAGE stores instead of just robotically follow ignorant corporate edicts the result would be far happier customers.

What really irritates me about Wal Mart (and other HUGE-mart stores as well) is the fact that they will have 47+ checkout register spots and invariably no matter how busy the store is there will never be more than 10 of the checkout lines open no matter the day or time, with customers being 6+ deep in each line.
I gladly do my grocery and other shopping at local stores that cost me about 10-15% more that actually care about proper customer service and respond to LOCAL customer needs/wants. For hobby stuff I buy about 70% of it on internet sites and ebay, with 30% split between local hobby shops, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Target, and Meijer stores.

Huge-Marts need to get off their wallets to pay another 15 or so MINIMUM wage employees to PROPERLY staff the checkout departments.
How to pay for it ? EAT IT OUT OF THEIR OVERINFLATED PROFITS, that's how.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

I can't believe you think Target isn't a HUGE-MART. At my local Super Target, they have 60 registers, and they never have more than 6 of them open.

I do consider Target a Huge-Mart, but those in my area seem to always have plenty of cashiers, unlike the Wal Marts and K-Marts in my area.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Something else is going on with purchasing between Walmart and the supplier. My gripe with Walmart has been the fact they don't stock any B-motors. The Walmarts around here do a pretty good job of keeping motors in stock....at least keeping in stock what is made available to them. There's always at least three or four master packs on the shelf at most of the Walmarts around here. Target and K-Mart are getting the same assortment packs.. or what appear to be the same asst. packs as Walmart. Only difference is, their's will contain B6-4 motors mixed in with C-6 motors. Walmart's bulk packs will only contain A8-3 and C6 motors...Variable delay times on the C6's in most cases. Why is Walmart always getting the asst. packs from their suppliers without B's and the rest of the chain stores ARE getting B's in their asst. packs? It doesn't bother me that they don't keep every single motor Estes manufacters. I wouldn't expect them to, since they really are a general merchandise store and shelf space is at a premium. We are finding this stuff in the TOY section, with maybe a 1/4 isle dedicated to "hobby" related items(if we are lucky).

They can't be everything to everybody, all they can do is try to stock what they think will sell the fastest in the given amount of space. The dept. magager at the closest Walmart is pretty in tune with the rocketry stuff, at least to the point she's know's what is stocked. I got concerned when the shelves were void of rocketry items... it was during a time when they were rearranging the shelves as they do seasonally. I asked if they were dropping the stuff, and she said " absolutely not", and explained that rocketry stuff moves quickly in that store, and doesn't foresee it going away any time soon. Told me to check back in a week or two, and sure enough there were some Launchables and several asst. motors on the shelf next time I went in.


Launchables are hit and miss items. Get 'em when you see 'em type thing. In the spring they usually stay pretty well stocked with them(even though they are generally kits I don't want). ALWAYS some RTF or starter kits on the shelf.

The one $8.00 Launchable that I actually want is the Bull Pup 12D, which naturally is ALWAYS out of stock in all the Wal Marts near me....they always have the Heatseeker (yuck) and the dual-kit combo pak though.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !