Apparently I misjudged the popularity of Xbox 360 at Christmas time that or I misjudged the supply and demand capabilities of Toys R Us.
The three Toys"R"Us stores around here are all sold out. Now, I know that the 360 is a popular system, but I didn't think it was going to be completely sold out popular, I figured there would be one left on the shelf for me.
However, there are plenty of 360s over at Best Buy and there are plenty over at Target. So why am I so hung up on Toys"R"Us?
Gift Cards.
I have $500 in Toys"R"Us gift cards. One of the perks from NetworkIP is that we get to buy gift cards to various stores for 25% off.
So that is why I am stalking the 360 at Toys"R"Us.
And today while reading my regular round of comics, and
"Real Life Comics" was making fun of Home Depot, in that they are selling Xbox 360s. I thought they were joking. No, no they aren't. I went to www.homedepot.com and there it was, it appears they are only selling it online though. Which is fine,
because the price they are charging is well above the price in every other store out there. I think they might have screwed up on that, as the accessories are all basically the same price as everywhere else.
Jeremy and I have decided to get DS Lites as well. He and I are going to be hanging out in NY next weekend and that should give us a chance to play head-to-head. I forgot to mention that Toys"R"Us is all out of those.
And before I get off my soap box about Toys"R"Us,
back in 2002 they restructured shutting down about 64 stores. I think I know why they had to restructure and it has to deal with the fact that their infrastructure is fscked up.
I mean here are a few things.
#1. Supply Chain
I walk into a store and ask them about the 360. They tell me they are out, they then tell me that they don't know when they will get more. This is explained to me to be due to the fact that the manufacturer just sends them product whenever. Ok, fine I guess I can give them this. But, as popular and old a brand as Toys"R"Us is you think they would push for manufacturers to at least give them some sort of "We will have some more this week, just not sure how many."
#2. Inventory Management
When told that they are all out at store #2, I decided that I didn't want to drive all the way south to store #3 to hear the same thing. So I asked the guy "Hey can you tell me if the other store has any in stock?" His reply, "No, but here is their phone number."
There were two things wrong with his answer. The first is a general customer service problem, good customer service (given there was no line behind me in the checkout lane) would be that he should have called over there for me. The second is, it is 2006 and there are nationwide store chains all over that can lookup the inventory in another state, yet these guys can't tell me what is in stock across town.
#3. Online and Brick-and-Mortar unification
This is related to inventory management. But the ability to look up a product on the website and see if it is in stock at a store near you. Shit, there is even then the ability to buy the product online and pick it up at the store nearest you. This is an amazingly novel concept. They do not have this functionality.
#4. Alerts for when they get restocked
I also asked one of the clerks if I could get on a list or something to be notified when a product comes back into stock, the answer was "No". Now, I wasn't expecting them to notify me by phone that would be retarded. But come on, let me drop my email into a database. Again, this comes from having a fairly automated computerized inventory control system.
In general, I fully understand why Toys"R"Us had to restructure. They have not embraced technology to build the efficiency that they need to compete against WAL-MART or BestBuy or CompUsa. Go and take a look at CompUsa and you will see what I would consider the standard of how a nationwide brick-and-mortar store needs to operate today. Their website is integrated with their inventory system. They have a nationwide inventory system that allows them to lookup product at other stores.
I mean, Toys"R"Us was sold the fsck out. So their brand still carries a ton of weight with consumers. I mean the BestBuy that is within eye-sight of the Toys"R"Us had a bunch of 360s. And I know not everyone has $500 gift cards in their pocket that is forcing them to buy from Toy"R"Us.
End of Rant.
Laterz
