[US] Wal-Mart mid-year clearance/shelf reset

BazookaJoeX9

So I've only been collecting Legos for a few months now and I did score sets I wanted at my WM. My question is, does Wal-Mart / Target / Kmart / etc do this very offen? Is it just random?

Brickarmor

^Don't even get me started on TRU's "Hot Price Every Day..." You mean the price it is everywhere else, every day?!

My better half left me positively thunderstruck: she was out of town and unbeknownst to me, went to a Walmart herself (we *never* shop there), bringing me home half-off Batcaves (x3), a $40 Sith ship, and a 30% haul of Weathertops, Morias, Helicarriers, and Batmobiles. Even better, she knew what to pass on because I talk about it so much, despite her "mm-hmm" disinterest. I would have left the Morias at $54, but still! Hopefully she'll make a habit out of it.

My nearest store finished their reset and moved the clearance to one of those disastrous mountains between aisles. I fetched an important looking person and she told me if they're still there at the end of this month they'll get marked down again.

margot

Love when TRU online has the banner that says "GIANT LEGO SALE" and then you can't find anything on sale...

Lego

From the website "Why shop anywhere else for toys?' WHY?

gmpirate

Brickarmor said:

My better half left me positively thunderstruck: she was out of town and unbeknownst to me, went to a Walmart herself (we *never* shop there), bringing me home half-off Batcaves (x3), a $40 Sith ship, and a 30% haul of Weathertops, Morias, Helicarriers, and Batmobiles. Even better, she knew what to pass on because I talk about it so much, despite her "mm-hmm" disinterest. I would have left the Morias at $54, but still! Hopefully she'll make a habit out of it.

You're wife is hot.

ckenda1

If anyone finds the Malevolence for $64 or less please let me know. I'll compensate + shipping.

I know a few people found them either at WM or Target, but none of those stores around me had that set on clearance.

Thanks in advance!

starwarfan77

walmart and target around me are nuts. they just reshelved with chima and TLR ..

of course new star wars as well.. but chima and TLR ... its rather surprise.

all the clearance item esp.
#9498 and #9471 is gone .. seems like some reseller in my area :P

exciter1

ckenda1 said:

If anyone finds the Malevolence for $64 or less please let me know. I'll compensate + shipping.

I know a few people found them either at WM or Target, but none of those stores around me had that set on clearance.

Thanks in advance!

I think once you compensate and pay for shipping, it will be just as cheap for you to go ahead and pick it up from Amazon for $93.

TheLoneTensor

^Most retailers call that a "featured price." Obviously it couldn't be called a "sale price." The same can be said for why Walmart puts lots of things in "clearance" at their normal price. They expect people to ignorantly react to the big red sticker/shelf tag and say "Ooo, that must be a good price. After all, it's in the clearance aisle." Yes, these same people shop at TRU.

DoubleD

I remember when I was younger I worked at a grocery store in the meat department, and they would do green tags sales and it would be the same price as the day before when not on sale. But I will tell you people would buy it like crazy just because of that green tag. I am sure it still works.

GIR3691

If it's got a red tag at Walmart and doesn't have two prices on the sticker, it's "overstock"- items with no shelf designation anymore but also not on clearance for some reason. I've seen stuff sit on the clearance shelf as "overstock" for months on end without a discount. The whole concept is puzzling.

Thanos75

Today was a pretty good day. I had a manager at one of the out of the way WM's call me and ask if I would be interested in picking up a chunk of the clearance LEGO if they took an extra 25% off the clearance price.I said sure . So i'm on my way after I pick my kids up from school....

sidersdd

Thanos75 said:

Today was a pretty good day. I had a manager at one of the out of the way WM's call me and ask if I would be interested in picking up a chunk of the clearance LEGO if they took an extra 25% off the clearance price.I said sure . So i'm on my way after I pick my kids up from school....

Now that's customer service! It'd be even better if they delivered it to your door.

aimlesspursuits

Seems like the stores near me are just starting to clearance out stuff in North Phoenix, multiple stores. Some highlights...
Garmatron #70504 $30
Superman vs Power Armor Lex #6862 $13
Waks' Pack Tracker #70004 $21
Attack of the Wargs #79002 $35
Small Cottage #31009 $17
Dirt Bike Transporter #4433 $17
Some were marked, some weren't. Enjoy!

graphite

@Thanos75 tell that manager to give my number to the WMs in my area =)

Thanos75

It wasnt as much stuff as I was hoping for but still a pretty good haul. It worked out to be 55% off. The sets were all at 30% off and they just added the 25%. It was still enough to fill the back of my Subaru. I will try and take a pic after I get the kids cleaned up and in bed.

gmpirate

^ yeah, would love to see the pic! I always get a kick out of such deals.

Thanos75

Keep in mind that I drive a Subaru WRX STI and i'm 6'3'' and had both my kids with me so its really not that hard to fill the back...but in its defence it is a hatchback.

LegoManiacc

Thanos75 said:

and i'm 6'3''

Come on guys, let's keep the bragging posts in the appropriate threads

gmpirate

Funny, as I made a similar trip recently to Legoland while on a short vacation. Had wife and both kids and completely filled the back of the suv to the roof with Lego. I'm a very good packer :P

Thanos75

Oh did I say 6'3''...I meant 3'6''

graphite

6'2" here in a civic coupe. Managed to pack ~$1800 worth of after christmas clearance into it on my drive home from FL to Iowa after having 10 days of clothes, my christmas gifts, my camera gear with lighting setup, laptop, PS3 and a few other things. By the time I rolled into my apartment every crevice in the trunk was filled with deboxed battle packs to part out, the "back seat" was floor to ceiling and the front seat was almost to the ceiling with a few things stacked up on the dash =)

So 2 kids in a 4 door hatch still has plenty of room for a good haul!

Thanos75

Sorry for the bad pic. I guess the haul looked more impressive in the shopping carts....oh well. Still not to bad. And yes thats a lone Dino set in the bottom corner. Not sure how it ended up at a WM but for $5 I wasnt going to complain.

@rocao - removed image

gmpirate

Very nice. Haven't seen that many #9471 's anywhere unless they were full price.

MathBuilder

Thanos75 said:

It wasnt as much stuff as I was hoping for but still a pretty good haul. It worked out to be 55% off. The sets were all at 30% off and they just added the 25%.

Impressive haul indeed. But just to be precise it was 47.5% off.
(I know, people don't like to hear the precise discount when dealing with stacking %'s off, and I truly do my best at keeping my mouth shout most of the time, but in this case the difference is significant enough to merit a clarification).

Thanos75

@Mathbuilder ....I see where you are going with your correction and I see my error in what I said. I should have said " I was lucky enough to have had them add the 25% to the 30% off of the original price to bring the total discount to 55% off"...or something like that. The #9741 ended up being $13.50 each and not $15.75. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

MathBuilder

@Thanos75 thank you for taking the time in clarifying. That makes the deal even better (and makes me more jealous :P )! You are really lucky to have such nice manager connections.
Since I can't cancel posts here, let this post serve as a withdrawal for my previous post. I hope you will agree with me that more often than not, the retailers advertise their discounts in such a way to make the public believe they are getting smoking deals when they aren't. Thus I am always weary of fine prints and exact calculations of percentages (plus I just like to do the arithmetic for fun).

margot

@MathBuilder -actuarial math major here. Not a fan of arithmetic though. :-)

Thanos75

@Mathbuilder ...no problem brother I agree that sometimes people need to double and triple check when an offer seems too good to be true...now if only I can get the same deal at the WM with the clearance LEGO on four isles. They easily have 4x the stock....and for the record I still use my fingers to count and sometimes my toes.

DoubleD

I did get 70402 the gatehouse raid today for 19 dollars today

juggles7

I know a couple of WalMarts that still have some sets at 30% off; Gandalf Arrives, Weathertop, Goblin King Battle, Wargs, Mirkwood Spiders, a few Star Wars sets, etc. I've been checking back weekly, but the prices haven't budged, and they don't seem in any hurry to drop the prices to 50% off. I know one store that hasn't re-set their Lego shelves yet. But for those stores that have reset their toy departments, it seems WalMart's shelf space devoted to Lego has shrunk! I'd say the Lego shelf space has been reduced about 25%. In my view, they're positioning themselves for a poor holiday selection.

DoubleD

I have seen two walmarts go beyond 30 percent. I got lucky at one and the other one had signs for 50 % off clearance items but I missed out on that one. I went to a third one and they were just resetting it today.

wagnerml2

Mine have reset the shelves, the sets have been moved to a toy clearance area, but are all still at 30%. I tracked down the toy manager yesterday but she was relatively unhelpful as to whether they would drop any further.

goshe7

Back on topic... Stopped by a WM tonight and made two observations:
1. Sets still at ~30% off
2. Sets are apparently moving at that price as several Quinjets and Weathertops had been depleted.

Pepper

My Walmart brought out old stock of #9493 and #7965 and put them on clearance at RRP... *sigh*

rocao

The fallout from the photo removal has been relocated here: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/11995/photo-removed-internet-survives-barely

GIR3691

After missing out entirely on clearance at one store, I was at another Walmart farther from my house and grabbed a Batcave and a Lex Luthor mech at 30% off just to make sure I got them. They also had Monster Fighters train, MF Frankenstein, SW Desert Skiff, Droid Escape, Republic Striker Fighter, Kamino and Bespin planets, LOTR Weathertop, and a few Creator sets all at 30% off.

gmpirate

Which Walmart?

hleonffu

In southern Connecticut.

GIR3691

Oh, the one in Stratford. My bad.

bmwlego

I love reading through the forums to run into fellow I LUG NY members!

Anyway, the WallyWorlds I frequent here on Long Island seem to be dried up of any heavily discounted LEGO.

LegoMom1

bmwlego said:

I love reading through the forums to run into fellow I LUG NY members!

Anyway, the WallyWorlds I frequent here on Long Island seem to be dried up of any heavily discounted LEGO.

Although I'm not an I LUG NY member, I am enjoying hearing where forum members are in Long Island and NYC. Seems quite a few UK members share a proximity connection, with the stores they frequent, etc. I like having this NY connection.

@bmwlego- how far east do your travels take you?

Yellowcastle

My area (Northern Virginia) must be a Low-Clearance zone as I've found next to nothing in Walmarts and Targets the past couple of weeks. I chuckle at the comments above with people waiting for the discounts to grow beyond 30%. I have to imagine many of us would welcome 30%. :o)

bmwlego

@LegoMom1
As far as Bayshore but a friend lives out in Port Jeff and he scours the areas around him. With NY neing so populated you'd think we'd have more NYers represented here on Brickset. There are 6 ILUGNY members who actively participate in the Brickset forums and several others who visit but do not comment.
Glad to meet another NYer here on Brickset. If you ever have any interest in joining the LUG let us know here or at ilugny.org.

LegoMom1

@bmwlego-I've traveled as far west as Bayshore several times on my hunt for Mr. Gold. I even hit the little pop-up TRU in some strange shopping mall in Deer Park. Very odd vibe to the mall- reminded me of The Village in The Prisoner.

Is your Port Jeff friend the person who found Mr. Gold in the Smithaven TRU?

LegoMom1

Yellowcastle said:

My area (Northern Virginia) must be a Low-Clearance zone as I've found next to nothing in Walmarts and Targets the past couple of weeks. I chuckle at the comments above with people waiting for the discounts to grow beyond 30%. I have to imagine many of us would welcome 30%. :o)

It's that Baltimore Harbor Tunnel with it's oversized vehicle restrictions! ;)

juggles7

Saw the paperwork on WalMart's Fall Lego reset. Not on their Fall reset diagrams: LOTR Helms Deep. Star Wars' Malevolence. Friends' Treehouse, all from 2012. Target is still carrying these sets, though.

BlueMoonUSA

Yellowcastle said:

My area (Northern Virginia) must be a Low-Clearance zone as I've found next to nothing in Walmarts and Targets the past couple of weeks. I chuckle at the comments above with people waiting for the discounts to grow beyond 30%. I have to imagine many of us would welcome 30%. :o)

Same here in Southern VA. I guess whilst it might be for Lovers, Virginia ain't for Lego. :)

bmwlego

@LegoMom1
The Arches at Deer Park is a Tanger Outlet mall like in Riverhead. My friend did not find Gold.

The tunnel in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor has a restriction diagram on the highway signs of a yellow propane tank with the round circle and slash through it like a no smoking sign. Every time I see this on my drive down to BFVA it looks to me as if the sign is banning minifig heads!

DoubleD

Just got 79010 the goblin king battle for 34.50