[Trivial Psychic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weapon X

Maybe I will try that this year.

So you got hired? How was it working there?

Since you asked, I actually have worked in TRU, which was also my final time in retail. I worked there for a little over a year in the receiving and warehouse area, and did overnight stocking as well. It was easy enough, as being that I was a receiving clerk and also worked overnights, I didn't spend a lot of time working with customers.

However, it wasn't a great experience either. I was also responsible for building some of the larger store displays, and I was injured on the job by a falling 12 foot shelf rail, which busted my head open, leaving me with a concussion and needed 9 staples to close. While in receiving, we did not deal with customers, we did bust our ass as we were responsible for emptying out the shipping containers as they delivered, which on any given night could contain over 2500 items ranging from Barbies to bikes to baby furniture (since our store also carried Babies R' Us items). Often these containers would have only two people working on emptying them, and there would be as many as three of these a night, working inside the container in either blistering heat or near zero temperatures depending on the crazy weather we have here in AZ that day. Everything would then have to be scanned and thrown on the shelf and checked with a delivery report, which was then reported to the store manager to be signed off on. It was at times very stressful, especially during the holidays.

Here's the kicker though, as someone mentioned, unless you are working a register and selling batteries and credit cards, your hours are NOT guaranteed. Despite my working a position and time slot where customer service was extremely minimal if at all, I was passed over for raises and eventually hours for not having these things sold. Things in particular were awful at the end of the holidays, as literally, I went from 40+ hours a week to 4 hours a week on December 26th. Half of the crew had no choice to quit and find better jobs. There were a few that stuck around, but it did not get better for them until close to the fall season when Christmas starts to slowly creep back into people's minds.

What I guess though you really want to know is, whether or not we had first crack at the toys. As a receiving clerk, yes, because I was the first one to see them coming off of the truck. I managed to snag several of the rarer ToyBiz Marvel Legends/Spider-Man/X-Men Classics figures as they were coming off the truck and I can assure you that many of them NEVER saw a peg on a store shelf. Same with Star Wars. However, unless you happened to be working overnight and in receiving, our store had policies that actually limited all other staff access to the warehouse in order to prevent theft. Staff was also not allowed to shop or have items held during their shifts, and if you did have one held, and a customer happened to see it behind the counter and wanted it, it was theirs. Keep in mind all stores are individually run, so the policies might be different, but someone working stock or cashier at our store had NO ACCESS to the warehouse unless they had a warehouse clerk working on that particular day.

It was also an eye opening experiences as well, because it gave me insight into a lot of things that many collectors don't believe or understand. The warehouse isn't some magical, wonderful place where every single toy you're looking for is sitting in a box in a dusty corner waiting to be had because you happened to be looking for it, and there's no widespread, secret conspiracy from TRU staff to keep them from you. Unless there was an upcoming sale or event, we literally carried NO extra cases of Marvel Legends, or other popular figures for that matter (outside of Barbie,) and we had little control over what was actually coming in, as it was up to our merchandisers to place orders, not our computer systems counting sales. Out of a 3000 piece truck, we might get two cases of Star Wars figures and a case of X-Men Classics, meaning only 3 cases our of that 3000 item truck carried the items we actually cared about. Walk into an actual TRU warehouse, and you will find maybe two rows of shelving devoted to "boys" toys, with the large majority of it being larger items like Nerf guns, RC cars, and sporting items, not to mention the larger role play items. The rest of the warehouse is devoted to everything else, with huge amounts of space being devoted to larger items like bikes, power wheels, playground furniture, seasonal items like kiddie pools, etc, and if they carry Babies R' Us stuff, diapers, strollers, and furniture....the stuff that ACTUALLY makes the store some money.

Knowing this has kind of eased some of my own personal frustrations with "the hunt" as I now have some experience in knowing how these things work, and chances are, if an employee tells you "that's all we have, don't carry any in the back, and don't know when we are getting more," chances are, they are most likely telling you the truth.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I thought I'd try and give you the most complete answer of my experience there. TRU was an alright place to work, but unless you are planning to make management, seek stability elsewhere. I hope that helps!