Is Wal-mart phasing out Heroscape?

[Jacks_lament]

Made two calls this morning to different Wal-marts and was told by one that they are going to stop carrying HS and the other said they would not be getting anymore castle sets. That the castles were unreplenishable. Anyone heard likewise?

[DarkSpade]

Wal-mart always craming in heroscape one month, and putting it on clearence the next. There doesn't even seem to be a pattern to it anymore.

[Retlaw]

The Plainfield, IN Walmart just got in a bunch of wave 5 this past week and has plenty of shelf space dedicated to HS - MS, large hero/terrain, castle (although they don't have any in stock), and small expansion sets (even have some on the "ask for help in getting this" top shelf). But the Walmart in Avon, IN may only have the MS and space for one set of expansions

BTW, your location says "the circle city" -- are you from Indy?

I think this is more store by store and month to month -- I remember last Christmas the Plainfield Walmart only had EOV master sets, but the Target and Meijer had MS and all the expansions (except MP).

[Hahnarama]

Jack only posts when he's on the hunt for new stuff. :P Ya he's a southside Indy dude.


I bet once teh WW finish their Christmas toy area reset you swill see plenty of stuff on the shelf.

[RichardD]

Let me get this straight - they take pretty much the whole allocation of Castle sets, sell out in lots of places in about a month flat, and might be considering dropping the line completely? Sure.

[huskers]

Another indy guy here. I tried buying the castle set at the greenfield, lawrence, south emerson and 86th stores. All stated non replenishable, couldn't order them if they wanted to. They said the warehouse might just automatically send them to the stores. I called up the district manager and they are having two sent to me from another store in indiana. All the stores mentioned above showed they had the castles in stock when viewed from a different stores computers.

[johnny139]

Mine is. They didn't have any small expansions left, only one Master set, and RttFF. They didn't even have spaces for the others!

And that's the only place I can find them...

[Finrod]

Some Wal-Mart stores apparently have more leeway than others in what they do. I'm not sure if this a franchise/corporate thing or what. But for example, some people post on here regularly about finding tremendous discounts on HS stuff. But none of the multitude of Wal-marts in my area have ever discounted ANYTHING HS.

Then there's always the possibility that the person you talked to on the phone was an ignorant jerk. I had that happen with my local TRU. A person on the phone wouldn't listen to me, kept interrupting and insisted, "I don't carry ANY Heroscape expansions here." I walked into the store later that day and they were all over the shelf.

[K/H_Addict]

I got my Castle on the monday they were released. I was in that same walmart on sunday and they no longer had a spot for castles.

[yanks114kd]

That is the same thing my Wal-mart to me. That the castles were unreplenishable. But the toy manager said that it doesn't mean they won't get more in like 3 or 4 months. Just none right now.

[jcb231]

No way is Wal-Mart phasing out HS. Maybe some stores will get less than others, but that's always been the case.

[Grungebob]

It is all about shelf space. Walmart gambled on getting it all before the other retailers and do NOT want to waste shelf space on a product that isn't there and won't be replenished soon, so they give that space over to some holiday toys and games and then make room again when the time is right.

[Cavalier]

As a former, as in over 15 years ago, Warlly-world employee I'll offer my take on this. If dept is out of product on shelves they can get in trouble from the management, unless they can show that they have ordered it in a timely manner and that the distribution centers are at fault. If the it is seen that the distribution centers are shown to be failing to deliver ordered product, the folks there can be put on the spot. If the distribution centers can show that they have had no product to ship it goes up the chain to putting the Toy Buyes (big wigs) at HQ in the hot seat.

The toy buyers at WM headquarters are probably unable to acquire castles from Hasbro (as is everybody at this point...I think they under estimated the first run); so the buyers have TEMPORARILY designated the castles as non-replenishable until such time as Hasbro gets them back in circulation.

This comes from a former Dept Manager, but as I said I haven't worked for them in years and I know things do change, but that is what it appears to me is happening.

[Hahnarama]

OK settle down the sky is not falling. I just had to run to WW to get some printer cartridges for work. While I was there I hit the games isle. They still had LOTS of W5 from last week and they had restocked Orms and RTTFF. There was a tag for the castles, but as expected no castles. There were also about 40 orange reset tags all over. WW is getting ready to do their Holiday Reset. After all is said and done they will stock everything up.

[Finrod]

they had restocked Orms

heheheheheheh...

[vernz]

my walmart had the stickers for the castles saying the price but when i went back to see if any came in the sticker was gone so they might not be getting anymore. i hope thats not the case though

[Hahnarama]

As I spake before they be startin' th' store reset. I be bettin' th' sticker has moved t' th' new Scape location
Ya bilge rat whut deserves the black spot!


:pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate:

[chewbaccapits]

Well, according to some of the employees I've spoken to they've never sold any Heroscape stuff to begin with. So, I really take this with a grain of salt....Whatever that mean....

[LilNewbie]

Well, according to some of the employees I've spoken to they've never sold any Heroscape stuff to begin with. So, I really take this with a grain of salt....Whatever that mean....

LOL! Good one.

Newb.

[Jandars_Hope]

The Customer is always right (and probably knows more about a product than the workers!)

[jcb231]

My Wal-mart says they have lots of Horoscopes up by the cash registers.

True story.

[bushi96]

Thats what you get for talking to the help. Those are telescopes, not horoscopes.

[jcb231]

No no, they had horoscopes too. Little scroll things right near the candy and gum. She was right on, if I'd asked about horoscopes.

[K/H_Addict]

As I spake before they be startin' th' store reset. I be bettin' th' sticker has moved t' th' new Scape location
Ya bilge rat whut deserves the black spot!


:pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate: :pirate:


Argh. That depends on your location. My WM's have already changed around, so unless they change again before christmas, my WMs wont have any more castles.....

[Neveryll]

WoW! Glad my wife grabbed the one by me and made me buy it. Wasn't the best timing for us but now I'm glad she did. All I need to do now is get one more for my small collection.

[ptucker78]

I agree with the opinion/fact that it goes by store. The one nearest to my home has been sold out of small expansions for about 5 weeks now, but restocked on Orms again... The one nearest one of our stores I work at has been restocking small expansions pretty quickly as of late.

[pashadowops]

I can't imagine Walmart phasing out HS. Especially since now even Kmart is starting to carry HS. I have found that most of the employees....excuse me...associates that work at Wally Worlds and most retail stores for that matter are simply there for a pay check, nothing more. They don't (in there opinion) get paid for knowing whats in stock, what they do or don't carry or will be carrying in the future. Definately take what they say with a grain of salt. A hint: before you ask one of these associates about HS, ask them if they can help you with something then walk them over to where the HS stuff is before you ask your question. I find this tactic kinda gets them in the frame of mind you want the to be in because now the product in question is right in front of them so they can see what you are talking about. Kind of like leading a horse to water. :wink:

[TweetyBird]

Based on personal shopping experience, I'd say my local Wal-mart phased out Herocape about a year and a half ago.

[HouseMouseGames]

Just thought you might find this interesting.

About 3 weeks ago, I noticed that the shelves at our local Walmart SuperCenter had a spot for the Tower Set but no sets. I've been contacting them every day hoping to get some sets to fill some orders, but no luck.

Today the "toy person" told me that the item had been deleted and will never be available. I don't know their definition of "never", but it's not going to be available here for a while.

[scarecrowking]

A friend of mine called yesterday to let me know the D'iberville, MS Wally-World had RttFF for $3.00 each. I was able to get 4, and he got the other 3. Another WM has the RttFF on clearance for $15.00, though. Man, that company is weird.

[Finrod]

Sounds to me like Hasbro really screwed up.

What it SOUNDS like is that they have so far only created one large shipment of Castle sets, which arrived in the US and went exclusively to Wal-Mart. It now sounds like most of those have immediately sold out, and Hasbro has NONE ready to re-stock Wal-Mart or anywhere else. Wal-mart is shifting shelf space to get rid of the empty gap that'll be there for months. :(

I blame Ninthdoc, myself.

[ninthdoc]

LOL. I put all of mine to good use. I resold them at cost to needy D/FW scapers and made one helluva huge map!

[ninthdoc]

Just thought you might find this interesting.

About 3 weeks ago, I noticed that the shelves at our local Walmart SuperCenter had a spot for the Tower Set but no sets. I've been contacting them every day hoping to get some sets to fill some orders, but no luck.

Today the "toy person" told me that the item had been deleted and will never be available. I don't know their definition of "never", but it's not going to be available here for a while.

Sandra, that's totally weird. The tags are all over the shelves. Is it possible that they had deleted it for that store. I've noticed that stores in lower socieconomic areas don't even have the tags up. It makes me wonder if WalMart is more in touch w/Heroscape's clientelle than Hasbro is. :shrug:

[Joah]

Just thought you might find this interesting.

About 3 weeks ago, I noticed that the shelves at our local Walmart SuperCenter had a spot for the Tower Set but no sets. I've been contacting them every day hoping to get some sets to fill some orders, but no luck.

Today the "toy person" told me that the item had been deleted and will never be available. I don't know their definition of "never", but it's not going to be available here for a while.

Sandra, that's totally weird. The tags are all over the shelves. Is it possible that they had deleted it for that store. I've noticed that stores in lower socieconomic areas don't even have the tags up. It makes me wonder if WalMart is more in touch w/Heroscape's clientelle than Hasbro is. :shrug:
I too, have noticed this and scratched my head a bit.
I fully expect most stores to be stocked for X-mas.
After that, I wonder.

[Su-Bak-Na]

My Walmart has been keeping things in stock, and I'm confident that they will keep suplying it.

Sorry to all of you who are having problems geting HS offline.

[LoneDragon]

That's odd.
There are two Walmarts near me.

Walmart A has a space for castles and has moved at least 4 sets of Wave 5 through, I bought 1 1/2 sets and recently saw almost 2 complete sets on the shelf. Walmart A has never, to my knowledge, had castles in stock. They may have gotten in a set and sold it though. I haven't been there this week to know if the tag is still on the shelf.

Walmart B is a bit farther away. They have recently stocked at least 2 sets each of Wave 1 and Wave 5. They have gotten in at least 1 case of castles(1 of which I bought).

Both Walmarts have spaces for Master Sets, Small Expansions, Castles, and Large Figure expansions(which is always filled with 6-8 sets of Orm's Return). Both Walmarts have clearanced off their few remaining RttFF sets and neither has ever had a space for snow.

I still want to know what's the deal with all this Orm's return clogging up all the shelves? They should put that on clearance. What are they thinking??

~Yub yub, Commander!

[Teamski]

Well, this doesn't do our hobby any good whatsoever. There is either overstock or nothing it seems at WM. I sure wish they would get it right...

-Ski

[srmalloy]

Sounds to me like Hasbro really screwed up.

What it SOUNDS like is that they have so far only created one large shipment of Castle sets, which arrived in the US and went exclusively to Wal-Mart. It now sounds like most of those have immediately sold out, and Hasbro has NONE ready to re-stock Wal-Mart or anywhere else. Wal-mart is shifting shelf space to get rid of the empty gap that'll be there for months. :(
Having ordered two castle sets through the Hasbro online store on 9/13 ("Usually ships next day"), saw them reported as 'out of stock' the next day, had the order status "Not yet shipped" on 9/17 (with an 'expected ship date' of 9/14 three days after that date), then on 9/18 see the status of my orders as 'fully shipped' with a ship date of 9/15, it looks to me as if Hasbro dropped the ball badly on the demand for the expansion, and is scrambling frantically trying to not deep-six their reputation; if they get additional production capacity to meet the up-front demand, they'll be stuck with overproduction when the initial demand falls off; if they don't expand production, they won't be able to fill their orders, and look like idiots. So far, they've got a lock on looking like idiots...

[Kepler]

Speaking of Wal-Mart I thought this quote from an AP story about WM selling generic drugs for $4 for a monthly prescription.


In a conference call with reporters, Simon said that the generic drugs would not be sold at a loss to entice customers into the stores, a strategy that has been used in Wal-Mart's toy business.


I guess that's why HS is so cheap there.

[GromBloodboy]

I waited two-three weeks for my castles from wal-mart. Mine seems to be keeping theirs in stock.

[ptucker78]

No signs of a restock of castles at the nearest Wal-mart, they did get one case originally. The one near work never has had a tag, but just got at least three more sets of wave 5. Looks like they've had about 7 sets of small expansions (first few were Wave 1) in the last month. Don't think they'd want to phase out something that's moving that quickly.

[eldurand]

After being away from HeroScape for a while, I saw on this site the other day that the castles had been released. I walked into my local Wal-Mart on Tuesday and lo and behold - two Castle sets! I bought them both, but I am waiting to see if they re-stock.

[Tendoformer]

The Wal-marts here in San Diego are notorious for not having anything in stock besides the main set and TONS of volcano sets.

I have always had better luck with Target stores.

So far, I've seen no castles :(

[GaryLASQ]

far as i can tell, most WalMarts near me treat Heroscape as a "Christmas Only" item. meaning they make one initial order for August-to-December shelf space. if it sells out, then that's it, nothing new until next August.

now granted i don't understand all the distribution variables of big box retail, so maybe a region of Walmart makes one big August order for the regional warehouse and then spreads them out.

but i have been told by Walmart employees that have scanned HS items for me that HS is a "Christmas Only" product line (after they read their scanners).

[Cavalier]

The Wal-marts here in San Diego are notorious for not having anything in stock besides the main set and TONS of volcano sets.

I have always had better luck with Target stores.

So far, I've seen no castles :(umm, how does walmart anywhere have Volcaran Wasteland as it is a Toys R Us exclusive???

[Tendoformer]

The Wal-marts here in San Diego are notorious for not having anything in stock besides the main set and TONS of volcano sets.

I have always had better luck with Target stores.

So far, I've seen no castles :(umm, how does walmart anywhere have Volcaran Wasteland as it is a Toys R Us exclusive???

my bad, I meant Toys'R'Us. but the Wal-Marts suck with the stock as well.

[Finrod]

but i have been told by Walmart employees that have scanned HS items for me that HS is a "Christmas Only" product line (after they read their scanners).

That's because a lot of retail stores operate under the understanding (real or imagined) that people don't play board games of any kind until winter comes and they don't want to be outside. Hence the big board game pushes in October...

...speaking of which... whoa... that's next month... TRU twofer coming up?

[eaglekiller]

I thought mine was but they got the castles in and lots of Wave Five.

[eldurand]

Went back to the Wal-Mart where I found the two Castle sets and not only did they not have any more, the space on the shelf was filled with some other game and the shelf sticker was gone as well...

[jcb231]

TRU is doing a variety of sales this month (buy 2 get third free on various popular items, not on games though), but I haven't heard anything about a twofer yet for next month, Finrod. We can only hope.

[theats]

twofer?

[Finrod]

twofer?

Buy one, get one free.

[theats]

oh, i get it

two fer ONE

not like twa-fer, like golfer

[Codeman]

Made two calls this morning to different Wal-marts and was told by one that they are going to stop carrying HS and the other said they would not be getting anymore castle sets. That the castles were unreplenishable. Anyone heard likewise?

It sounds like you called two individual Wal-Mart stores. What type of person did you take to? Anytime I talk to someone at a store, they never seem to know anything other than to say we put out whatever Corporate sends us. It is my belief that the local store(s) do not have any power… their only job is to put out the product and sell it.

[StarSlayer]

My local WM usually only carries a few boosters and that is it. about 2 months ago they started to carry the master set as well. Then the sticker for the castle came out on the shelf. I was going by there every morning that I had any kind of errands to do on the way into work, and by chance, found the castles one morning.

I went to a couple other stores that morning (didn't want to buy any one out) and stopped when I had "enough" of them.

I have seen the ice at TRU and Target but never in a WM in any of the trips.

I don't think they are phasing it out. I think there may be some delay in resupply from central shipping, possibly waiting for restock from Hasbro.

As for the 2 for 1, Not sure what is going to happen with that. It seems the new owners of TRU will not be doing that sale any longer. I hope they do, I would like to pick up a couple more things.

[Finrod]

You know something else that's funny?

We got another brand-new Wal-Mart in my town. Huge Super Wal-Mart, right? And yet the games aisle is smaller than any of the other ones in the area.

Brand new store. And what goes up on the shelves?

Master sets. And Orm's Return and RttFF. Yep, it's already overloaded with Orm's. Which says to me that the WM warehouse is overloaded with Orm's.

I don't think we're EVER going to see Orm stop returning...

[Kahrma]

My WM recently shuffled its toy department around. HS used to be near the bottom shelf, but is now eye-level with adults. Kinda tells me that WM at least has a better idee of their target demographic than Hasbro.

When the new spots went up, there was a sticker/place for the castle sets. I saw one case put on the shelf - three castles. I bought two of them, and haven't seen them since. A few weeks ago, the sticker for the castle expansions came down. I'm very glad I bit the bullet and bought those two sets!

As far as small expansions go, at the local WM small expansions would trickle in a couple sets at a time. I was told by one toy dept. associate that they re-stocked HS expansions every 3 weeks or so. This seems to be true at this particular WM. Right now, we're absolutely swimmingin wave 5 - I counted 7 full sets on the shelf last time I was in. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be moving - seems my neck of the woods may be near saturated with wave 5

[jcb231]

I wish Orm would just go away and not return, ever.

[ptucker78]

Of the Two WM's I go to the one seems to be moving Wave 5 quickly. I don't know why the one near home has not retocked any small expansions in over a month.

[Codeman]

Went back to the Wal-Mart where I found the two Castle sets and not only did they not have any more, the space on the shelf was filled with some other game and the shelf sticker was gone as well...

Are you sure the sticker is gone or just relocated? The two Wal-Marts near me have the castle sets located 20' away on a different shelf!
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n1/Codeman1957/WalMart320.jpg

I've explained this obvious error to the employee's but I always get the same answer - Corprate sets this up and that how they want it.

[theats]

nones going to look next to boxers or briefs!

[Codeman]

nones going to look next to boxers or briefs!

Yep, that's my point.... I found them just by accident. Then when I went to the other Wal-Mart I made a point to look around and found they did the same thing! They did have the castle were the tag was it just makes no sense

[REGULUS]

I was at my usual WM last night and I saw that they PUT BACK the previously removed tag for the castle sets. I asked the girl if they actually had any and she said not yet, she looked for someone else, but there are more coming...so we shall see.
Also...they just got in wave 2 again at mine...and lots of wave 5, but still no TT sets.

[jcb231]

nones going to look next to boxers or briefs!

Yep, that's my point.... I found them just by accident. Then when I went to the other Wal-Mart I made a point to look around and found they did the same thing! They did have the castle were the tag was it just makes no sense

I love that you are optimistic enough to think that talking to a Wal-Mart employee will get results or change anything that happens in their magical kingdom of Wallyworld. :-)

You might as well talk to the castle box and ask it politely to restock itself. You'd probably get better results. Or at least the same results, and on the plus side you wouldn't have to talk to a Wal-Marter.

[Codeman]

nones going to look next to boxers or briefs!

Yep, that's my point.... I found them just by accident. Then when I went to the other Wal-Mart I made a point to look around and found they did the same thing! They did have the castle were the tag was it just makes no sense

I love that you are optimistic enough to think that talking to a Wal-Mart employee will get results or change anything that happens in their magical kingdom of Wallyworld. :-)

You might as well talk to the castle box and ask it politely to restock itself. You'd probably get better results. Or at least the same results, and on the plus side you wouldn't have to talk to a Wal-Marter.

Well I wasn't sure they could do anything directly... but it was my hope they could talk to someone who could point out the obvious mistake to " corporate ". So some way thru the red tape it could get changed.

[happyjosiah]

Ha. Haha. That was a joke right? It's WALMART. Customer Service = Not a Priority.
Low Prices at the cost of everything else that makes a good store. That is what they are all about.

[Su-Bak-Na]

Well the castle space is gone at my Walmart to, I'm glad I have all I want or else I would have been more angry.

[Riggler]

I've explained this obvious error to the employee's but I always get the same answer - Corprate sets this up and that how they want it.

God lives in Bentonville, Ark. And he will not be questioned. You must obey corporate headquarters. Rule no. 1 for all regional Wal-Mart employees: Corporate headquarters is never wrong. Rule No. 2: If Corporate headquarters is wrong, see Rule No. 1.

[Sundance]

God lives in Bentonville, Ark. And he will not be questioned. You must obey corporate headquarters. Rule no. 1 for all regional Wal-Mart employees: Corporate headquarters is never wrong. Rule No. 2: If Corporate headquarters is wrong, see Rule No. 1.

You a company man?

Well the castle space is gone at my Walmart to, I'm glad i have all I want or else I would have been more angry.

Strangley enough, i wandered into the local Wally World yesterday and surprise! ..they didn't have the castle set but..they did have an empty space directly next to it w/ no sticker and it was aproxiamately the same size as the castle box.

[Revdyer]

God lives in Bentonville, Ark. And he will not be questioned. You must obey corporate headquarters. Rule no. 1 for all regional Wal-Mart employees: Corporate headquarters is never wrong. Rule No. 2: If Corporate headquarters is wrong, see Rule No. 1.
I went to seminary with the long-time pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Bentonville (he's now left). This is truer, in attitude, than one would like to admit. Sam and Helen Walton were very faithful in thithing to may charities, including my denomination. The next generation are not so disciplined (very careful use of word). Walmart, to me, is a real *good news* *bad news* story. There are definite pluses for employees and consumers, and some real down sides as well. I haven't figured it all out, yet. I'll let you know when I do.

[Cavalier]

Just went in to wally-world tonight to get some diapers for the little one. Stopped by the HS aisle just to see what was there...tones of wave 5, Orm's return, Master sets and.....A CASTLE!!!!! There hadn't been any since the first shipment. I figure it was a layaway cancelation or something, but it's mine now 8)