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[Storm.Shadow]

If they would bother to read the complaints logged on their websites, talk to the people in their stores, or just look at the release dates Hasbro publishes, They should realize that they are stocking their shelves anywhere from weeks to months after these items are released in the States.

Sure, if this was the case a few years ago, it wouldn't matter as mail-order options and fan groups who would buy for others was hardly an issue that would effect their bottom line. However this is 2009, not 1989 and the need to start realizing that the fans are in easy, constant contact with the fans (or resellers) grabbing them from TRUUS/Target to be sent up here.

This is such a key point that I think retailers are completely missing out on.  Information spreads so quickly on the internet that they need to get their product out ASAP.  In the past, sure they could sit on stock for months and the customer would be none the wiser, but that is no longer the case.

[olyeller01]

All you can do is complain and hope somebody finally listens. 

One of my biggest complaints with Sherwin-Williams when I started was at the start of the year, they'd preview all these great new products.  You'd get excited about them, tell your customers, get them all excited...

...and then the products show up finally in June.  Or you'd get the product when promised, but no one would be trained on it or there'd be no color formulas or pricing set up.

After much hell raising they finally got that stuff figured out.  Being American, I am lucky enough to get all the stuff you guys miss out on...but I'm so far south it does take forever.  So I feel some of your pain anyway.

Just keep raising hell guys.  Someone will listen eventually.

[Kronz]

I lived twenty minutes from Target nearly all my life. Then I moved to Canada.

It never even occurred to me it would matter until I started collecting toys again last year. Sigh.

[ARROW]

I just wish that TRU and especially Zellers would get their heads out of their asses and start realizing that they are screwing themselves when it comes to exclusives.

But they aren't.

Getting these kinds of products in or not don't even count as a blip on the bottom line of the ledgers for the year. Its a tiny handful of THOUSANDS of products they carry over time, and the variety is changing constantly. They simply do not move enough of this kind of stuff to make it a priority.
I mean........they have, what.............20 or so of the exclusive planes at each Zellers right now? Wholesale price on them was probably about $10-$15each? So.............maybe $600 take on the shipment, minus their wholesale cost.........they are probably taking in $300 from those planes in each store.

Thats not going to spur them into carrying these exclusives, there's simply no urgency to gain so little.

[Stealth Viper]

It should be also noted that it's entirely possible (and likely, especially in terms of Target) that Target has in the contract that no other retailer internationally can carry it for a specified period of time.

[Editor]

It should be also noted that it's entirely possible (and likely, especially in terms of Target) that Target has in the contract that no other retailer internationally can carry it for a specified period of time.

Entirely possible, but that is the kind of fact that it would be easy for Hasbro Canada to let us know about when they make the blanket announcements that we are supposed to get them.

ARROW, I fully know that when the bottom line is looked over by the suits in the head offices our concerns mean jack and $#**, regardless, why do they bother with the meetings and the time involved to get exclusives when they don't bother with the end result.

I would almost rather Zellers/HBC not get these items, to save the hassle of either waiting (sometimes to the point Target is sold out for weeks) until we see them, and just get them second-hand from the states and get it over with.

[Stealth Viper]

Another instance of can't please the fans.

Fans want the exclusives in Canada!

Hasbro Canada works with retailers to make it happen  - but fans don't buy them because it's "too little too late"

Which has proven what the retailers thought to begin with. Exclusives won't sell.

What fans want is instant gratification. Same exclusives, same time, same price.

Well guess what - unless you're an American, that's pie in the sky talk. Pipe dream. Ain't going to happen. Our dollar is worth less. Cost to get product here is higher. Consumers here buy MUCH less than US so volumes are much lower.

The fact that we get any at any time is a marvel.

So if you want exclusives at the same time, same price as the US - then I suggest you start immigration procedures now.

[Storm.Shadow]

What fans want is instant gratification. Same exclusives, same time, same price.

Well guess what - unless you're an American, that's pie in the sky talk. Pipe dream. Ain't going to happen. Our dollar is worth less. Cost to get product here is higher. Consumers here buy MUCH less than US so volumes are much lower.

I can't speak for everyone but I don't need the instant gratification, I would just like to know that they will show eventually.  If I have no reason to think that they will come to Canada eventually, then I might as well arrange to bring them in from the US while they're still readily available there.  I'll gladly wait for them, but only if the retailer or Hasbro gives an indication that they are coming.  I fail to see what makes that an unreasonable request.

[canprime]

I think it really depends on price and the exclusive.

TRU sold through so well on the SRO 3 packs that they over ordered and now are stuck with a ton of them.  Same went with the 5 packs, but they didn't order as much and so they are now gone.

I would think the larger exclusvies like the Jets would be harder sells than $10-$15 exclusive figures or packs. 

Personally, I don't think that the Walmart/Target exclusive packs would have trouble selling up here if they were released 2-3 months later because they are desired, small items.  As such, I know that I would buy a couple of each at $15-$20 a pack.  Again though, price and desirability are the two key factors in my decisions.

[Redmao]

Let's just hope that we'll get the rescue mission 4 pack since it contains the best SE figure ever!

[Jay]

I wouldn't mind seeing exclusives show up in Quebec, period.

[darth cujo]

What fans want is instant gratification. Same exclusives, same time, same price.

Well guess what - unless you're an American, that's pie in the sky talk. Pipe dream. Ain't going to happen. Our dollar is worth less. Cost to get product here is higher. Consumers here buy MUCH less than US so volumes are much lower.

I can't speak for everyone but I don't need the instant gratification, I would just like to know that they will show eventually.  If I have no reason to think that they will come to Canada eventually, then I might as well arrange to bring them in from the US while they're still readily available there.  I'll gladly wait for them, but only if the retailer or Hasbro gives an indication that they are coming.  I fail to see what makes that an unreasonable request.

I agree 100% with storm.shadow on this. It isn't about instant gratification in many cases. It's the ambiguity. And in some cases it's the item itself. I have zero interest in python patrol or tiger force, but if it was the real rattler I'd be interested. for a place like zellers gi joe is a niche market, and tiger force is a niche within a niche.