Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

WalMart Pokemon day

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the walmart that i was in never recieved anything and no one even knew about it even when i called back in july. I got there pretty early and when i got there i was told to go back into layaway to help find any materials, comming out way over 30 minutes later with nothing. they only had their origional pokemon product (boosters and theme decks), so they said they never recieved anything or even knew anything about the event.

the store had a lot of pokemon cards there and after i found out they never recieved materials for the game day i went to the card isle for about a hour and about 20 people or so came by asking me where the crystal gardians event was. (so there were a lot of potential players that came there for the event) i bought a trainer kit 2 and a few booters to hand out when i did a few demoes, but most of the people that came already knew how to play but they just came for the game day.
 
Me, my 2 sons, and my son's friend went and inquired at 2 different Walmarts in upstate NY - Rensselaer, NY and Saratoga Springs, NY. No one in either store had any idea what was going on and there were no packets at either store. As a matter of fact both Walmarts were very low in Pokemon product and didnt have any of the newer sets only up to Deoxys. So instead we went to Target across the street and found plenty of Pokemon merchandise up to Holon Phantoms. Very poor organization on someones part. The event was a total loss. :frown:
 
pat460 said:
pffft, LV was a bust as well.dow with wal-mart!!!
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pretty much ... hopefully there will be another one, i'd really like to see this event in action, it sounded like so much fun too ... perhaps PUI will try another one for the next set? :smile:
 
a_shy_girl_1999 said:
pretty much ... hopefully there will be another one, i'd really like to see this event in action, it sounded like so much fun too ... perhaps PUI will try another one for the next set? :smile:
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The overall concept solid, it's just that the execution was terrible.
 
Out of the 6 stores listed as running the event none of them actually did. They didn’t get the stuff, the person who was going to run the event didn’t show, or both and none of the stores had the exclusive starter deck. When we were at the store on Marks one of the Wal-Mart employees had us ask the people stocking the card game shelves (Legends distributor) about the event. When we did they told us that they had to cancel it since it a Wal-Mart employees was supposed to be running it but none of them would (I thought it was supposed to be a volunteer Pokemon player not a Wal-Mart employee?). Eventually they gave us our one pack each and said they would be at one of the other stores from 2-4 even though it says it’s supposed to be 10-12. The thing is though one of my friends went there later and the store didn’t have any of the items (which would make it seem like Legends took what was left of them with them). Someone else we know went to the store Legends was at from 2-4 and they said you had to be 12 and under to get anything (obviously they should not be allowed to do anything like this again since it defiantly seems like they signed up with no intentions of doing anything they were supposed too).

EDIT: Who was supposed to run these events (Wal-Mart employee, Professor, or one of the distributors)? Also is there a list of who signed up to run these events?
 
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Yeah, I got an Earth Shower theme deck, and yes, I'm sure Wal-Mart will continue to sell them.

BTW, it has a Dugtrio in it. No kiddin'.

- Croatian "2 Celio's, too" Nidoking
 
We are still on a High from Worlds so if it did not happen for us it would not be a disappointment. I did want to get the exclusive deck for my little girl since she is 5 now and ready to pretend to play. I feel bad for the ones that did show up and were counting on it. We would have liked to have got the pack four packs too . That would have been cool. I got a few pop3 packs once in the mail and David got some pop 2 packs at cities before. So seeing that they are so popular that would have been cool. But I called walmart long ago and kept in touch with several managers. No one knew nothing about it. Then I called while the event was going on. They said they were not having it. So we go to prerelease which was a blast even if we only got Kyogre ex and a few people came in telling of how they had the event but not much going on. Mr Meches even gave out his own cards to the general public. So I did not think it was going to be the big event that I have gotten use too. But even if its not to be a treat for us it is tough on getting new players in the game. And I think that was what it was suppose to be about. From what I know with marketing is a healthy event is going to lose about 1/3 of its attendants every year. So for the event to grow it must find replacements for those 1/3. Hopefully some will come back and the new ones will bring more. But publicity and marketing are needed. I don't think Pokemon planed it this way but I was not counting on walfart. Thanks to all that tried. I am sure we will see better events in the future. Pokemon still Rocks America.
 
Arrived at my location in Orlando and went straight to the Customer Service area to see if the distributor had checked in or if they knew where the demo might be. Was directed to someone stocking the registers and she directed me to an assistant manager (of stock I believe.) He checked the back for the all-mighty demo box for a good twenty minutes - no good. When reminded that there was suppost to be tables and chairs set up following a phone call made prior, he couldn't offer me one due to a Madden Tournament going on that day. With no distributor, no table, and no demo supplies (although I brought my own theme decks) I started handing out the promo packs that Heidi Craig put together for the Florida demos. The included a mix of promotional cards and a two-sided business card advertising local/worldwide organized play. I was then told that I could not solicit in this manner and would have to leave the store by security. The assistant manager didn't even have the guts to address this with me - they sent in security. So I ended up driving to Heidi Craig's Wal-Mart and assisted her there. She at least got a table.
 
I went to a Kissimmee WalMart store after switching with Phil in Florida. They had no idea what was going on when I arrived and never found the kit. Luckily I brought some theme decks and promo packs I had made to give to potential players. They did provide tables and chairs for my children and I to demo in the back of the store. We had some luck giving out promo packs I made and demoing the game. Once Phil arrived I went to the front of the store and handed out the promo packs and let them know we were demoing Pokemon in back. That kept them steady till 12:00pm. Most players were from other states and countries but hopefully it helped get the word about Pokemon out. Over all it was disappointing how WalMart was clueless and we had no rep. there at all. But we made the best of it and then had a nice lunch together, thanks Phil!
Heidi
 
I heard a story about one family going to Wal-Mart to do this and, after finding no product, they were taken into the back room where there was a big box of Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

The Wal-Mart person asked "Oh, you can use these."

Uh, yeah. Sure. Clueless is right.
 
So looks like this one didn't work out, but I'm all for trying it again. It seems like there was interest on the other end - my WalMart had people come in and ask, they just didn't have anything to give me.

Seems like POP just needs to have a serious talk with the distributors and everything will be ok.
 
Of the 5 stores in Ohio that we covered, 1 had a Rep with a Kit, 1 we eventually found the kit but no Rep, and the other 3 were a complete bust.
 
Well this happened with the Toys R' Us thing too, not everything works out as planned. And from Mike Liesik on the POP Forums when he posted this: "I cannot promise that this will run smoothly. This is our first time doing something like this and there is a large margin for error." So I'm sure POP isn't surprised by this, I wouldn't worry much...just gotta keep trying. :)
 
No distributor at Oxford MA, no kit either. The store did not have a Store Manager (he quit last month). None of the Associate Managers knew anything. Nor the Toy Department Head. Heard one did show up at a Wal-Mart 20 miles away but without a kit. I was able to get a table and demoed using my deck against the young boy who showed up with his "deck". A young lady was interested but by the time i was finished with the boy, she was gone.

Lack of communication somewhere....
 
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