kenbenobi

Two Target stores by me had two copies of The Incredibles. One store had only one Cars gift set left, but the other store had SIX! I was shocked...

Drav3n

My Target had only two copies of The Incredibles when I got there around 9:30am. Was able to PM to BB and use the $10 DMR and $5 Target coupon for $10.60 out the door.

ScottsdaleSaint

Borderline ridiculous statement, considering I live in one of the largest markets for Target, and more often than not, it's a complete riddle whether or not you can get a major Blu-ray release in store, by Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. You give something PRIME ad space, and then you're OOS inside of 24 hours? If their intent is to get you to take one of their ads and go to a competitor and spend your money, then, yes, they have an excellent idea of inventory control.

izatright

Went to BB and got both Incredibles and Cars for $22 (no tax). Then I went to Target and priced matched BB for the Incredibles, used the $5 Target and $10 Manufacturers and picked it up for $10. Also snagged the Cars combo with the two extra cars at Target. Don't know which ones I'm going to keep and which ones I'm going to gift, but I'm glad to have gotten everything I wanted.

lordzeppelin

Question, do you do retail procurement or inventory management for a living? I'm betting that answer is no...so perhaps you're mistaken. Just because you, personally, got to the store and something was already sold out, doesn't mean they don't know what they're doing.

Duder

My Target was sold out of the Incredibles when I stopped by at 6 pm release day. I don't see how this strategy helps them make money, if indeed it is a strategy.

Solid Snake

fuck...typo.

mattysemo247

Sold out at my Target as well. Had to go the Best Buy route even though I wasn't planning on buying Cars again.

ScottsdaleSaint

There are multiple people either having the exact same issue, and many others just going to BB or other options, because of past problems with stock being unavailable at Target in the past few weeks with other Disney releases, like Tron, Tangled, and Incredibles.

How am I mistaken when I go to Target multiple times in weeks past, and they are OOS within 24 hours on a hot new release? All i know is that I have taken that money and gone to competitor's stores and purchased that same item for the same price. But you're right, since I'm not in inventory control for Target, I'll just stay silent. They're geniuses at getting people to go shop at other stores, that's exactly how you pad your bottom line.

Pizza

I agree with the other poster. From a customer point of view, Target is doing a poor job stocking some titles. The store I went to only had three copies of the title I wanted this morning. Last week, I had to go to a second Target to find Tron on release day. And it doesn't take a degree/or working experience in retail procurement to comment on it. I'd imagine there wouldn't be too many comments made if we were only allowed to comment on things we do for a living.

Giles

considering the Tenleytown BB location is generally a den of bitches, they pricematch and honor the coupons pretty well - only once did I have to fight tooth and nail over one disc, but on the whole they persuasive.

Didn't bother double dipping on Cars, but got Incredibles for $14.99

wastro

I tried using the two MFR coupons for "Cars" and "The Incredibles" tonight at Best Buy. What a mess.

The cashier didn't even bother trying to scan the coupons before talking to the manager. He offered so many excuses, it wasn't even funny.

I was told, in no particular order:

-The coupons weren't valid because they were copies. They weren't; I don't have color ink in my printer.
-They accept MFR coupons but not printed coupons. I told him this WAS the only coupon.
-Coupons can't be combined with existing offers. (Fine print said something about not being combined with other offers.)
-It wouldn't scan, and the cashier wouldn't try to type any of the UPC numbers into the system.
-I told them about other forum members' success with the offers. "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet," he said.
-"If it can't scan, there's nothing I can do," he told me, finally.

It was the third Best Buy I had talked to (the second one I visited -- the first store was out), and I had driven across town, so I figured I would bite the bullet. I bought them on two separate transactions, using the respective coupons on each one. Still, $18 or so (plus tax) for each set was still a decent enough deal.

kstublen

If you're near another Best Buy this week, I'd try stopping in and saying you bought them on two separate transactions without realizing you could get a further discount. I bet they might be able to manually adjust the price for you. Say one was a gift, so you wanted it on a separate receipt.

Jfunk1

I'm willing to try this. Have you had success doing this before? Not feeling in the mood to be accused of "double-dipping" again by a Best Buy manager with attitude.

Roybq

I found both "Cars" and the "Incredibles" at Best Buy tonight. Last copies of both. I went to the register with my coupons and was given a story about how the computers were being "glitchy" with the coupons so I had to ring them up as separate transactions (which of course removes the $10 off both offer). I bought both anyway since I heard about the issues people had with even finding the movies, but the story about the "glitch" was pretty suspect since there were reports from others who had no issues at all with the combination. I'll probably contact BB when I find time and see if I can get the $10 back that I couldn't get due to having to do the separate transactions. Never had issues before with this particular store before.

kstublen

No, I've never tried that, but it might be worth a shot.

wastro

I appreciate the advice. It's a bit out of the way, but I think I'll be in the area on Saturday and might bring it up at that point.

Obi-Wanma

I haven't had sucess of this exact thing, but with something similar. A couple of times wanted to price match the website and use a coupon. They told me that I couldn't do both because the coupon says it can't be combined with any other offer. So I bought it with just the coupon, then went to a different Best Buy the next day with my receipt, told them I saw it on the internet for cheaper and asked if I could have an adjustment. They did it without any problem both times.

Foghorn

Does the Incredibles come with a free movie ticket for Cars 2?

Solid Snake

yes...

Manzana

Wastro, I've been given every one of those excuses by my BB stores many times over the past years when I used to try to use Disney coupons there. The most common one was the fact it's on sale this week constitutes an offer which cannot be combined with the coupons which say cannot be combined with other offers. That excuse was superceded by the store manager telling me that he decided his store will not take Disney coupons under any circumstances because (according to him) their district got screwed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid coupons from Disney. I don't believe that because why would only his district get screwed rather than BB as a whole? Does each district submit them separately? Plus I find it tough to believe that my BB district sells enough Disney BDs with $10 coupons on each to reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1 year.

People have said call up BB RZ and get them to call the store back to tell them to accept the coupons. Well, both times I tried I was told by the RZ that whatever the local store says goes. But this is old news and nothing new or unexpected with *my* BB stores.

Jamezuva

yes

Manzana

In checking the 4 threads we have going (1 each for the Incredibles and Cars coupons and 1 each for the Target and BB BD deals this week), it seems the bulk of the discussion is concentrated here, so I'll post my longwinded Target/BB experiences today here for posterity.

Reading posts this morning that some Targets were only getting 4 copies of these movies, I had to drop everything and rush out to my nearest Target at 8 AM. They hadn't even put them out on the shelf yet. So I had to make the reluctant electronics employee (the same one who usually isn't very helpful to me) go in the back to get them. I asked him how many copies there were of each and I think he told me 6 of each and 2 of the gift set. I said that's not very many for release date, and he gave me the usual "I don't have any control over what they send us" line that I've already heard dozens of times.

The fact that they weren't put out meant they weren't in the plastic cases so he had to walk them up to customer service where the only person there was the chunky girl who is the only one who consistently denies me at Target. When I saw her I already knew I was in trouble and would have to go to another Target. If she isn't involved, I have about 90% success. When she's involved it drops to almost 0%. As usual, she gave me the BS about only allowing 1 offer since they can't be combined, so I could either do the BB PM and use NO coupons (not even the DMR ones), or use the DMR coupons without PM, or use the Bunny Money coupons without PM. I felt like saying "I'm going to another Target where I'm confident they'll do it for me... and thanks again for making me waste my time, you *bleep*". But I just said no thanks and left.

I called the next Target who had exactly 1 copy left of each at 8:30 AM to hold them for me. I got there around 9:30 and they actually had my copies waiting and none on the shelf. I asked how many did they receive of each? FOUR I was told. I guess I'm lucky only 3 sold in the first 30 mins. And surprise surprise I had no problem doing the BB PM and the DMR coupons at this Target's customer service. I even tried the Bunny Money (since the employee was nice) and she tried but said it wouldn't work. Apparently she wasn't willing to override the coupons which said $24.99 since she had PM'd both BDs down to $19.99 each and I wasn't going to press the issue and tell her to hit override anyway. (Nevertheless, a few people on SD and I think itzaright here reported they used both Bunny Money coupons on top of the PM and DMR coupons for a $10 better deal than most of us got. As always, somebody will always be successful.)

I was also asked to buy a second set of each with my 2nd set of coupons for an upcoming birthday gift. Since I had an in-store pickup of a game on sale at the nearby BB, I had to go there anyway. I figured why not see what happens since they had just opened and only 1 person was in line. In front of me was some other guy trying to buy Incredibles + Cars BDs with the DMR coupons. I whispered to him I expect we'll both be denied, but let's see what happens. He handed the DMR coupons over and just like always happened to me, the cashier got on the phone and called over one of the supervisors I recognized who gave the same old excuse: it's already on sale this week which qualifies as a special offer so you can't combine it with coupons. (I didn't bother to chime in to say "on top of that the manager of this store told me he won't take any Disney coupons period".) He said that's ridiculous, and looked at me as if to say "how did you know" and as he walked out I told him to go to Target, but not the nearest one because they are out of both BDs. Then I just walked by the cashier, set down my 2 BDs, and said "looks like I'm going to Target again to pricematch and use my coupons". It only wasted about 3 minutes to see what happened, and frankly I wanted to see if they denied this other guy the same way they always denied me. They did. So at least they're consistent.

So I went to the 3rd Target on my commute path to get my 2nd set since the 2nd Target was OOS. When I got there they had about 6 copies of each on the shelf, so obviously they got more in stock. This time I saw a long line at customer service so I figured... the 2 Bunny Money coupons equal BB's $10 combo discount, Cars is $2 cheaper and Incredibles is $2 more, so I went through the normal cashier and got both with the Bunny Money and DMR coupons (but no BB PM). It worked out exactly the same... $25 and change. There might have been a very small chance I could've gotten the granddaddy combo deal with all the coupons + PM, but not enough chance to justify a 10 minute wait in the customer service line, plus as always I had to hurry to get to work.

In summary, once again BB denies (not just me this time). Once again the same person at my local Target denies me. Once again the 2nd and 3rd Targets give me no problem. Once again Target has craptastic inventory (well, the 1st and 2nd ones at least) forcing me to go there earlier than I'd like and waste time going to other stores because they're OOS. I'm thinking I should just skip my nearest Target because that same denier is always there on Tuesday mornings.

I'm not looking forward to the next Disney BD Tuesday release when this experience will repeat itself because stores are choosing to order insufficient inventory because they'd rather anger their customers and make them waste time/gas than take the huge risk of ordering more BDs. Since we've seen these stories each time, anyone who waits until the afternoon or evening to buy these is begging to come back emptyhanded. Soon everyone will go at 8 AM and there will be a line and a fight to see who gets Target's 4 copies of the latest Disney BD release. I hope our next Disney BD release is several weeks off. I need a break from this.

Do I get an award for such a long post? Perhaps the "only a few people are going to read your post because it's so long" award? (And please don't quote the whole thing if you reply.)

kstublen

While I'm sorry to hear you've had yet another bad experience Manzana, it does make me feel better to know I'm not the only one having trouble with Best Buy.

I can totally understand Target stores only two or three Nausicaa discs, but only receives a maximum of six seems ridiculous for this big of a title, especially since it was in the ad. My Best Buy had a ton of them, but obviously that didn't really matter since I was shot down.

Marvin Dorfler

I went to TARGET around 1 PM EST and was psyched to grab the last copy of THE INCREDIBLES. It seems a lot of us were in that same "found the last one" boat. It looked like they had a max of b/w 6 & 8 copies. I was surprised and psyched to receive a CARS 2 theater ticket w/ THE INCREDIBLES. I only have the regular S-DVD of CARS and would like to upgrade if my TARGETS get in more stock. But it is not a must have right now, although the coupons make it tempting. I am pretty psyched to have bought my favorite PIXAR flick for $11.99 plus tax. (I think the key to using the bunny money is finding a long busy line--someone who does not really care about following the stringent rules. I have found that most teenagers are terrified of doing something wrong so I try not to go to them anymore...)

After skimming some of the other posts, I have definitely been surprised at the lack of surplus in some recent releases. The DVD sections in general at most of the TARGETS here in NJ are confusing as hell and are tough to navigate as to where the new release of the genre you are looking for is located. Especially when the animated section is practically not even in the DVD/BD section--it is kind on the fringe in b/w DVDs/BD & printer ink. Also, I don't think it would kill them to use "shelf talkers" on some if the bigger releases (esp on Disney stuff, exclusives, etc) b/c you can lose precious minutes trying to find and ask a CSR where the movie you are looking for is located...

--Dorfler