While retailers have “resets” every so often, one of the big ones is done after inventory and after the holiday selling season … when they “reset” the section and start fresh.

WM’s is January 12th or on January 12, the toy section will be reset with new merchandise.

Most people will find their Target looks like this right now. I have NEVER seen a retailer INTENTIONALLY sell to the bare wall. This is a new strategy that is either smart or bizarre …

Time to Play? er, time to restock. In theory, they should be doing a reset very quickly but who knows. I would logically say you don’t want bare shelves and bare aisles and bare aisles after bare aisles but they apparently have a plan … or known in the biz as a plan-o-gram … which is the master plan* of each shelf they send out to the stores … and for Target, we know they definitely include CARS.

*Master plan being a drawing of what the shelf should look like.

CARSSneaks took some sneaky pictures of the tags … no CARS but tags …

Haulers are coming at $12.99

Gift 3-Packs are #11.99. Here are the current and forthcoming case assortments … plus a more detailed look at CASE C.

But then it gets interesting …

This is the same price as the “Race & Chase” set – I’m presuming it’s not the “Race & Chase set” repeated since it would just say ‘Race ‘n Chase.” Since it’s a Target exclusive, no way to tell as of now if it’s Piston Cup related or if it’s some other themed 4-pack or even if it’s more than one 4-pack.

(old photo of Race ‘N Chase from the summertime).

There’s also this Target exclusive

It’s a three CARS set with a racer, a hauler and a Pitty. The first three are:

Team Dinoco – Gray Hauler, King, & Dinoco Pitty.
Team Hostile Takeover Bank – Chick Hicks’ Hauler, Chick Hicks, and Bruiser.
Team Rusteze – Mack Hauler, Lightning McQueen, and My Name is Not Chuck.

Matt T. says he can see them on his Target shelf already …

If these sell well, I think you can guess what’s next on the list 🙂

Over at WM, the plan-o-gram list is more straightforward …

Looks like the WM’s actually carrying CARS will get Trev, the Mini Carrying Case as well as launchers.

As well as room on the shelves for haulers, and the 3-pack gift packs.