[Trivial Psychic]

Here comes the retail employee conspiracy theory storm that hits the thread once a month...

For the record, having been a receiving clerk at TRU for nearly 2 years when I was younger...

1. Yes...TRU does get partial cases of product, usually leftovers from Express stores or other stores that swap merch with other stores to help handle overages.

2. Yes...stores can receive a shipment of one (1) figure thanks to online shopping and the "local pick up" feature. Often at times, many orders are not picked up for whatever reason, meaning the store will place the item back on the shelf if the computer registers a refund for that item at some point during the day when inventory numbers are processed.

3. There is a degree of human error that can occur when the "local pick-up" orders are placed. If the receiving clerk doesn't properly pull from his manifest, or a cashier mistakes it for a go back...it will return to the shelf unless someone does their due diligence or is psychic. I've seen it happen dozens of times.

4. Stores will often get returns from customers as well from other stores...meaning that literally was the only one they got in.

Either one of these four scenarios happened, or the employee was just telling you that to get you off of his butt so he can continue on with his work day. While there are a lot of people who do not care whether or not a customer service, it is not in their benefit to turn away customers if they have product in the back. Store employees can lose hours or shifts if a customer asks for a product and they do not check for it, only for it to be found in the warehouse if the customer makes a stink about it to management. It truly indicts them that they were not doing their job, and usually there is very little you can do to defend yourself from a ticked off manager in that situation.