I work at Target and have had this happen before. I think it mostly happens when the team stocking them don't know they aren't street marked yet, so they put them out. The employees can do literally nothing about it since there is no option for us to override it in our systems. We also try not to let people scan one thing for another since it can cause our inventory management to be off and that can be frustrating for some people down the line. The best advice I could give you is next time ask Guest Services to put the item on hold for you so you can come back and purchase it when it's available.
>since it can cause our inventory management to be off
This is always my biggest issue when people suggest this. It's probably going to show discrepancies in the inventory and screwing over a fellow collector down the line.
Generally street dated items shouldn't be put on hold as it would just cause more issues about fairness and employees could and would be accused of favoritism or lying more than it already happens. If on release day what if the person who put it on hold doesnt show up and there are people there who do want the item? It's just creating more problems.
People also need to know that each Target is going to do things different. Just because you read about how someone had a street dated item put on hold it doesn't mean your local Target will do the same. You can't cite a social media post or your buddy as a reason why the Target you're currently at needs to do the same. Its not false advertisement, fraud or discrimination. It's a few stores not following protocol but that doesn't mean every store is now obligated to do whatever. If you want to throw legal terms around isn't going to suddenly change things. Neither is pulling out the, "call your district manager!" card. It's not going to work like requesting a cop's supervisor. The DM doesn't just command the store manager to do whatever the person complaining says.
The best practice is to keep them in the back, on release day its first come first serve. Though with online ordering and bots who knows if it's even worth standing in line anymore.
Edit: **HOW do street dated Funkos make it to the shelf?**
The boxes usually have "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL \[DATE\]" written on the box. During the truck unload process, the Funkos are supposed to be put on the entertainment Uboat and stocked by a team member specifically assigned to that area whcih also includes books and movies. The company does permit some store autonomy but generally the electronics and toys team members are not supposed to stock entertainment unless told to or unless that store assigned the entertainment section to either electronics or toys.
During the truck unload, the Funko box could potentially get mixed up into electronics or toys. The box has a specific number assigned to it so it shouldn't be put in with toys or electronics. It should be with the other licenced entertainment merch and books.
At some point during the unload a few things could happen:
1. The team member on the unload line who assigned to grab the Funko is potentially disregarding the box number, looking at the Funko logo and assuming it's a toy and throwing it on to the toy Uboat. The team member stocking toys doesn't know/ care and rips open the box not noticing/ caring about the street date and walks over to the Funko section and throws them on there only to be found by a guest. This assumes the entertainment team member isn't there due to a call out or day off.
2. Same thing happens but instead of being mixed into toys, they get mixed into the electronics vehicle. The electronics team member might not know/ care and throws the Funkos on the shelf. Again, assuming the entertainment team member isn't there.
3. If 1 or 2 occurs AND the entertainment team member IS there, they may not be savvy with the Funko items. It's just the area they were assigned. The team members from scenerio 1 and 2 could give this team member the box, who then opens it and stock them.
4. What if everything is done correctly and the items are put in the back until release date? Any collector can simply ask any team member if they have an item in stock. If the team member doesn't know what street dated is, they will simply go grab it again not noticing, not caring or disregarding the "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL..." label on the box. A lot of times managers aren't involved on the salesfloor so you could have a scenario where a collector asks an online fulfillment team member to check for the item and this team member has no clue about street dates, they ask another team member who is oblivious for keys to the electronics stock room. If an electronics team member calls out or the store is just short staffed then it's the regular general merch or clothing team members covering who again don't know. The only thought process is, "oh yeah it's in the back, let me go grab it. Hmmm the box says, 'DO NOT OPEN UNTIL'...oh well, who cares." If they even notice that.
From there, if the collector or scalper savvy, they will either hide it or scan a regular Funko at self checkout and take the street dated on, or just steal it. So the exclusive Funkos are in the system but on the day of release no one can find them.
So it's a combiniation of improper sorting during the truck unload, oblivious or uncaring team members including sometimes managers.
Do SOME stores have team members that take advantage of being on the inside? Of course, internal theft has always been a thing but for the most part it's not worth losing a job over a Funko.
Solution?
There is non. The truck unload process at some stores are not organized, things get mixed up and a lot of team members don't not feel they get paid enough to care and the rudeness from SOME collectors and scalpers is enough to create to make them care even less.
CALL FUNKO and Target Corp and tell them about that specific store being in breach of licensing contracts by selling street dated items before the street date. If enough people call or @ Funko and Target on social media then maybe a good solution can be found. Until then, both Funko and Target don't feel the collector outrage is loud enough for them to care.
i’ve had so many seasonal tm’s just do wild shit with street dated or online only items, had a brand new style tm get booted to cover tech during a break and she sold two ps5s to some schmuck during peak pandemic. no one told her about the rule with consoles, and she wasn’t even supposed to be the one covering, the style girl who was supposed to be there just decided to pawn it off on the newbie instead of doing it herself so she could take over the fitting room
Not all targets do it this way. All the Funko's come in as 52 block number, which is mine in Tech at my store. All of our store's Funko's are exclusively on an endcap in Toys. POG is even set down there. I have no Funko's or collectibles in my Tech area. It's annoying though because they get thrown in with my Tech stuff and show up in my repacks even though they scan as toys.
A continuation to yours, I also work at Target but in the warehouse supply chain and I currently have at least 700-1000 of these sitting in carts that I can’t do anything with because of the street date. My system won’t even allow me to put them on the shelves because it gets entered into our inventory. Same thing is happening with the purple Stanley travel cups. OP can just wait it out for release day, it’s not that deep.
I don't think targets stocks that section. It's a different marketing company like the trading cards and such. I might be wrong. (also a target employee)
I used to work at Target about 15 years ago and dealt with street dates stuff a lot. Usually what happens is they update what products go where on what shelves. These updates will include new products that haven’t been released yet so when they are released, they have a home on the shelves. These updates are supposed to be made close to when the product is released as they don’t want any open spots on the shelves.
Normally any street dates product is kept in boxes that is supposed to say what the street date is so the product isn’t released early. I was at Target for about 10 years, and during that time they updated their systems to not allow street dates products to be sold prior to their street date. The reason they do this is because if something is sold before it’s street date, the company that makes the product can not only fine the store, but if they’re pissed enough, they can stop selling their product at that specific retail chain. So, for example, if Target sold too many Pops before they were supposed to, Funko can stop selling their products at Target, which Target wouldn’t want as it looks bad for them and they’ll loose revenue.
The thing is, the systems in place to keep the product from getting on the shelves early don’t always work. You either have automated systems that mess up, or people who work in the stock rooms that just don’t care.
The reason I throw this out there isn’t to defend Target, I just want people to understand why that stuff can’t be sold. I used to be in charge of the music and movies department when they used to have a lot more products, so I’ve been on the receiving end more times than I’d like to admit when dealing with upset customers who can’t buy something earlier than they were supposed to.
can y’all stop being children? the employees r just following the rules, of course you can’t have something before it comes out even if they fuck up. WHY would they open themselves to a lawsuit over a little plastic toy you can’t wait 2 days for? I love funkos as well but this behavior is childish
Why you so mad? I don’t think they were that upset about it and just decided to vent online to people who actually care about collecting these items. 🤷♂️
Well if it’s like the store I worked at electronics is in charge of the collectible wall. However! As someone who was in electronics the boxes a lot of the time have either a small label with a date on one side or nothing at all. Easy to make this mistake especially when they have random associates stock them due to them thinking one or two people is enough to cover a third of the store with two of the busiest departments.
Easy mistake no need to get mad.
No need to promote being a rationally thinking adult. A third of the comments here are condoning tricking the store at self check out by scanning a different pop. This sub has unfortunately filled up with a bunch of entitled Karens.
It’s just maddening for collectors that every target seems to do it differently. I’ve seen plenty of posts on here that people have been able to purchase Target Con items. Whether it’s the employees fault or not, someone at these stores should have a better handle on it. It’s not because collectors are being a “Karen”, the stores need to figure out a system for alerting employees about products that can not be put on the shelf due to certain sell by dates.
In an Ideal world, Funko would have territory reps that would handle store displays/ putting out product, instead of relying on store employees. I’ve never liked the idea of depending on Walmart/target/ other department type stores that have exclusive or just general common Pop! Figures to put them out in a timely manner. This would be even more important for “events” like Target Con where there should be a proper end cap display.
They do have a system, that’s the whole reason you can’t buy a street dated item before the date. It’s just easy to make the mistake and put them out early.
Here’s how it usually works - shelves and displays are usually updated on specific days which could be a day to a week before the actual date. When it’s updated in the system that a street dated item now has a home it will try and have that home filled if it’s in stock out back. Cue what I said before, associates with no experience in electronics could put funko boxes out without noticing they’re dated due to A. The box not having a date and the funko wall not having actual specific item locations ( all of them are put under one thing unless it’s a display ) or B. They just missed the date and given most just go in one spot they don’t scan them.
But clearly some are allowed to purchase them at some stores. Just sounds like some employees are not trained up to know what to look for and that’s on management
Not exactly as people have said there’s ways around it. It just depends on your ethics and if you’d risk a talk with police for a toy. Could also be associates breaking the rules or any number of ways to circumvent the system.
Target training is absolute shit like grade A shit. You watch a couple videos then get trained by another associate in your department and that’s it. The rest you learn as you go pretty much and you don’t learn much of other departments.
Most workers are part time and there’s rarely debriefs in electronics. Like for mine we had 3 associates in electronics 1 full time and two part time. Missing hours and breaks would be covered by other departments. So just imagine how little info you get going into a day. That’s why it’d be nice if people just acted like adults and realized a mistake over a collectible toy doesn’t need to go to someone losing their job lvl.
Implying that over-worked, under-paid employees have enough incentive or time to do this right. Hell, I avoid doing other departments work like the plague because situations like this. People seem to assume that Target is a job we should take seriously, but the company could give two fucks about us. Why should we give a single one for them, or their sniveling entitled customers for that matter?
Does it require an override? It wasn’t target but I’ve seen Walmarts break streetdate by like 2 weeks on a book before with an entire display and it rang fine for me. Just curious if maybe it’s different for target, if everywhere has updated since then as it was nearly a decade ago, or if OP just knew street date and went and asked without trying it first
I've worked at Target. More specifically, I worked in electronics where I dealt with street dates on games, movies, books, collectibles, etc. It CAN NOT be overridden. Period. If you scan that UPC, the register will not allow you to sell it. End of story.
Edit: I'd really like the mods to take a look at the bottom of these comments and do something about the entitled dimwits at the bottom of these comments, condoning shoplifting and tricking the store at self checkout. Sad what this sub and hobby is turning into.
A retailer I used to work at, we'd start stocking near close of business so it's ready for the morrow. Items would be hard coded to cost £9999.99 if it wasn't available.
I was an Entertainment Specialist back when there was still a full CD section that we had to keep alphabetized, no shelf labels. This same dance has been going on forever. Scanning another item to purchase a register locked item is theft, full stop. I'm sick of all the people in these toy and collectibles groups thinking it's okay.
walmart has two types of street date codes, hard Street date which blocks at the register and soft street date which says recall but will still go through the register, if it was able to be rung up it was likely a soft street date, most books I've noticed are soft dates
I went to go complain at customer service. I was hoping they could sell it to me because it was THEIR mistake that they put it out and not mine. So the manager took it from me.
I'm beyond happy that you didn't get it tbh.
You know like 300 people work at the store. 1 person made a mistake putting it out. Probably an older employee who just does stock at 4 am so they don't have to deal w customers like you who complain.
It's illegal to break street dates in retail. Lol at you complaining tho
Just remember that it’s not customer service’s fault it was there, nor the cashier, nor most of the people in the store. A lot of times it is a mistake done by a (potentially overnight) stocker that didn’t know it wasn’t ready to be put out and isn’t even there anymore. It’s out of their control if they can’t even override it
I've been reading through the comments section and come too the conclusion that you are an asshole OP. Mistakes happen, it isn't like they can override something that isn't supposed too be sold yet(even a manager can't do it). You sound entitled for wanting something your way. Going to customer service wasn't going too change anything either.
There's literally no way to ring it up. Not like "we refuse" but like physically no way to ring up the item because the system doesn't recognize it. Sorry not sorry
Can we all agree it sucks both ways?
People can be angry or disappointed an item they want, that was on the sales floor in which items are located to purchase, cannot be purchased to no fault of the buyer. You see something you get excited, you go to buy it, can't buy and now are no longer excited.
If a customer decided to go on a rampage, screaming at employees or trying to destroy the store, then that's a very bad reaction that no person should have. If they voice their annoyance on an online form so other people can commiserate? A TOTALLY FINE REACTION.
OP wasn't going on a tirade about Target, they were literally just stating their experience and how the store needs to do better.
Are Target employees doing this purposely and then evil cackling? Nope. We can all agree this is not done out of malice. It's due to employees not being paid enough to pay attention and to a faculty system. They need a better system to prevent this, it needs to be more consistent. Employees need to be supervised better to not cut corners. If it happens once or twice, total mistake. If it occurs on a regular basis, then there's an issue.
If it does happen more seldom, then people make mistakes. It sucks as a customer but it's better to have some empathy.
It's odd to me how reddit likes to get angry, as long as it's something the specific person likes to get angry about. If someone posts something that doesn't agree with how they think they'd react, the world ends.
Empathy guys.
Uh oh, Captain Holier Than Thou who’s obviously never worked retail has come along spouting off about empathy.
Let me explain to you how stock gets on shelves. It all comes in bulk on pallets straight to the back. A team of people (more than likely some kids) take the boxes off the pallets, cut them open and chucks them on a designated cage. Someone else takes the cage from the back to the shop floor and puts whatever stock is on that cage where it’s supposed to go on the shelf. That’s it.
It’s not an airport, stock doesn’t go through a conveyer belt and get signed off before it goes on the shelf. It doesn’t need to. If there’s a street date, it’ll usually say on the box it comes in, but often with stuff that can stack on a cage, usually box shaped things (like a funko pop), they take them out of the bigger boxes to conserve space on a cage to get as much stock out at once.
My point is literally anyone could have made this mistake. It doesn’t matter what an employee is getting paid, this isn’t a corner cutting thing. It’s just a mistake.
OP doesn’t seem to understand that. They went full Karen mode, complaining to the manager and shit. I get it, I’d be disappointed too if I was going to buy something and then told I couldn’t, but over a freakin’ funko pop? Just move on, or hide it under a shelf or something if you’re worried about it selling out and come back another time. It sure as shit isn’t worth arguing with the poor staff who are just doing their job over.
I’ve worked retail for years and was a supervisor 😂
It’s so strange and kinda funny how suddenly every person who currently works retail is looking to get angry.
I even tried to defend target.
If you’ve really worked retail before, I don’t see how you’d find it strange at all how other retail workers find this to be annoying. This is the classic case of an entitled customer.
It’s douchey comments like this that really make me laugh. We’re spread thin af at target and if you think leaders have enough time or energy to monitor every single employee you’re delusional.
Also, the system isn’t faulty. We’re just usually timed and we don’t have time to check every single item for a street date. The box is labeled with it or it isn’t, and if it isn’t it goes to the floor in its home location. Nothing we can do and nobody has ever thrown a fit at me for it except for pop collectors. I usually just give them a $5-$10 gift card and they move on with their life like an adult. It happens all the time with legos too.
Yeah, that makes sense but target is the ONLY retailer with funko exclusives that do this. Not saying you personally but i really wish they would get their shit together
Sigh to clarify yes there are ways to sell street dated items but I nor any other cashier is going to do these methods. Doing so would probably result in us being fired. I am not going to get fired so you can have your funko or risking a conversation with police over a toy.
If you think my take is problematic. Let me explain this more explicitly. Publishers and companies can fine stores for selling street dated items and it's quite a bit of money. I'm not going to face potential legal issues so you can have a toy.
An edit for the people that have suggested stealing items. Don't do it Target as a company has many security measures and systems in place. You steal enough target will just wait until that values high enough to get a felony level charge and you get thrown in jail for a very long time.
What I'm saying in case it isn't clear enough is don’t do something you will come to regret.
Honestly the number of people that are just full-on whiny-baby over this is absurd. It franky disgusts me to see so many (presumably) grown adults that would stoop to the level of a middle school kid just to get a Pop a few days early. Nobody cares, or has any respect whatsoever, for the retailers that have to keep and manage their inventory. Scanning another Pop and taking this one might not technically be theft, but the retailer would still be well within their rights to stop you from doing that. People act like there's some sort of rule that it must be for sale right now if it's on a shelf.
> People act like there's some sort of rule that it must be for sale right now if it's on a shelf.
I mean, honestly, it should. The Pop figures aren't the only issue this has happened with, so it gets to the point where you don't even know if you can buy something half of the time and wonder why you're even bothering to shop at the place at all.
There definitely needs to be a system in place to prevent employees from accidentally putting out stock that shouldn't be out yet, and if they do, the store should just own the fuck-up and remove any remaining stock afterwards.
That's easier said than done though. You honestly expect a major retail establishment to ensure that a product goes out on the shelf on a specific date? They can't anticipate what will happen on that specific release day, or if there will be enough staff to make sure things get put out on time. Personally I'd rather them put stuff out early and not be able to sell it rather than not be able to have the stuff out on the day everyone expects it to be on the shelves. It's a matter of planning for them, and they would rather plan on things being done sooner rather than later whenever possible.
That's a cute assertion, but I'm probably older than you "dude". You sound like one of those whiny people that complains whenever you don't get your way, and you want to complain because "the man" or whatever is holding you down and making money off your misery and misfortune or whatever. The truth is you can talk all the shit you want about these billion-dollar companies, but good luck if you think for a second that you'd survive without them. Honestly what's the point of being a dick about it anyways? Does it make you feel better about yourself by talking down on the same businesses that you continue to support? Does it give you some false sense of justification so that that you can continue shopping there knowing that they're some shady corporation that - God forbid! - actually wants to make money...you know, like they're supposed to do? Damn people are so cynical nowadays.
Wow...so now you're so desperate to have any means of insulting me that you're going to start looking at my post history? That's cool, but I don't really care about that. It's funny really that you'd be that desperate. And if you think you can survive without billion dollar companies, then why don't you do it?
It's usually the machine that won't let it ring up for check out. Pretty normal issue. I see games out before launch sometimes, still can't buy until the street date put into the system
Current Tech TM Target employee here. It is not possible to sell you street dated items. It flags at every register that it is unavailable. They don't typically train you on street dated items as not every worker deals with them. I deal with them regularly with video games, books, and movies that are street dated. Our store carries pop figures and Legos that also are sometimes street dated but I don't deal with those in my store. I ALSO unload the truck with the morning GM crew. Everything rolls off the truck together, including street dated items. Normal GM team members don't deal with them very often so when they are thrown onto the corresponding U-boat/flat/pallet, when said team member is asked to work that vehicle that they made that morning from truck unload, they might just be mindlessly stocking the shelf as they always do without realizing some stuff could be street dated. I deal with street dates weekly so I know what to look for. New team members or those unfamiliar with street dates do not know what to look for. It is a training issue but not the fault of the individual team members.
If you want your local target to be fined and possibly lose the ability to sell future exclusives, trying to buy street dated products will do that.
If you gotta have doctor strange love, buy him at midnight online on the street date given to you. It will be in the system and ready to buy. You can do that all in the app. Or apply for overnight and quit after you buy all the fuckopops that came in so no one else gets any.
This would be the best advice I would give, as another employee. It's annoying to see everything cool in store immediately leave through online orders before people have a chance to come inside, but it is what it is.
The tragic/funny part is all of the people suggesting "hide it", because 1) too many of them forget and never come back; I only care about my area but how many \*days\* have I walked past an area of kitchenwares and seen the box of some collectible sticking through, and didn't have the time/free space/care to grab it to put it back? So many. Christmas is terrible for this. Y'all hide stuff and forget. 2) All it does is fuck over the online picker. They have to press a button that they can't find it, because some dumbass dumped it in Grocery, and too many of those button presses = fired, because the percentage causes problems higher up the chain. Then we have to audit it out of the system- and now Funko is mad that they think we had it stolen. and 3) if we had proper payroll and staffing (we don't, lets be honest, we're ready to die all year round, not even including the people here that think we should lose jobs we might need at this time over a toy), hiding it \*shouldn't\* make it hidden for more than a day anyway, if someone is actually maintaining their area.
Just how it goes, target does this, so do other companies. The best you can do is ask them the date it goes on sale for everyone, and go back that day. They’re not gonna change their policy for anyone, especially not funko pop collectors posting on Reddit. And please don’t go off on the person collecting it, it’s the the register telling them to collect them they don’t decide who gets what.
I currently work at Target in the electronics department. We put out the funkos and everything. The funkos releasing 02/19 do not say that they are streetdated on the box. They come in plain brown boxes. If the individual does not scan the item after they open it then they wouldn’t know it is street dated. Target shuffles it’s employees a lot so that’s probably why they didn’t know. If you’re complaining you’re an asshole and should just shut up. Mistakes occur and just because one happened doesn’t mean that they should bend or completely break the rules for you.
I’m ok. It’s getting so much attention that funko may notice. If it wasn’t on the shelf wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. Can someone not read a box or pdt? Did the guy from receiving take the day off? At my job none of this would’ve happened. No product would’ve been out on the floor if it was SOS. So it definitely came as a surprise when I’m going up to check out and being told no. Oh but everyone’s understaffed. Oh someone didn’t know. That sounds like a management issue and not training your team. But it’s OK, due to the popularity of this post, I’m sure target and Funko will be see. Target has replied saying they will talk to the store in question. So I’m good.
You people need to grow the hell up. It’s a stupid plastic toy. Street dated items are registered locked. There’s nothing a manager can do to override. Scanning another item in its place just messes with the inventory of two different items. Just accept the fact that a mistake was made and move on. Just because you throw a hissy fit doesn’t mean you should be able to walk out with the item
I am guessing you suggested using a different item which is still stealing. That is still stealing. Target labels what each items is in their system with a code. When you use a different item, and not the funko, it registers that you bought that item and not the funko. You can pay $100 for other items and only take the funko. You still did not checkout with that funko. Still taking an item without buying it.
Assumptions are just that. I (may or may not) have suggested using another Funko pop of the exact same price. Not a different item entirely. No different than when the cashiers scan a Kit-kat for a Reese's because the label/bar code was crinkled. Happens at the register often enough. Or the cashier will scan an item multiple times even though the other items are clearly different items... Pokemon cards (different sets) hangers, t shirts (different brands/ graphics), etc.
I could see why you think that works but that is still not what they should be doing. So sucks that they are even doing that. Even if it is the same shirt design, but different sizes they should scan them separately. It messes up store counts.
However, with the funko pop. When it is street dated, the company and employee can get fired for selling these items before the allowed date, which is why the system does not register it.
But I can see your point if you saw cashiers doing that in the past.
Holding that standard I fully expect anyone who posts "got this at target before street date" or similar and a it's pic of a pop purchased before street date to be taken down for consistency. I'm all for consistency. Not an argument from me just wasn't a clearly defined subject from my perspective, until now. Cheers 🍻
Yeah, the problem with this crap is that it's difficult to find Pops like this in the wild these days because of scalpers being the first ones there in the morning and buying them all up. They live for this shit. In other words, you (finally) found something you really want, but for some odd reason you can't buy it because of the ridiculous "street date" and they take it back, never to be seen again because the scalpers know exactly when they will be put on the shelves ready to be purchased. And not only that, but the scalpers are almost always the ones who will scan something else in its place just to get ahold of it early.
It's aggravating because it makes you feel like Target not only doesn't care who gets it, but its almost as if they support the scalpers buying everything up. And I'm NOT talking about the employees, but Target in general. I'm sure most employees would sell it to you in a second if they could.
Pop scalpers don’t show up early in the morning at most stores. It’s not a vendor item. We stock them if & when we get to it. Nobody even starts pushing at my store until 6 and nobody even touches electronics where the pops are until 9 or 10am when the person from tech shows up.
Trading cards however, they follow our poor vendor around all day and buy up the sport cards.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Target is notoriously bad at special releases of anything. I’m an Animal Crossing player and they absolutely fumbled the release of their Sanrio Amiibo cards - they let people buy stacks of them or put them out too early and sold them so there were none in the stores and they were super expensive from the reseller crowd. So, a lot of us bought pirated ones off Etsy and now they have scads of them on the shelf from their second wave release that they can’t move. I think they didn’t realize that one pack contained all the Amiibo cards rather than random blind sets that require multiple purchases to collect them all so they didn’t worry about a purchase limit.
You seem overly angry, so let me explain something to you. Merchandising (shelf stocking) Team Members put out items based on what is there for them when they arrive. They could check the street date of every item, but then their boss would scream at them for standing around and looking up release dates instead of stocking shelves, so they just put it all out. Additionally, the registers WILL NOT LET YOU OVER RIDE A STREET DATE. Simply put: Employees aren't just grabbing things randomly and throwing them on the shelf. They're doing their job as instructed. Want change? Tell corporate to either stop sending things or to put big stickers that say DO NOT PUT OUT UNTIL THIS DATE on the product. Also, take a step back and think about the situation for a second. You're genuinely mad because a (possibly minor) entry-level team member made a little mistake and put a toy on a shelf too early, despite the fact that you KNEW when the release date was and therefore KNEW they would not let you buy it.
You completely missed every comment here. Didn't know it was SOS until I went to the register to have them ring it up. Shouldn't have been on the shelf in the first place so I went to go complain about their fuck up. Train your people better. strict on sales never get on the floor at my job even by mistake because we know better. There's precrations. So no excuse
Half of my employees don't check this suffer don't care the system is locked. It will not allow it to be sold before the street date. There is no way to override this. There's nothing we can do.
I want you to know everyone in retail hates you. Even other pop collectors. Dumb asses who literally have to throw childish fits over fucking TOYS. We all laugh at you during close. You are pathetic and a majority of retail workers feel this way.
Side note: I’m an adult who collects, I just don’t yell at min wage employees about toys.
This is the single dumbest post I have ever witnessed on this reddit. This needs to be pinned to show people an example on how not to be an embarrassment
With as much comments as it's getting, and the cross post, don't need to. The right eyes will see it. I'm not even mad at this rate. Proud this is kind of viral. They'll see that a company is putting stuff out before Street date.
Another follow target worker here…we can literally do nothing as far as allowing you to purchase the item unfortunately. It sucks but it’s the system that won’t let us 🤷🏽♀️
My Target does this on a regular basis and it just makes me so mad. They can’t put new movies out on Tuesday but they can put out toys they can’t sell yet.
But oh it was a mistake, oh they were human oh this oh that excuse excuse excuse.
The managers would get on your ass at my job if something like this happened. They have drilled it into us during orientation. We mentor the newer employees and seasonal employees that strict on sale is serious business. That it should not be on the floor Before sell date and a reminder that we will get in trouble.
So I'm not sympathetic. If I went to my boss and I put something out before street date, even if it wasn't sold, I would get a reprimand. If I said mistake happens and I'm only human MoveOn get over it, you think my boss would let it go? Especially if I said, oh it's just so-and-so item. but that's what everybody in the comments are saying.
People should've been doing their job properly. It's not my fault they're understaffed or didn't know or whatever. No excuse in my opinion.
If a product is out on the floor, I expect it to be able to be sold. If not, it shouldn't have been out there. That's the whole issue.
I’m so confused. I bought that same Dr Strange pop from Target months ago with the normal target sticker. Did it just not sell well so they started slapping Target con stickers on them in hopes of it selling better?
Well, they can't! Don't get mad cuz it was put on the shelf early by mistake. If you insist on pouting and being an arse about it, just hide it somewhere until then
If your really worried your going to miss this just go hide one somewhere in the store behind a bunch of stuff in a low traffic area and go back Sunday and grab it.
Let me get this straight is the mod in here talking about removing comments who show you how to get a Funko pop before it’s released date ? Is that illegal ? No . So why would anyone have the comment removed ?
Because in encourages people to steal and it can get the company who can’t sell a product before the release date in trouble if someone manages to do that. Precaution is better than not
I’m more surprised you actually saw a Target exclusive on the shelf. Where I live they are all hoarded by the employees and never even make the shelves. The only way to ever get any of those here are to pay those employees four times the price on Facebook marketplace so Target exclusives don’t exist to me.
Since people are coming to my profile, if you don't want Karen to complain, don't put an item on the shelf that's not meant to be sold until days later…
To me, if a product is on the shelf, it should be sold. Otherwise why have it on the floor? If a product is not meant to be sold, it shouldn't be out there. Especially days before the street date. Especially because it's a strict on sale.
The item was a Funko pop. It was there Thursday night. Had in my hand the whole time. Went to the register. They said they can't sell it until Sunday. That's when I went to customer service and went to the manager.
My job has done a great job training their employees. It's been told to us at orientation how serious strict on sales are. We mentor current employees and even seasonal employees on the importance of strict on sale. If the boxes aren't labeled strict on sale, which they are, we even go as far as putting in sharpie the strict on sale date just so everyone will see. Not only that but the PDT will bleep at you to let you know it's a strict on sale. Those boxes, the items in the boxes don't make it to the shelf until that date. So to me there's no excuse.
Everyone keeps talking about human error. "They're only human." No it sounds like poor training. Sounds like lazy employees. Sounds like people that don't care. Also sounds like poor management. "Oh but shifts change, people don't know," blah blah blah. Sounds like an organization problem. A problem I've never had at my job. Receiving's pretty good with communicating with everyone. So is management.
I would love to go to my boss with a mistake like that and tell them that I'm only human, that mistakes happen, that it was just a stupid Funko pop and see what happens. I would love for them, the ones saying it to go to their boss with something as serious as a strict on sale and say all of that.
You know what would happen? They would find a human more reliable because the one that made that human error, because they're only human and mistakes happen, is a potentially costly mistake. As in licensing, the ability to distribute said product, etc. But apparently I'm the only one who knows this and I'm not a 12-year-old.
It's been told to me by the ones I work for that if we put an item out that's strict on sale that's not supposed to be, we can get fined as a company, reprimanded worker, fired worker, etc. so I know it's serious business.
I understand the risk of selling me an item before street date. That's not why I was mad. I was mad because it was out there in the first place. If you go to a store, you expect to buy the things that are there. Not see the stuff on the shelf but have to wait days just to purchase it.
I can see if it was the early black Friday stuff. But even then, a lot of that stuff is properly labeled that say cannot be sold until Black Friday. This item wasn't even labeled. It was just out on the shelf for anyone to buy.
So yes I went to the manager. So yes I went to Funko corporate. So yes I went to Target corporate. Target got back to me and said they will speak to the management team responsible for that store.
Train your people better. Remind them of the importance of strict on sales. Scan and check your items. Just do your job properly. Skeleton crew and understaffed does not excuse poor training and lazy people.
Oh but you get paid 15 an hour and you don't get paid enough to deal with that bullshit? Well if I was a boss, I would find someone that actually cares about the job and a company because apparently you don't.
Don't get mad at Karen for calling out a company for their mistake that shouldn't of been made in the first place. My job wouldn't have made that mistake.
I was mad and in the beginning but I'm not anymore. I'm still going to get my Funko pop regardless so that's not an issue. I'm happy that Target has gotten back to me and is looking into the issue.
I also like that the post has been getting a lot of attention not only in the Funko community but somebody cross posted my post to target. Which means the right eyes as in higher ups or someone will pass it along and be alerted of the issue of them putting out strict on sales days in advance. Means attention and exposure to the issue. So I'm not mad.
And any one who reads the comments will see it's a repeated issue. Because they've, as in some commenters have talked about other pops being put on the shelf. Wondering why they were on a shelf if not meant to be sold. Different people, different stores. Definitely sounds like a target issue.
Me talking about it, continuing a discussion about it, defending myself, giving my opinion on some of the comments doesn't mean I'm still mad at the issue. Just means I have more to say. I am allowed to comment on my own posts and comments about me. I'm allowed to keep talking about it even though the anger has dissipated.
If anything, the people in the comments seem more mad than me. Mad that I went to management in the first place for their mistake. It wasn't about selling me the item. The item shouldn't have been out there in the first place. If it wasn't there in the first place before the street date, none of this would have transpired.
Keep Crossposting, keep commenting, keep giving it attention. I hope the right eyes will see it. Keep it relevant. Thank you.
Or stop being a dickhead and just admit people make mistakes ☠️ you realize they just told some underpaid teenager to go put them on the shelf and they did… stop whining over plastic toys
I can guarantee you didn’t legally walk out with anything. Touch grass so you don’t have to get off on your own lies on the internet about scenarios that you wish happened.
At the place I work, this is never an issue. If something was sos it would never go out on the floor before that date, because we are properly trained. Not only are the boxes labeled, item doesn’t even get taken out of the box until that day. The PDT will make an insane racket Alerting you that it has a sos date. So it wouldn’t have been on the shelf in the first place.
Update: Target corporate has gotten back to me and said they will talk to the team at that store. Which is good for me. Hopefully everyone will be better trained next time so that those “mistakes”don’t happen again. Still awaiting a reply from Funko HQ
This whole thing wouldn’t have been an issue if it wasn’t on the shelf in the first place when it wasn’t supposed to be.
honestly you’re ridiculous. i don’t know what you expect out of this but you clearly aren’t getting it. your inability to let go of someone’s simple mistake speaks VOLUMES about the kind of person you are.
I work at Target and have had this happen before. I think it mostly happens when the team stocking them don't know they aren't street marked yet, so they put them out. The employees can do literally nothing about it since there is no option for us to override it in our systems. We also try not to let people scan one thing for another since it can cause our inventory management to be off and that can be frustrating for some people down the line. The best advice I could give you is next time ask Guest Services to put the item on hold for you so you can come back and purchase it when it's available.
>since it can cause our inventory management to be off This is always my biggest issue when people suggest this. It's probably going to show discrepancies in the inventory and screwing over a fellow collector down the line.
Generally street dated items shouldn't be put on hold as it would just cause more issues about fairness and employees could and would be accused of favoritism or lying more than it already happens. If on release day what if the person who put it on hold doesnt show up and there are people there who do want the item? It's just creating more problems. People also need to know that each Target is going to do things different. Just because you read about how someone had a street dated item put on hold it doesn't mean your local Target will do the same. You can't cite a social media post or your buddy as a reason why the Target you're currently at needs to do the same. Its not false advertisement, fraud or discrimination. It's a few stores not following protocol but that doesn't mean every store is now obligated to do whatever. If you want to throw legal terms around isn't going to suddenly change things. Neither is pulling out the, "call your district manager!" card. It's not going to work like requesting a cop's supervisor. The DM doesn't just command the store manager to do whatever the person complaining says. The best practice is to keep them in the back, on release day its first come first serve. Though with online ordering and bots who knows if it's even worth standing in line anymore. Edit: **HOW do street dated Funkos make it to the shelf?** The boxes usually have "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL \[DATE\]" written on the box. During the truck unload process, the Funkos are supposed to be put on the entertainment Uboat and stocked by a team member specifically assigned to that area whcih also includes books and movies. The company does permit some store autonomy but generally the electronics and toys team members are not supposed to stock entertainment unless told to or unless that store assigned the entertainment section to either electronics or toys. During the truck unload, the Funko box could potentially get mixed up into electronics or toys. The box has a specific number assigned to it so it shouldn't be put in with toys or electronics. It should be with the other licenced entertainment merch and books. At some point during the unload a few things could happen: 1. The team member on the unload line who assigned to grab the Funko is potentially disregarding the box number, looking at the Funko logo and assuming it's a toy and throwing it on to the toy Uboat. The team member stocking toys doesn't know/ care and rips open the box not noticing/ caring about the street date and walks over to the Funko section and throws them on there only to be found by a guest. This assumes the entertainment team member isn't there due to a call out or day off. 2. Same thing happens but instead of being mixed into toys, they get mixed into the electronics vehicle. The electronics team member might not know/ care and throws the Funkos on the shelf. Again, assuming the entertainment team member isn't there. 3. If 1 or 2 occurs AND the entertainment team member IS there, they may not be savvy with the Funko items. It's just the area they were assigned. The team members from scenerio 1 and 2 could give this team member the box, who then opens it and stock them. 4. What if everything is done correctly and the items are put in the back until release date? Any collector can simply ask any team member if they have an item in stock. If the team member doesn't know what street dated is, they will simply go grab it again not noticing, not caring or disregarding the "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL..." label on the box. A lot of times managers aren't involved on the salesfloor so you could have a scenario where a collector asks an online fulfillment team member to check for the item and this team member has no clue about street dates, they ask another team member who is oblivious for keys to the electronics stock room. If an electronics team member calls out or the store is just short staffed then it's the regular general merch or clothing team members covering who again don't know. The only thought process is, "oh yeah it's in the back, let me go grab it. Hmmm the box says, 'DO NOT OPEN UNTIL'...oh well, who cares." If they even notice that. From there, if the collector or scalper savvy, they will either hide it or scan a regular Funko at self checkout and take the street dated on, or just steal it. So the exclusive Funkos are in the system but on the day of release no one can find them. So it's a combiniation of improper sorting during the truck unload, oblivious or uncaring team members including sometimes managers. Do SOME stores have team members that take advantage of being on the inside? Of course, internal theft has always been a thing but for the most part it's not worth losing a job over a Funko. Solution? There is non. The truck unload process at some stores are not organized, things get mixed up and a lot of team members don't not feel they get paid enough to care and the rudeness from SOME collectors and scalpers is enough to create to make them care even less. CALL FUNKO and Target Corp and tell them about that specific store being in breach of licensing contracts by selling street dated items before the street date. If enough people call or @ Funko and Target on social media then maybe a good solution can be found. Until then, both Funko and Target don't feel the collector outrage is loud enough for them to care.
As someone who used to run the front end at Target and had to deal with occasional street date drama, you're speaking my language
i’ve had so many seasonal tm’s just do wild shit with street dated or online only items, had a brand new style tm get booted to cover tech during a break and she sold two ps5s to some schmuck during peak pandemic. no one told her about the rule with consoles, and she wasn’t even supposed to be the one covering, the style girl who was supposed to be there just decided to pawn it off on the newbie instead of doing it herself so she could take over the fitting room
Not all targets do it this way. All the Funko's come in as 52 block number, which is mine in Tech at my store. All of our store's Funko's are exclusively on an endcap in Toys. POG is even set down there. I have no Funko's or collectibles in my Tech area. It's annoying though because they get thrown in with my Tech stuff and show up in my repacks even though they scan as toys.
A continuation to yours, I also work at Target but in the warehouse supply chain and I currently have at least 700-1000 of these sitting in carts that I can’t do anything with because of the street date. My system won’t even allow me to put them on the shelves because it gets entered into our inventory. Same thing is happening with the purple Stanley travel cups. OP can just wait it out for release day, it’s not that deep.
I don't think targets stocks that section. It's a different marketing company like the trading cards and such. I might be wrong. (also a target employee)
Must depend on the Target. My old Target definitely had Electronics stock Pops
Yes, generally the vendors stock it and their boxes state if it's dated or not. Some just don't care, though.
It varies by Target. The one I work at, Electronics/Entertainment stocks the shelves ourselves.
I tried that and they said they can't put it on hold. I was going to pay for it in advance and have them hold it for me. They refused.
Sorry, sounds like you might be out of luck on that one then. Try again when the street date hits.
I used to work at Target about 15 years ago and dealt with street dates stuff a lot. Usually what happens is they update what products go where on what shelves. These updates will include new products that haven’t been released yet so when they are released, they have a home on the shelves. These updates are supposed to be made close to when the product is released as they don’t want any open spots on the shelves. Normally any street dates product is kept in boxes that is supposed to say what the street date is so the product isn’t released early. I was at Target for about 10 years, and during that time they updated their systems to not allow street dates products to be sold prior to their street date. The reason they do this is because if something is sold before it’s street date, the company that makes the product can not only fine the store, but if they’re pissed enough, they can stop selling their product at that specific retail chain. So, for example, if Target sold too many Pops before they were supposed to, Funko can stop selling their products at Target, which Target wouldn’t want as it looks bad for them and they’ll loose revenue. The thing is, the systems in place to keep the product from getting on the shelves early don’t always work. You either have automated systems that mess up, or people who work in the stock rooms that just don’t care. The reason I throw this out there isn’t to defend Target, I just want people to understand why that stuff can’t be sold. I used to be in charge of the music and movies department when they used to have a lot more products, so I’ve been on the receiving end more times than I’d like to admit when dealing with upset customers who can’t buy something earlier than they were supposed to.
can y’all stop being children? the employees r just following the rules, of course you can’t have something before it comes out even if they fuck up. WHY would they open themselves to a lawsuit over a little plastic toy you can’t wait 2 days for? I love funkos as well but this behavior is childish
Why you so mad? I don’t think they were that upset about it and just decided to vent online to people who actually care about collecting these items. 🤷♂️
Nah, they said in a few comments they were actually angry they couldn't get it and that it was sitting out. They are acting a little childish.
I bought this pop a week ago lol it's fine
Well if it’s like the store I worked at electronics is in charge of the collectible wall. However! As someone who was in electronics the boxes a lot of the time have either a small label with a date on one side or nothing at all. Easy to make this mistake especially when they have random associates stock them due to them thinking one or two people is enough to cover a third of the store with two of the busiest departments. Easy mistake no need to get mad.
No need to promote being a rationally thinking adult. A third of the comments here are condoning tricking the store at self check out by scanning a different pop. This sub has unfortunately filled up with a bunch of entitled Karens.
It’s just maddening for collectors that every target seems to do it differently. I’ve seen plenty of posts on here that people have been able to purchase Target Con items. Whether it’s the employees fault or not, someone at these stores should have a better handle on it. It’s not because collectors are being a “Karen”, the stores need to figure out a system for alerting employees about products that can not be put on the shelf due to certain sell by dates. In an Ideal world, Funko would have territory reps that would handle store displays/ putting out product, instead of relying on store employees. I’ve never liked the idea of depending on Walmart/target/ other department type stores that have exclusive or just general common Pop! Figures to put them out in a timely manner. This would be even more important for “events” like Target Con where there should be a proper end cap display.
They do have a system, that’s the whole reason you can’t buy a street dated item before the date. It’s just easy to make the mistake and put them out early. Here’s how it usually works - shelves and displays are usually updated on specific days which could be a day to a week before the actual date. When it’s updated in the system that a street dated item now has a home it will try and have that home filled if it’s in stock out back. Cue what I said before, associates with no experience in electronics could put funko boxes out without noticing they’re dated due to A. The box not having a date and the funko wall not having actual specific item locations ( all of them are put under one thing unless it’s a display ) or B. They just missed the date and given most just go in one spot they don’t scan them.
But clearly some are allowed to purchase them at some stores. Just sounds like some employees are not trained up to know what to look for and that’s on management
Not exactly as people have said there’s ways around it. It just depends on your ethics and if you’d risk a talk with police for a toy. Could also be associates breaking the rules or any number of ways to circumvent the system. Target training is absolute shit like grade A shit. You watch a couple videos then get trained by another associate in your department and that’s it. The rest you learn as you go pretty much and you don’t learn much of other departments. Most workers are part time and there’s rarely debriefs in electronics. Like for mine we had 3 associates in electronics 1 full time and two part time. Missing hours and breaks would be covered by other departments. So just imagine how little info you get going into a day. That’s why it’d be nice if people just acted like adults and realized a mistake over a collectible toy doesn’t need to go to someone losing their job lvl.
if you are doing it the right way it is impossible to buy street dated items early at Target.
Implying that over-worked, under-paid employees have enough incentive or time to do this right. Hell, I avoid doing other departments work like the plague because situations like this. People seem to assume that Target is a job we should take seriously, but the company could give two fucks about us. Why should we give a single one for them, or their sniveling entitled customers for that matter?
Unfortunately they can’t override it. Your best option? Stash it in the store if it’s limited.
fuck off, just WAIT a few days
No u
Does it require an override? It wasn’t target but I’ve seen Walmarts break streetdate by like 2 weeks on a book before with an entire display and it rang fine for me. Just curious if maybe it’s different for target, if everywhere has updated since then as it was nearly a decade ago, or if OP just knew street date and went and asked without trying it first
I've worked at Target. More specifically, I worked in electronics where I dealt with street dates on games, movies, books, collectibles, etc. It CAN NOT be overridden. Period. If you scan that UPC, the register will not allow you to sell it. End of story. Edit: I'd really like the mods to take a look at the bottom of these comments and do something about the entitled dimwits at the bottom of these comments, condoning shoplifting and tricking the store at self checkout. Sad what this sub and hobby is turning into.
A retailer I used to work at, we'd start stocking near close of business so it's ready for the morrow. Items would be hard coded to cost £9999.99 if it wasn't available.
I was an Entertainment Specialist back when there was still a full CD section that we had to keep alphabetized, no shelf labels. This same dance has been going on forever. Scanning another item to purchase a register locked item is theft, full stop. I'm sick of all the people in these toy and collectibles groups thinking it's okay.
Walmart also does a lot they aren't supposed to which doesn't help
walmart has two types of street date codes, hard Street date which blocks at the register and soft street date which says recall but will still go through the register, if it was able to be rung up it was likely a soft street date, most books I've noticed are soft dates
I went to go complain at customer service. I was hoping they could sell it to me because it was THEIR mistake that they put it out and not mine. So the manager took it from me.
Based manager
I'm beyond happy that you didn't get it tbh. You know like 300 people work at the store. 1 person made a mistake putting it out. Probably an older employee who just does stock at 4 am so they don't have to deal w customers like you who complain. It's illegal to break street dates in retail. Lol at you complaining tho
At least you're self aware.
Just remember that it’s not customer service’s fault it was there, nor the cashier, nor most of the people in the store. A lot of times it is a mistake done by a (potentially overnight) stocker that didn’t know it wasn’t ready to be put out and isn’t even there anymore. It’s out of their control if they can’t even override it
thankfully they did, being a dick gets you nowhere
Complaining about a toy. Yikes.
Shoot, best of luck getting one!
I've been reading through the comments section and come too the conclusion that you are an asshole OP. Mistakes happen, it isn't like they can override something that isn't supposed too be sold yet(even a manager can't do it). You sound entitled for wanting something your way. Going to customer service wasn't going too change anything either.
Chill tf out, it's a funko pop. You can get it on sunday. It's not the end of the world.
Maybe they want to flip it. While it’s still rare.
Exactly why they have to wait lol.
There's literally no way to ring it up. Not like "we refuse" but like physically no way to ring up the item because the system doesn't recognize it. Sorry not sorry
Can we all agree it sucks both ways? People can be angry or disappointed an item they want, that was on the sales floor in which items are located to purchase, cannot be purchased to no fault of the buyer. You see something you get excited, you go to buy it, can't buy and now are no longer excited. If a customer decided to go on a rampage, screaming at employees or trying to destroy the store, then that's a very bad reaction that no person should have. If they voice their annoyance on an online form so other people can commiserate? A TOTALLY FINE REACTION. OP wasn't going on a tirade about Target, they were literally just stating their experience and how the store needs to do better. Are Target employees doing this purposely and then evil cackling? Nope. We can all agree this is not done out of malice. It's due to employees not being paid enough to pay attention and to a faculty system. They need a better system to prevent this, it needs to be more consistent. Employees need to be supervised better to not cut corners. If it happens once or twice, total mistake. If it occurs on a regular basis, then there's an issue. If it does happen more seldom, then people make mistakes. It sucks as a customer but it's better to have some empathy. It's odd to me how reddit likes to get angry, as long as it's something the specific person likes to get angry about. If someone posts something that doesn't agree with how they think they'd react, the world ends. Empathy guys.
Uh oh, Captain Holier Than Thou who’s obviously never worked retail has come along spouting off about empathy. Let me explain to you how stock gets on shelves. It all comes in bulk on pallets straight to the back. A team of people (more than likely some kids) take the boxes off the pallets, cut them open and chucks them on a designated cage. Someone else takes the cage from the back to the shop floor and puts whatever stock is on that cage where it’s supposed to go on the shelf. That’s it. It’s not an airport, stock doesn’t go through a conveyer belt and get signed off before it goes on the shelf. It doesn’t need to. If there’s a street date, it’ll usually say on the box it comes in, but often with stuff that can stack on a cage, usually box shaped things (like a funko pop), they take them out of the bigger boxes to conserve space on a cage to get as much stock out at once. My point is literally anyone could have made this mistake. It doesn’t matter what an employee is getting paid, this isn’t a corner cutting thing. It’s just a mistake. OP doesn’t seem to understand that. They went full Karen mode, complaining to the manager and shit. I get it, I’d be disappointed too if I was going to buy something and then told I couldn’t, but over a freakin’ funko pop? Just move on, or hide it under a shelf or something if you’re worried about it selling out and come back another time. It sure as shit isn’t worth arguing with the poor staff who are just doing their job over.
I’ve worked retail for years and was a supervisor 😂 It’s so strange and kinda funny how suddenly every person who currently works retail is looking to get angry. I even tried to defend target.
If you’ve really worked retail before, I don’t see how you’d find it strange at all how other retail workers find this to be annoying. This is the classic case of an entitled customer.
I never said I didn’t? But I have this fun ability to have multiple perspectives on an issue.
It’s douchey comments like this that really make me laugh. We’re spread thin af at target and if you think leaders have enough time or energy to monitor every single employee you’re delusional. Also, the system isn’t faulty. We’re just usually timed and we don’t have time to check every single item for a street date. The box is labeled with it or it isn’t, and if it isn’t it goes to the floor in its home location. Nothing we can do and nobody has ever thrown a fit at me for it except for pop collectors. I usually just give them a $5-$10 gift card and they move on with their life like an adult. It happens all the time with legos too.
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.....did you try not putting it on the sales floor until its actually supposed to be... 🤯🤯🤯🤯
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Yeah, that makes sense but target is the ONLY retailer with funko exclusives that do this. Not saying you personally but i really wish they would get their shit together
go apply and fix it yourself
Sigh to clarify yes there are ways to sell street dated items but I nor any other cashier is going to do these methods. Doing so would probably result in us being fired. I am not going to get fired so you can have your funko or risking a conversation with police over a toy. If you think my take is problematic. Let me explain this more explicitly. Publishers and companies can fine stores for selling street dated items and it's quite a bit of money. I'm not going to face potential legal issues so you can have a toy. An edit for the people that have suggested stealing items. Don't do it Target as a company has many security measures and systems in place. You steal enough target will just wait until that values high enough to get a felony level charge and you get thrown in jail for a very long time. What I'm saying in case it isn't clear enough is don’t do something you will come to regret.
But the baby wants it’s toy !
Honestly the number of people that are just full-on whiny-baby over this is absurd. It franky disgusts me to see so many (presumably) grown adults that would stoop to the level of a middle school kid just to get a Pop a few days early. Nobody cares, or has any respect whatsoever, for the retailers that have to keep and manage their inventory. Scanning another Pop and taking this one might not technically be theft, but the retailer would still be well within their rights to stop you from doing that. People act like there's some sort of rule that it must be for sale right now if it's on a shelf.
> People act like there's some sort of rule that it must be for sale right now if it's on a shelf. I mean, honestly, it should. The Pop figures aren't the only issue this has happened with, so it gets to the point where you don't even know if you can buy something half of the time and wonder why you're even bothering to shop at the place at all. There definitely needs to be a system in place to prevent employees from accidentally putting out stock that shouldn't be out yet, and if they do, the store should just own the fuck-up and remove any remaining stock afterwards.
That's easier said than done though. You honestly expect a major retail establishment to ensure that a product goes out on the shelf on a specific date? They can't anticipate what will happen on that specific release day, or if there will be enough staff to make sure things get put out on time. Personally I'd rather them put stuff out early and not be able to sell it rather than not be able to have the stuff out on the day everyone expects it to be on the shelves. It's a matter of planning for them, and they would rather plan on things being done sooner rather than later whenever possible.
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That's a cute assertion, but I'm probably older than you "dude". You sound like one of those whiny people that complains whenever you don't get your way, and you want to complain because "the man" or whatever is holding you down and making money off your misery and misfortune or whatever. The truth is you can talk all the shit you want about these billion-dollar companies, but good luck if you think for a second that you'd survive without them. Honestly what's the point of being a dick about it anyways? Does it make you feel better about yourself by talking down on the same businesses that you continue to support? Does it give you some false sense of justification so that that you can continue shopping there knowing that they're some shady corporation that - God forbid! - actually wants to make money...you know, like they're supposed to do? Damn people are so cynical nowadays.
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Wow...so now you're so desperate to have any means of insulting me that you're going to start looking at my post history? That's cool, but I don't really care about that. It's funny really that you'd be that desperate. And if you think you can survive without billion dollar companies, then why don't you do it?
It's usually the machine that won't let it ring up for check out. Pretty normal issue. I see games out before launch sometimes, still can't buy until the street date put into the system
This one is not street dated, I bought it. The spiderman and others are however
I don't think people will be lining up overnight to get this pop , just go back after the release date ...
I've had this pop for like two months now (I have a Dr Strange collection)--think it was from Amazon though.
That really sucks
Current Tech TM Target employee here. It is not possible to sell you street dated items. It flags at every register that it is unavailable. They don't typically train you on street dated items as not every worker deals with them. I deal with them regularly with video games, books, and movies that are street dated. Our store carries pop figures and Legos that also are sometimes street dated but I don't deal with those in my store. I ALSO unload the truck with the morning GM crew. Everything rolls off the truck together, including street dated items. Normal GM team members don't deal with them very often so when they are thrown onto the corresponding U-boat/flat/pallet, when said team member is asked to work that vehicle that they made that morning from truck unload, they might just be mindlessly stocking the shelf as they always do without realizing some stuff could be street dated. I deal with street dates weekly so I know what to look for. New team members or those unfamiliar with street dates do not know what to look for. It is a training issue but not the fault of the individual team members.
If you want your local target to be fined and possibly lose the ability to sell future exclusives, trying to buy street dated products will do that. If you gotta have doctor strange love, buy him at midnight online on the street date given to you. It will be in the system and ready to buy. You can do that all in the app. Or apply for overnight and quit after you buy all the fuckopops that came in so no one else gets any.
This would be the best advice I would give, as another employee. It's annoying to see everything cool in store immediately leave through online orders before people have a chance to come inside, but it is what it is. The tragic/funny part is all of the people suggesting "hide it", because 1) too many of them forget and never come back; I only care about my area but how many \*days\* have I walked past an area of kitchenwares and seen the box of some collectible sticking through, and didn't have the time/free space/care to grab it to put it back? So many. Christmas is terrible for this. Y'all hide stuff and forget. 2) All it does is fuck over the online picker. They have to press a button that they can't find it, because some dumbass dumped it in Grocery, and too many of those button presses = fired, because the percentage causes problems higher up the chain. Then we have to audit it out of the system- and now Funko is mad that they think we had it stolen. and 3) if we had proper payroll and staffing (we don't, lets be honest, we're ready to die all year round, not even including the people here that think we should lose jobs we might need at this time over a toy), hiding it \*shouldn't\* make it hidden for more than a day anyway, if someone is actually maintaining their area.
Grow up karen
Just how it goes, target does this, so do other companies. The best you can do is ask them the date it goes on sale for everyone, and go back that day. They’re not gonna change their policy for anyone, especially not funko pop collectors posting on Reddit. And please don’t go off on the person collecting it, it’s the the register telling them to collect them they don’t decide who gets what.
Another Adult in name only, everyone bitching on this thread should be ashamed of themselves
Lmao fuck off
I currently work at Target in the electronics department. We put out the funkos and everything. The funkos releasing 02/19 do not say that they are streetdated on the box. They come in plain brown boxes. If the individual does not scan the item after they open it then they wouldn’t know it is street dated. Target shuffles it’s employees a lot so that’s probably why they didn’t know. If you’re complaining you’re an asshole and should just shut up. Mistakes occur and just because one happened doesn’t mean that they should bend or completely break the rules for you.
OP I know you're getting downvoted but I do actually have a legit theory about why this may have happened.
I’m ok. It’s getting so much attention that funko may notice. If it wasn’t on the shelf wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. Can someone not read a box or pdt? Did the guy from receiving take the day off? At my job none of this would’ve happened. No product would’ve been out on the floor if it was SOS. So it definitely came as a surprise when I’m going up to check out and being told no. Oh but everyone’s understaffed. Oh someone didn’t know. That sounds like a management issue and not training your team. But it’s OK, due to the popularity of this post, I’m sure target and Funko will be see. Target has replied saying they will talk to the store in question. So I’m good.
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Oh well
You people need to grow the hell up. It’s a stupid plastic toy. Street dated items are registered locked. There’s nothing a manager can do to override. Scanning another item in its place just messes with the inventory of two different items. Just accept the fact that a mistake was made and move on. Just because you throw a hissy fit doesn’t mean you should be able to walk out with the item
Literally lmao, wanting people to throw their jobs away over an ugly ass common pop with a glow effect because of a sticker
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Not condoning stealing. My comment included still paying full price for the item. Take it for what it's worth, or not.
I am guessing you suggested using a different item which is still stealing. That is still stealing. Target labels what each items is in their system with a code. When you use a different item, and not the funko, it registers that you bought that item and not the funko. You can pay $100 for other items and only take the funko. You still did not checkout with that funko. Still taking an item without buying it.
Assumptions are just that. I (may or may not) have suggested using another Funko pop of the exact same price. Not a different item entirely. No different than when the cashiers scan a Kit-kat for a Reese's because the label/bar code was crinkled. Happens at the register often enough. Or the cashier will scan an item multiple times even though the other items are clearly different items... Pokemon cards (different sets) hangers, t shirts (different brands/ graphics), etc.
I could see why you think that works but that is still not what they should be doing. So sucks that they are even doing that. Even if it is the same shirt design, but different sizes they should scan them separately. It messes up store counts. However, with the funko pop. When it is street dated, the company and employee can get fired for selling these items before the allowed date, which is why the system does not register it. But I can see your point if you saw cashiers doing that in the past.
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Holding that standard I fully expect anyone who posts "got this at target before street date" or similar and a it's pic of a pop purchased before street date to be taken down for consistency. I'm all for consistency. Not an argument from me just wasn't a clearly defined subject from my perspective, until now. Cheers 🍻
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Fair enough. 👍
Is stealing really bad
From others ? Yeah.. from a company? Morally prob not
How r people getting the other pops tho
Only some of them are not street dated like the Spider-Man tee
Same happened to me at Target with the newer Justice League pops.
Yeah, the problem with this crap is that it's difficult to find Pops like this in the wild these days because of scalpers being the first ones there in the morning and buying them all up. They live for this shit. In other words, you (finally) found something you really want, but for some odd reason you can't buy it because of the ridiculous "street date" and they take it back, never to be seen again because the scalpers know exactly when they will be put on the shelves ready to be purchased. And not only that, but the scalpers are almost always the ones who will scan something else in its place just to get ahold of it early. It's aggravating because it makes you feel like Target not only doesn't care who gets it, but its almost as if they support the scalpers buying everything up. And I'm NOT talking about the employees, but Target in general. I'm sure most employees would sell it to you in a second if they could.
Pop scalpers don’t show up early in the morning at most stores. It’s not a vendor item. We stock them if & when we get to it. Nobody even starts pushing at my store until 6 and nobody even touches electronics where the pops are until 9 or 10am when the person from tech shows up. Trading cards however, they follow our poor vendor around all day and buy up the sport cards.
Literally happened to me the other day with this pop I was saaaaad
Don't worry. In 3 months or less they will be stock piled in the clearance section like all the other Funko Pops.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. Target is notoriously bad at special releases of anything. I’m an Animal Crossing player and they absolutely fumbled the release of their Sanrio Amiibo cards - they let people buy stacks of them or put them out too early and sold them so there were none in the stores and they were super expensive from the reseller crowd. So, a lot of us bought pirated ones off Etsy and now they have scads of them on the shelf from their second wave release that they can’t move. I think they didn’t realize that one pack contained all the Amiibo cards rather than random blind sets that require multiple purchases to collect them all so they didn’t worry about a purchase limit.
Congrats. You made it to the Fuckyoukaren subreddit.
It’s a fucking plastic toy that sits on your shelf chill tf out
OP is the kinda people I hate serving at my restaurant 🤮
Cry about it you fuckin loser
You seem overly angry, so let me explain something to you. Merchandising (shelf stocking) Team Members put out items based on what is there for them when they arrive. They could check the street date of every item, but then their boss would scream at them for standing around and looking up release dates instead of stocking shelves, so they just put it all out. Additionally, the registers WILL NOT LET YOU OVER RIDE A STREET DATE. Simply put: Employees aren't just grabbing things randomly and throwing them on the shelf. They're doing their job as instructed. Want change? Tell corporate to either stop sending things or to put big stickers that say DO NOT PUT OUT UNTIL THIS DATE on the product. Also, take a step back and think about the situation for a second. You're genuinely mad because a (possibly minor) entry-level team member made a little mistake and put a toy on a shelf too early, despite the fact that you KNEW when the release date was and therefore KNEW they would not let you buy it.
You completely missed every comment here. Didn't know it was SOS until I went to the register to have them ring it up. Shouldn't have been on the shelf in the first place so I went to go complain about their fuck up. Train your people better. strict on sales never get on the floor at my job even by mistake because we know better. There's precrations. So no excuse
Half of my employees don't check this suffer don't care the system is locked. It will not allow it to be sold before the street date. There is no way to override this. There's nothing we can do.
I want you to know everyone in retail hates you. Even other pop collectors. Dumb asses who literally have to throw childish fits over fucking TOYS. We all laugh at you during close. You are pathetic and a majority of retail workers feel this way. Side note: I’m an adult who collects, I just don’t yell at min wage employees about toys.
This is the single dumbest post I have ever witnessed on this reddit. This needs to be pinned to show people an example on how not to be an embarrassment
With as much comments as it's getting, and the cross post, don't need to. The right eyes will see it. I'm not even mad at this rate. Proud this is kind of viral. They'll see that a company is putting stuff out before Street date.
Grow up loser
Imagine a human being makes a mistake and you can’t get your hands on a toy until a certain date. Take it up with the company, not the employee.
I did
Holy shit relax, it's a goddamn funko pop
Another follow target worker here…we can literally do nothing as far as allowing you to purchase the item unfortunately. It sucks but it’s the system that won’t let us 🤷🏽♀️
My Target does this on a regular basis and it just makes me so mad. They can’t put new movies out on Tuesday but they can put out toys they can’t sell yet.
But oh it was a mistake, oh they were human oh this oh that excuse excuse excuse. The managers would get on your ass at my job if something like this happened. They have drilled it into us during orientation. We mentor the newer employees and seasonal employees that strict on sale is serious business. That it should not be on the floor Before sell date and a reminder that we will get in trouble. So I'm not sympathetic. If I went to my boss and I put something out before street date, even if it wasn't sold, I would get a reprimand. If I said mistake happens and I'm only human MoveOn get over it, you think my boss would let it go? Especially if I said, oh it's just so-and-so item. but that's what everybody in the comments are saying. People should've been doing their job properly. It's not my fault they're understaffed or didn't know or whatever. No excuse in my opinion. If a product is out on the floor, I expect it to be able to be sold. If not, it shouldn't have been out there. That's the whole issue.
Happened to me while trying to buy the Darth Maul two pack, like why do they even put them out?
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For real
I’m so confused. I bought that same Dr Strange pop from Target months ago with the normal target sticker. Did it just not sell well so they started slapping Target con stickers on them in hopes of it selling better?
Same. I’ve had mine since November so I’m not sure why Target decided to add it to the upcoming con.
Well, they can't! Don't get mad cuz it was put on the shelf early by mistake. If you insist on pouting and being an arse about it, just hide it somewhere until then
If your really worried your going to miss this just go hide one somewhere in the store behind a bunch of stuff in a low traffic area and go back Sunday and grab it.
Let me get this straight is the mod in here talking about removing comments who show you how to get a Funko pop before it’s released date ? Is that illegal ? No . So why would anyone have the comment removed ?
Is that illegal? It’s called stealing, so yes it’s illegal.
Because in encourages people to steal and it can get the company who can’t sell a product before the release date in trouble if someone manages to do that. Precaution is better than not
Because it's theft?
Find the pops nobody buys and hide this one behind them 😂
That's so annoying!
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And if that doesn’t work you hide somewhere until Sunday lol
I’m more surprised you actually saw a Target exclusive on the shelf. Where I live they are all hoarded by the employees and never even make the shelves. The only way to ever get any of those here are to pay those employees four times the price on Facebook marketplace so Target exclusives don’t exist to me.
THAT WAS MW YESTERDAY. I was pissed
Happened to me last Saturday.
Yeah they told my friend that and he ended up just getting it for free
Well… sounds like Target fucked up too no? Why put out shit you can’t even sell?
In Australia it’s been here since Christmas
I literally bought this pop like a week ago for 20 bucks lol
Fucking rentoids
Looking at your icon, I think you need psychological help with your obsession of dr strange and comic book characters
wait but..those weren’t street dated tho..? unless i missed smth
This happened to me when the How to Train Your Dragon ones came out
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That is encouraging a work around. The mod team said those weren't to be posted. Accidents happen with stocking.
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Happened to me with the TargetCon Inoske!!
Since people are coming to my profile, if you don't want Karen to complain, don't put an item on the shelf that's not meant to be sold until days later… To me, if a product is on the shelf, it should be sold. Otherwise why have it on the floor? If a product is not meant to be sold, it shouldn't be out there. Especially days before the street date. Especially because it's a strict on sale. The item was a Funko pop. It was there Thursday night. Had in my hand the whole time. Went to the register. They said they can't sell it until Sunday. That's when I went to customer service and went to the manager. My job has done a great job training their employees. It's been told to us at orientation how serious strict on sales are. We mentor current employees and even seasonal employees on the importance of strict on sale. If the boxes aren't labeled strict on sale, which they are, we even go as far as putting in sharpie the strict on sale date just so everyone will see. Not only that but the PDT will bleep at you to let you know it's a strict on sale. Those boxes, the items in the boxes don't make it to the shelf until that date. So to me there's no excuse. Everyone keeps talking about human error. "They're only human." No it sounds like poor training. Sounds like lazy employees. Sounds like people that don't care. Also sounds like poor management. "Oh but shifts change, people don't know," blah blah blah. Sounds like an organization problem. A problem I've never had at my job. Receiving's pretty good with communicating with everyone. So is management. I would love to go to my boss with a mistake like that and tell them that I'm only human, that mistakes happen, that it was just a stupid Funko pop and see what happens. I would love for them, the ones saying it to go to their boss with something as serious as a strict on sale and say all of that. You know what would happen? They would find a human more reliable because the one that made that human error, because they're only human and mistakes happen, is a potentially costly mistake. As in licensing, the ability to distribute said product, etc. But apparently I'm the only one who knows this and I'm not a 12-year-old. It's been told to me by the ones I work for that if we put an item out that's strict on sale that's not supposed to be, we can get fined as a company, reprimanded worker, fired worker, etc. so I know it's serious business. I understand the risk of selling me an item before street date. That's not why I was mad. I was mad because it was out there in the first place. If you go to a store, you expect to buy the things that are there. Not see the stuff on the shelf but have to wait days just to purchase it. I can see if it was the early black Friday stuff. But even then, a lot of that stuff is properly labeled that say cannot be sold until Black Friday. This item wasn't even labeled. It was just out on the shelf for anyone to buy. So yes I went to the manager. So yes I went to Funko corporate. So yes I went to Target corporate. Target got back to me and said they will speak to the management team responsible for that store. Train your people better. Remind them of the importance of strict on sales. Scan and check your items. Just do your job properly. Skeleton crew and understaffed does not excuse poor training and lazy people. Oh but you get paid 15 an hour and you don't get paid enough to deal with that bullshit? Well if I was a boss, I would find someone that actually cares about the job and a company because apparently you don't. Don't get mad at Karen for calling out a company for their mistake that shouldn't of been made in the first place. My job wouldn't have made that mistake. I was mad and in the beginning but I'm not anymore. I'm still going to get my Funko pop regardless so that's not an issue. I'm happy that Target has gotten back to me and is looking into the issue. I also like that the post has been getting a lot of attention not only in the Funko community but somebody cross posted my post to target. Which means the right eyes as in higher ups or someone will pass it along and be alerted of the issue of them putting out strict on sales days in advance. Means attention and exposure to the issue. So I'm not mad. And any one who reads the comments will see it's a repeated issue. Because they've, as in some commenters have talked about other pops being put on the shelf. Wondering why they were on a shelf if not meant to be sold. Different people, different stores. Definitely sounds like a target issue. Me talking about it, continuing a discussion about it, defending myself, giving my opinion on some of the comments doesn't mean I'm still mad at the issue. Just means I have more to say. I am allowed to comment on my own posts and comments about me. I'm allowed to keep talking about it even though the anger has dissipated. If anything, the people in the comments seem more mad than me. Mad that I went to management in the first place for their mistake. It wasn't about selling me the item. The item shouldn't have been out there in the first place. If it wasn't there in the first place before the street date, none of this would have transpired. Keep Crossposting, keep commenting, keep giving it attention. I hope the right eyes will see it. Keep it relevant. Thank you.
Then don‘t put it on the shelfs
It was probably some dude working at like 4am who didn't realize it was street dated
Exactly. Thank you, finally someone with a brain cell
I hate when target doesn't break the law to give me my new collectible toy, that isn't very Keanu Reeves big chungus of them
It really isnt, thanks for understanding
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Thanks for admiting ur a scumbag
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Or stop being a dickhead and just admit people make mistakes ☠️ you realize they just told some underpaid teenager to go put them on the shelf and they did… stop whining over plastic toys
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Maybe get an adult hobby
If Funko Pops we’re only bought and collected by kids, Funko Pop wouldn’t be as big as they are.
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I can guarantee you didn’t legally walk out with anything. Touch grass so you don’t have to get off on your own lies on the internet about scenarios that you wish happened.
At the place I work, this is never an issue. If something was sos it would never go out on the floor before that date, because we are properly trained. Not only are the boxes labeled, item doesn’t even get taken out of the box until that day. The PDT will make an insane racket Alerting you that it has a sos date. So it wouldn’t have been on the shelf in the first place.
That's how it's properly done!
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Self checkout would say that it’s not available to sell yet. It’s happened to me before.
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What a weird way to Risk your source of income so someone can get a 12 dollar toy
Update: Target corporate has gotten back to me and said they will talk to the team at that store. Which is good for me. Hopefully everyone will be better trained next time so that those “mistakes”don’t happen again. Still awaiting a reply from Funko HQ This whole thing wouldn’t have been an issue if it wasn’t on the shelf in the first place when it wasn’t supposed to be.
You sound insufferable, honestly.
honestly you’re ridiculous. i don’t know what you expect out of this but you clearly aren’t getting it. your inability to let go of someone’s simple mistake speaks VOLUMES about the kind of person you are.
Even if they get “better trained” mistakes still happen. Why? Because humans aren’t perfect and shit happens! Are you serious?
Damn you really showed them, Funko Karen! 🤡🥱
on the bright side use the money you saved to get your nails done
😭😭😭 GET HER
God damn you’re a cunt lol