Anyone notice Target: Low or no stock of ad items? (1 Viewer)

[David_Jr]

Several times now I have gone to Target for advertised items only to find out that they are not in stock. When the floor help is questioned they advise that they either didn't get the item or they only got a few that were gone within hours. This has happened with DVDs, video games and other non HT type items. So I go to the website to buy there and the advertised items are not listed at the sale price. I will be using Target less and less. I'm getting sick of it.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Don't they give out rainchecks? I never shop at Target, so I don't know.

 

[MartinTeller]

Unless the ad says "while supplies last", they ought to give out rainchecks.

Last week I went to one Target to get Ben Stiller, and they were all out. The guy said they only had gotten like 3 copies. But then I went to another Target and they had a bunch of them, so no big deal.

 

[Skyler]

I went to 3 targets looking for the Stiller Show. No dice. I did get a raincheck.

 

[David Williams]

I had this problem with Mystery of the Batwoman (it didn't come in). I just very kindly asked them for a flyer and told them I'd take it somewhere else where I could price match. I certainly wasn't going to ask them for a raincheck... that just reinforces the notion that its okay to advertise an item and not have it in stock.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Well I went to my local Target on Black Friday to get Legally Blonde 2 and they had lots of them. But I don't shop there very often, so that is my only recent experience.

 

[David_Jr]

Well it wouldn't be so bad if they, like Best Buy & most other retailers, just put it on their website. You start to get the idea that the ad items are just bait to get you into the store, which is what they are, but if you have to drive a distance to get there it is aggravating. From now on I call first. Cheaper than driving.

 

[larry mac]

Here's something else. Their no-receipt return policy.

We received a ceiling fan as a housewarming present and decided to exchange it for another model. They have a very limited choice of fans and so did not have one we liked. I assumed that since we did not have a receipt they would issue a store credit and I could use it to get something else, either now and/or later.

Well, I assumed wrong. My only option was to get something NOW, AND in the SAME deptartment (where the fans are). Can you believe that? I couldn't use it in the electronics dept. for example, nor save it for another time.

How F**cked up is that? They said it was a recent policy change. I decided to keep the fan and as it turned out, we installed it and really like it. But (big but), I won't be doing as much business with Target as I have in the past.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Well I guess you could have kept it. Then later tried your luck at a different Target.

 

[Frank@N]

Not to bash Target, but they never seem to break the surface with any 'must have' DVD deals for me.

It seems like they rely mostly on people buying things just because they happen to be shopping in the store.

Actually, they did have a sale on Greatest Hits PS2 games ($14.99) recently and I bought a few for the nephew.

 

[Will_B]

Larry, the no-receipt limitations are in response - I expect - to the recent story about Home Depot customers who would price-switch price tags onto expensive carpets, then go to another Home Depot store and present the carpets without a receipt to get hundreds of dollars in credits.

That said, I thought Target recorded credit card purchases so that they could produce an old receipt for you, if you lost theirs. Weird.

 

[Stephen J]

I've gone to the Target website to help my daughter get an mp3 player. When I called the nearest 4 stores none of them had any of the items from the website. I had stock numbers and everything good thing I called first and didn't drive all the way there first! Perhaps some items are special order online only?

 

[alan halvorson]

My experience is different. My local Target didn't have two of the advertised dvds on display. One had a spot for it but was out. The other had no spot. I asked, and the clerk found a supply of both in "the back", so I got them. They would have given me a raincheck otherwise.

Most places won't accept returns without a receipt. I don't know why anyone would expect to go into a store to return something without one and then complain that they don't like the terms.

 

[JamesH]

Roughly 85% of the time, the Target near me will not have advertised video games in stock, regardless of when I've gone during the week. Whether it's early sunday or the middle of the week, Target just can't get its stuff together. I think the problem is that they advertise new release games as being in-store a day or two after the release date, but they don't get them for an additional week or two.

On the day Resident Evil GC was advertised to be in stock at Target, I went to go buy it at noon. They told me they hadn't gotten the shipment and it would be in later today. Well, apparantly another customer was there when they opened at 8 AM and they told him they were getting it at 11. He had come back to get the game at noon and they told him they already recieved it and sold out of it. Well he heard the minimum wage clerk tell me that they hadn't recieved it yet, and needless to say he was pretty angry. I don't shop at Target anymore. They never seem to have the best price, they are slow to get games, and the service sucks.

 

[Alf S]

I made the mistake of going to the local Super Target the night of their sale priced "A Christmas Story- with bobble head of Ralphie" and of course they were totally out, but luckily we still have some "regular" Targets on the abandoned/run down side of town, and sure enough, when I trekked on over, they had several copies..

I was a happy camper

"You used up all the glue...ON PURPOSE!"

 

[EricSchulz]

As a Target employee for a total of 16 years, I will try to address some of the issues in these posts:
1. Target's music/movies/books website area is powered by Amazon.com. On every title listed you get a line that states that the price may be different from Target Store's selling price. Sometimes it's less, sometimes more...depends on the title.
2. Just like most on-line retailers, we offer items that are not available in our stores. Let's face it: there's a limit to how many things each store can carry, or SHOULD carry. A store in a smaller town, like Janesville WI will not have the same customer base that a store in Chicago or Milwaukee would. The website allows a customer to buy items that their local store may not carry.
3. Unfortunately, some titles (like "Ben Stiller") have a bigger demand than we anticipate. You should be able to get a raincheck, although many titles are now advertised at the regular selling price, not a sale price.
4. Larger volume stores get larger quantities, but also have more traffic. And despite all the tracking and information we use, we can get it wrong! I work in a small volume store and we sold about 100 copies of the "Cheetah Girls" soundtrack during December (that's a Disney Channel show). Everytime we got it back in stock it blew out. Bigger volume stores just sat on their stock. You never know what's gonna sell all the time.

Hope that helps address some of the concerns that relate to this forum.