A hundred thirty years ago if you wanted a toy, you got yourself a nice piece of wood and a whittling knife … of course, for many, you were soon known as 9-fingered Johnny … or soon after that, 8-fingered John and subsequently, one-armed Jon … or based on the creative skill of most piece, you whittled that fine log into a pointy stick … but still good for a nice meal of mastodon or carrier pidgeon …or fried cricket … ah, those were the days when a one handed guy could eat his fill of free hopping critters …*

Then, thanks to the explotation of man and later women & children, we moved everyone off into the farms and into factories to mass produce items … and eventually toys.

So for many years, people could wander into a building filled with wonderous things that were available for sale – all you needed was cash or later credit and the ability to push a cart to buy your fill of goods, ammunition and unidentifiable crushed foodstuff on a stick (progress is grand!). Why do I bring this up? Because for some oddball reason, that skill has been lost.

Like making a proper squirrel brain omelet, it’s a lost art apparently … the art of buying merchandise, unloading it off a truck and bringing into onto a thing normally called THE SELLING FLOOR.

Without product, the SELLING FLOOR is just linoleum tiles and frankly, I can stop by any insane asylum just to look at lineoleum …

Ah, the good old days when stores would actually bring things from the backroom, the stockroom and onto the selling floor … maybe we had it too easy for too long so now we have to earn it …

Humm, during a recession, let’s play – hide the pallet – smart? Or not so smart?

But more importantly – here’s what’s going on with the haulers and why you don’t see any on the shelf yet.

Sometime last Spring (guessing here), Walmart saw the Haulers and decided they wanted them as a first-to-ship item for this holiday season.

It’s certainly not the best situation but we’ll accept it. At least Mattel realized the retailers were willing to carry these …

So, the original situation was that Walmart would get first to ship in November and since Mattel was not making any other shipments past December 15th, that effectively meant no other LARGE retailer would get them before the gift giving holidays … Presumably after WM got their shipment, whatever was left over was available to other retailers/re-sellers.

In addition to the obvious big three in popularity, there was also the WM Mack version … no one knows what is going on with it? Coming? Not coming? Coming in 2008? Coming in 2009? Well, going by Wm’s tagline – we are saving money though we would be living much better if we could buy one … or two or ten :-/

PROBLEM #1

Sometime in September? October? Walmart decided that they didn’t want to commit to the Haulers or as many of them? And pushed their releases to late December – so the whole First-to-Ship agreement was tossed out.

PROBLEM #2

When you tell Target and TRU that you are shipping first to WM and that any large orders won’t be available until January, they tend to believe you and set up their plan-o-gram for the holidays without your product and since they don’t order much new product (if anything for toys) for January, that pretty much means it’s very unlikely you will see anything in TRU or Target.

PROBLEM #3

Even if TRU & Target were interested, they pretty much spend their budget especially for toys to ZERO by early November so unless you come up with a $5 reindeer that can poop real gold nuggets … good luck to you. So even for more nimble/desperate large retailers like Kmart, KB, Walgreen’s, JCPenney, etc … they would have to take money from another budget to get them in the stores and as great as the haulers are, it’s just not enticing enough for them … plus, since they stop receiving by early next week – there’s just not interest in adding more product still jammed into their warehouse.

So ultimately, that just leaves real, real nimble re-sellers to buy the suddenly available Haulers (such as Children’s Toy Closet – an advertiser on this site).

WHERE TO BUY

WALMART
So, as of now, we are pretty certain the haulers will show up in another 3 weeks at WM – though they are scheduling their HAULER pallet (aka: January pallet) for December 26 so while I’m sure a few might leak out, for the most part, they are not intending them to be avaialble for pre-Christmas … I’m presuming that since the post-holiday return and redemption of gift cards is so huge now, WM decided to make sure they’re going to have special/new/different merchandise than when you walked out of their stores on the 24th. So, it’s possible that haulers might be in WM before December 25th but as of right now, that is NOT the schedule.

TARGET/TRU
Anything is possible and while they have it in their systems, I would be surprised to see them in stores before the holidays are over – again possible but should you count on it? No. Because remember a) they were told not to expect it and b) they probably have no budget left.

KMART & OTHERS LARGE RETAILERS
Again, anything is possible. Some stores might get them but a nationwide rollout? Unlikely.

RE-SELLERS
So, realistically, your best bet are small retailers and re-sellers. They place orders on a daily or weekly basis and don’t have to worry about stocking 1,000-4,000 stores so they can order as they see fit on a daily basis. So if you want the haulers as a gift item for late December, you should probably order them online to assure you have them in hand …

SITUATION-NEXT

But of course, there are CASE B & CASE C Haulers coming … What’s the scoop on those?

We covered it in our earlier post and while some things have changed, the other portion has not … the bottom line is that Mattel offered CASE B & CASE C Haulers to everyone with a manufacturing/production date of January 2009.

The big three retailers? They probably placed orders except that they are not paying extra for air freight so they are waiting for the Haulers to get to Mattel’s warehouses before taking delivery in February to late-February. Will they arrive sooner? Possibly if Mattel pays for the air freight. Is it possible? Sure, as air freight costs have dropped about 65% but it’s still way cheaper to ship by er, ship … so unless Mattel is willing to pay for air freight and then on truck or rail/truck once it gets to the US, the more likely scenario is that it will be mid to late February before you see CASE B & CASE C in the stores. (For Canada, the horses are being foaled and the trees grown for the wagon & once the wheel has been invented, they are on their way to you … I know, not funny, hahaha).

Which as noted in the earlier post, Children’s Toy Closet appears to be the only company willing to step up to pay for air freight so as of now, the only place where you can get them by January.

So, by product?

December (Walmart & Online Sellers)
Mack Hauler
Gray (Dinoco) Hauler
Chick Hicks Hauler

January (Children’s Toy Closet)
Mack Hauler
Gray (Dinoco) Hauler
Chick Hicks Hauler
Octane Gain Hauler
Leak Less Hauler

Jerry Recycled Batteries Hauler & CASE D now won’t begin production until the next cycle (February?)

* I’m city folk … so I’m just guessing what’s life is like where all things try to kill you from unfiltered waterfalls full of bears, yeti and killer squirrels plus trees and rocks that you didn’t plant? Spooky.

So I’m sure many if not all of you are saying this does not appear logical …

NFK.

CFUBB.

WTHHG (What the Holy Hand Grenade)

As the old saying goes that I just invented, you can’t spell ‘logic’ with ‘CARS?’