I read this board daily, but never felt compelled to post...until now. This whole My Size Elsa/Anna shortage is crap and is really making Target in general, as well as the staff in my store look terrible. Here are the awful details....
1) Target knew this would be a popular item. Afterall, it was them who made sure it was Exclusive and on the Top Toys. But, Target has failed miserably at keeping this toy stocked, and online inventory accurate, which leads me to...
2) Irate customers that see my store as having available stock online, only to be disappointed when they come into the store. I mean, why don't we have any inventory? It's clearly stated....
3) In our AD for the week (complete with a Frozen coupon). But, my store has not seen a shipment of Elsa or Anna dolls since November 8th. I can tell that 6 of each are on their way from distribution, but that number has not updated in 4 days, and none have come on our trucks. So, now the information my team is relaying regarding....
4) Inventory shipments are wrong. And our store is not giving a clear message on what the right message should be. I have personally heard different staff from toys say "We have them" because our inventory incorrectly states we have them. I have heard staff tell customers they "must be buried on a pallet in back, but we don't have time to go find them right now." I even heard one of our managers tell a customer that we get them nightly and they should arrive at 8AM because they sell out in minutes. All of these are blatantly false...
5) Because we don't currently have them. They aren't buried on some pallet in the back; but if they were, don't you think that is your job to make sure a customer gets what they need? We don't get them nightly, or even at each truck which means there is NOTHING to sell out in minutes.
It just seems shocking to me that this product availability could be botched so badly, and we are still 10 days from Black Friday. With the buzz these dolls have already created, there will be mayhem in the aisles come a week or two before X-mas. I sure hope some genius marketing or logistics employee has a card up their sleeve in order to meet demand, otherwise, this will turn out to be an inventory failure like I've never seen in my 6 years with Target.