L Chabert Lover

For those of you who live near a Wal*Mart SuperCenter, Super Kmart Center, or any other 24 hour store that sells DVDs, are you able to buy new releases anytime after midnight late Monday night/early Tuesday morning? What are your experiences with this? Do the stores begin stocking the new release stuff immediately after midnight or do they wait until much later in the morning? If they normally don't stock until much later in the morning, would you be able to make a purchase shortly after midnight if you asked someone in charge? It seems like they should honor that request. I mean, Tuesday is Tuesday, even if it's 12:00 AM. And it's not like they ever specify a time in their circular ads, like Available Tuesday, July 18th "after 8:00 am"

Drexl

Oh yeah. Occasionally I go at midnight to buy something. You can get them just after midnight if they are major new releases, since they have the huge displays. If it's a catalog title, you might not be able to get them since they don't get as many copies. Catalog titles are often in smaller boxes with no label other than maybe the studio.

I found it odd that when I went to pick up the new Titanic, they didn't have it since they got few copies, but House of Wax (the remake) had one of those big setups. It just goes to show how heavily the DVD market is skewed towards new releases.

argh923

You used to be able to at my local Walmart...the lazy asses don't bother bringing them out now until the next morning, though.

However, the new Walmart that just opened on the other side of town has them out right away.

Giles

I really don't see why new release was ever Tuesday to begin with... just do it like they do it in the UK - release everything on Monday, the start of the week...

DeanoBKN

Isn't it to give all the retailers a fair chance to get their product in at the same time?

The Cow

It "was" (might still be) the historic worst sales day for retailers.

SinSix

I work as a 3rd shift stocker at Walmart, and we start putting the new released out between 10PM to midnight, and those big displays we pull out to the floor a few minutes before midnight.

Count Dooku

Yeah.
Go into a Walmart in the middle of the night and tell some guy stocking shelves for minimum wage that "Tuesday is Tuesday" and that you want him to go find you that DVD you want.
Let me know how that works out for you.

MovieExchange

Yeah.

Then go to that guy's manager and complain, and see how quickly the minimum wage moron is sent to find the DVD you want.


Anywho, back when I was keeping 3rd shift hours, I never had a problem picking up new releases at Meijer's at midnight. Sometimes you'd have to wait a few minutes if the boxes were buried or if it was an employee covering the area that wasn't familiar with what was going on, but usually they had everything on a cart right at the electronics counter.

L Chabert Lover

Well, if the situation ever happened, I would not be ugly about it unless they were ugly to me first. What's the point of keeping these stores open 24 hours if you can't get everything you want between the hours of 12 am to 7 am? If Wal*Mart (billionaires that they are) is so cheap that they can only afford skeleton crews during the night, they might as well close at 9pm and reopen at 7am.

The Bus

At midnight, you're likely to only find the manager, and they can't go "to the back" to get it because then their section is left unattended.

I've had some luck with it now and then but it's not a tactic I rely on.

dsa_shea

Why do you call someone a moron because they work for minimum wage?

Giles

where's the proof in that?

MovieExchange

I'm not calling them a moron because they work for minimum wage, I'm calling them a moron because they won't help the customer, which is their job. The person I was responding to referenced the 3rd shift stock person as a minimum wage employee, so I kept the reference and added on the "moron" part. Actually, his hourly earnings shouldn't decide whether he helps the customers or not.

Giles

this is sadly the case at the Tenleytown DC Best Buy - oh the majority of those employees are just clueless and lazy.

Count Dooku

Walmart... middle of the night... and you're gonna find someone "in charge" to complain to about another employee.

Be careful not to run over a leprechaun or hit a unicorn in the parking lot of this magical Walmart that you shop at.

Count Dooku

From their perspective, asking them to engage in customer service is ugly.

The overnight stocking crew isn't there to help you. They're there to stock the shelves.
If they have a truckload of stuff, and they're expected to have all that stuff on the shelves by morning, then their priority is putting stuff on the shelves --not helping you.
And when morning comes, and the managers do show up in the store, the excuse "We were helping customers find stuff" isn't going to help them if that truck isn't unloaded.

Seriously. Go to Walmart in the middle of the night and start asking for stuff that isn't stocked, see if you hear these replies:

"If we have it, it's out here."
"Whatever we have, we put out. If there ain't any out here, then we don't have any."
"We're unloading the truck right now. If it's on the truck, it'll be out in the morning."
"We're always getting more stuff in at night. Come back during the day."

The stocking crew is there. The lights are on.
Keeping the store open is just a matter of unlocking the doors, and having a couple cashiers around.
Everything that requires specialized service (Pharmacy, Deli, Bakery) is closed. The fitting rooms are locked. You can't get a key made.

Honestly. Just about everything they sell is out there, so if you want to come in during the night and buy some of it, they'll sell it to you.

Seriously, you can't understand why if they can't/won't/don't care about people getting "everything they want" they would bother to be open at all.

Plus, what do they care about disappointing or even angering you?
What are you going to say? "Next time I go shopping in the middle of the night, I'm going to go somewhere else!" Where's that gonna be?

Since you admit that you know the store has a skeleton crew, I'll just reiterate that that skeleton crew isn't there to help customers.
And believe me, those overnight employees would much prefer that they didn't have to deal with any customers being around.

Captain Jackal

I just wanted to say that I work at Wal-mart 3rd shift and I make more than minimum wage.. lots more actually...

Captain Jackal

But about your question. Most of the time if you go around 1 they normally have everything out. It is easier to find the bigger new releases because there will be a display for them as someone mentioned. As far as the other stuff, around here anyway it's normally stocked up between midnight and 1. We have all of the new releases on a cart near electronics so if it wasn't stocked you could just dig through it. Before I worked at wal-mart I went at midnight to get Batman Begins. I wanted to 2 disc version and didn't see it anywhere so I asked the guy about it and he told me that it was around somewhere and if I wanted to go through the boxes he had on the cart I was more than welcome to. Sure enough it was there. No need to be a dick about stuff like that.