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Originally Posted by flaccideagle

The online surveys they occasionally ask me to fill out when I buy from there? It's pretty easy to see what sells and what doesn't- what ends up on clearance is one.

Heh, online surveys. The ones done by retailers, right? The ones that randomly pop up once in a while, and that you can easily bypass if you're not in the mood? I highly doubt Hasbro would see anything like that from retailers, since those surveys appear to be geared towards feedback on the retailer, not a toy manufacturer or even a brand. Besides, I would imagine that online surveys probably account for a very small sampling of the overall retail market, since it does not account for purchases made at a BNR.

And once again, personal experience alone cannot be used to "prove" what sells and what doesn't sell. Just because one chain (or even a single store) has certain toys on clearance, doesn't mean that those toys failed at retail. The retail store/chain may have chosen simply to not carry that particular item (or items) anymore and needs to clear shelf space for a new item that it will carry instead.

They may not have sold well in that one area, but are doing great in another (MU being available at some Walmart stores, but nonexistent at others springs to mind. And in the same town, no less).

So in short, no it is not "easy to see" what sells and what doesn't - at least on a national level.

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Retailer feedback is another. Why do you think we don't see, in Star Wars for example, the Rancor Keeper every year, or Lando toys all the time. Or certain characters from Marvel. Besides obscurity, there's a lot of characters which were "clunkers" over the decades- they don't tend to get remade much. Performance of retailer exclusives. Google search key words, Focus groups... many many more ways companies do market research.

But see you're missing my point. Walmart is not going to tell Hasbro, "Don't make that Rancor Keeper anymore. It doesn't sell very well. Make more of those Jedi and Sith guys. They go like gangbusters." They're basically going to tell Hasbro they want more or less cases of Star Wars, depending on how many they're selling and how many they have in stock.

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But for inventory control, backend corporate and the buyers inside of those chains- it's very useful, and been requested. The trend is towards more information than less. Sometimes, for many retailers, they'll fold the unique barcodes into one SKU- since they as a retailer don't care.

I've tried to find the specific Star Wars Q&A where this was mentioned - it was maybe Toy Fair or some other non-collector event within the last two years, and in direct response to the distribution question. It was probably around 2010-11. It could have been a video for the event? I can't find it- but then again I'm in my old age -mid thirties and the memory cheats, it could have been an interview. I'll post it if I can find it.

One retailer adjusting the SKU description for certain toy lines is not what I would consider a "clear move" from the industry. If anything, it comes off as a pilot program. It doesn't seem to matter to the employees and the POS system that Walmart uses still has to order by the case and so doesn't keep track of the sales of individual figures for the purposes of reordering.

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No, definitely not every retailer. At least in the northeast, there is an occasional presence on the ground.

I'm not denying that Hasbro and co. have reps that visit retailers. I've met a couple. I know others who have met them. But you seem to be missing my point. What I'm saying is, at least in Hasbro's case, they do not look at the sales of individual figures. That is just not the reason they visit those stores - it's not even a "factor".

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Originally Posted by Iceman

It's that darn price of oil effecting plastics, shipping, and everything else. There really is no excuse for how high the price of oil has risen in the last 10 years.

For the most part, I agree. No one has successfully explained to me why OPEC seems to treat the price of oil like it's a Duncan yo-yo. But as this particular topic could very easily slip into political territory, I suggest any further discussion of it be taken to PMs.

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Originally Posted by flaccideagle

There's actually a lot of reasons, whether they're true or not...

Do you mean the cost of oil going up, or the cost of toys? Considering Iceman was talking about there being no excuse for the increased price of oil over the last several years, I thought you meant the former. And in that regard, I've heard a lot of the same "reasons" as well....

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Personally I think there's a lot of issues with the factories, and profit margin per piece- how much toy companies make per item sold, and what modern business practices are. The economics of scale. Sometimes it feels artificial, sometimes justified. I think oil is used as an easy scapegoat a lot of times. The factories have been going through a huge number of changes, political and otherwise, which results in workers getting better wages (a good thing) and that is passed along the line too.

...but based on this statement, I would have to assume you meant the latter.

In that case, Hasbro had warned a few years ago that prices would go up due to material costs rising (including oil used to make the plastic). There are probably other factors that contributed to the rise in toy prices, but Hasbro specifically said that prices would go up while the toys themselves would also be affected design-wise. I wish I could remember how they worded it, but basically smaller, more simple, less plastic used.

It's a running gag over at TFW: The effect of THE ECONOMY! (dun, dun, dun)