The item you wish to put on hold is on sale, and we only have 4 in stock.
By Sissygrl
@Sissygrl (10912)
Canada
September 25, 2009 6:06am CST
WHY do stores have so little stock on sale items ?? There is a play kitchen set i want to get my kids for xmas, I put money aside for it for a few months now, and have been waiting to see it on sale to buy it.. well.. its regular 199$ on sale for 149$ at toys r us.. which if i drove wouldnt be a problem, but i dont.. and there is only one store in the entire province, and its a 30 min drive from us. My mom says she can take me sunday, so i call the store to check if they can hold one for me, NOPE, ok i understand that, its a sale item.. first come first serve.. but they only have 4!! in stock ?? that's not much of a sale!! its more like.. we have left overs and we need to get rid of them? do they honestly thing that only 4 people at most will want to purchase this item ? I am worried we wont be able to get it when i finally get the drive.. I dont really want to pay the extra 50$ if it doesn't go on sale somewhere else or again!! IT IRKS ME!!
The department store here called Zellers (i think target now owns it) is INFAMOUS for not having the items in the flyer in the store at all, and if they DO have them, half of the time its not programed into the scanners!!
Does any of this sound familiar ? lol please share!
4 people like this
14 responses
@calai618 (1773)
• Philippines
25 Sep 09
Yes sometimes they are just leftovers so they are just getting rid of them. Maybe the items are not that saleable so they are just selling them at a discounted price and they will not buy any stock again. Also, stores sometimes want to give the impression that the item is limited so people would rush and buy them already. They would tell people that only a few is left so they would feel that many people have bought and liked the item so we should not wait or we'll not have anything for ourselves. Another thing is that the stores publish that an item is priced for at for example 199 and they are selling it for 150 but in reality the true price of the item is 100 so if they sell it at 150, they would still gain so much.. that's business and we consumers can't really do anything about it i guess :(
3 people like this
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
25 Sep 09
well i called the store to ask them how many they had in stock, it wasn't published in the flyer.. It sounded like a teenaged boy on the phone, so i doubt that he'd care enough to lie to me about how many they had.. but i know they do that at walmart now OFTEN!! LIMITED OFFER.. or staples i think it is says 5 PER STORE.. maybe that's future shop.. either way i dont usually have enough money or a way to get to those stores for those sales so i dont bother to look at their flyers often.
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
25 Sep 09
Sissygrl, do you really think more than one person is going to want this item. Think about it $149 for a childs toy, that's just plain mad, I thought your children were tiny little things. A good book, an orange and a nice piece of wrapping paper sounds more like the ticket to me. Do Americans really spend that sort of money on a toy? Seriously? Just think what they'll be expecting when they are ten.
2 people like this
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
27 Sep 09
Heya thea honey,
first off my friend.. 
I'm not american!! 
so now that i've got my angries out, I think some people would buy it for their kids yea.. like me.. its a kitchen set.. one of those big things.. comes with a microwave, disheswasher, fridge, pots and pans, and food, and a clock to teach time.. let me see if i can find you a link.
Here we are.. http://www.toysrus.co.uk/medias/sys_master/8609978578326880.jpg
my kids are little.. 18 monthsish and 3. but they have played with this toy at a friends house and they really like it.. And they are growing too old for the toys we have, especially the 3 year old. They need some pretend toys and i dont buy much through the year for toys, i wait till birthdays and xmas so they dont always expect stuff.. *shrug* I guess i'm a sucker :P 
I'm not american!!
so now that i've got my angries out, I think some people would buy it for their kids yea.. like me.. its a kitchen set.. one of those big things.. comes with a microwave, disheswasher, fridge, pots and pans, and food, and a clock to teach time.. let me see if i can find you a link.
Here we are.. http://www.toysrus.co.uk/medias/sys_master/8609978578326880.jpg
my kids are little.. 18 monthsish and 3. but they have played with this toy at a friends house and they really like it.. And they are growing too old for the toys we have, especially the 3 year old. They need some pretend toys and i dont buy much through the year for toys, i wait till birthdays and xmas so they dont always expect stuff.. *shrug* I guess i'm a sucker :P @thea09 (18305)
• Greece
27 Sep 09
There I go foot in mouth again, apols. Well your link said page not available but I think I know the kind of thing you mean, and of course I have not the slightest clue what a Canadian dollar translates to in Euros so it might not be that expensive. The most expensive thing I've had to shell out for present wise was a bicycle but I made it joint birthday and christmas, well he does have both those plus his nameday all in the same month.
I think the thing you are talking about is what they used to put in the corner of some of those English 'family restaurants' for children to play with, we don't have that kind of thing overhere as it's obvious the whole family is going to eat out at the same time.
There is one thing though that I didn't like in the UK and that was the way every 4 year old expected a birthday party and the parents then bankrupted themselves to see which of their children could bring along the most expensive toy for their child to give, which really seemed to miss the point. Materialism like that really hasn't caught on like that over here.
1 person likes this
@bdugas (3578)
• United States
26 Sep 09
I find that most of the sale items are leftovers and they want to get rid of them, that the reason for so little stock. Many times you go to the store with the sale paper and they don't have what is in the flyer, sometimes at the bottom of the flyer it will say not available in all stores. I can drive and if I see something that I really want I try to get right over there. Christmas is not that far away and I look for these kinds of sales now, with items so high priced and living on a fixed income you have to shop that way if you have many to buy for. What irks me is when they put a 75% off on a shelf and you get to the register and they tell you that isn't what is on sale. Now I know people pick things up and lay them down on other shelves, but like man told me in Walgreens, toys not included, but the shelf was loaded with toys. Well either take down the sign or move the toys. I hope ou still find it there when you get there, but don't look good as they only have 4 maybe you can wait for another sale before Christmas.
2 people like this
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
27 Sep 09
There is a store here that's infamous for that. zellers, i used to work there.. that or they will put all the pillows 25% off in the flyer, and then you get to the store and ONLY the green print is on sale or something DUMB! and the prices are never in the computer right.. so the items on sale NEVER come up proper! GRR. hhe people used to get so irrate.
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
25 Sep 09
If they had 50 of them and only 10 people wanted them what are they supposed to do with the rest of them? I am not trying to be mean but it's the truth.....they don't know how many they will sell and probably don't have alot of space to have inventory.....then it might just sit for a while taking up space for other more important or movable items.....I do hope you get on for the sale price though! The kids will love it!
2 people like this
@gcorp09 (940)
• Singapore
26 Sep 09
Well, I'm not surprised by this. As per mentioned by others, sales is usually a gimmick by stores to get rid of leftovers which are not moving/moving slowly, or a way to attract people to come to shop at their store. As you mentioned, it's a $50 discount for that item, which is a very good deal. Thus, these 4 pcs may be just used to attract people to come down to buy, and hopefully they will buy something else which is not on sale as well. For those who didn't get them, then they may then turn to buy other items which may or may not be on sale.
Well, I guess you either have to go down soonest, and hopefully you will still get the last few pcs on sale, wait for another sale to come by before xmas, or buy the item at the normal price...
2 people like this
@forcedbyaries (43)
• Philippines
26 Sep 09
well, sale items usually have few stocks coz this are the left over items that they can't sell...they just lower the price so that they could still hopefully earn money instead of having that item as a loss...
it sucks really...specially when clothes are on sale and they don't have your size = p
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
25 Sep 09
I'm a Canadian, so i know all about Zellers, and their crap!!! I also found the sure fire way to avoid the sale issue.
I shop on line, for one, so I don't have to drive. Have it delivered to me. I can't drive anyway, so why should I have to? Hubby can't drive either. We're both almost blind.
Everythin I do on line with the exception of checking my Facebook and reading my e-mail, nets me some kind of income, be it points, or cash. Also, every credit card i have nets me some kind of points, and the points are redeemable for things I use anyway, and things for which i'm saving.
I'm on Airmiles, for example, and Hubby and I are saving up for a vacation. We are able to somewhat offset a lot of the cost of cetain things with the vacation fund, since Airmiles is going to pay for the hotel anyway.
So if it's on sale, GREAT, but if it's not on sale, we're not up $hit creek without a paddle.
I try to stretch my points and miles as far as I can, but because of the way I have my income and outgo set up, I'm EARNING SOMETHING with every dollar I spend, and almost every keystroke I make.
2 people like this
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
25 Sep 09
you sound very organized and frugal! I do collect some points, but a lot of the times the kids have been in my wallet and strewn the cards all over! its likely i dont have the cards with me all the time..
Online shopping would be SO perfect for me, but alas.. i have no credit cards, and for another few years i have bad credit and no hopes in h3ll of getting a credit card till that debt falls off my credit!!
The grocery store is where i get my biggest reward. I shop super store, (loblaws, zhers that chain) and have a pc finacial bank account, so every dollar i spend in the store i get points and after so many points i got free groceries. well in the year i been buying groceries constantly every sat i spend at least 100$, i have about 40$ worth of free groceries on my account.. That's not a lot for a year, but heck its better then a kick in the butt with a frozen mukluk.
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
25 Sep 09
They do this so that the ones that miss out on the sale will buy something else. They draw people in that normally would not come in but are looking for a bargain--so when the sale item is gone they will browse the store and probably buy something.
In my country this is called unethical and dishonest. Toys R Us has a reputation for doing such things and they've had to close a LOT of stores here!
Is your husband good at carpentry, could he make a little set of drawers and counterspace or whatever the kitchen has? Then you could buy the utensils and stuff and have the kitchen for about $30 in materials! Maybe you could pay a friend who is good at woodworking to do it, too, or trade services.
2 people like this
@Sissygrl (10912)
• Canada
27 Sep 09
Thanks for the suggestion dragon, but i think i am better with tools then my husband and believe me you, that's not saying much LOL. I actually ended up getting one, i made a few calls and my aunt agree'd to go after she got off work if i made sure they still had one in stock, AND THEY DID. i'm so happy! you can really do anything if you put your mind to it, oh.. and you dont mind nagging people for rides!
@vicky30 (4766)
• India
31 Dec 09
When some things are put for sale there are catches and conditions in it
.Either the product will not be good or the product has not been sold for a long period of time so they cut off their profit and give the item at a discounted rate.If you were interested in the product they should have kept one for you in the store as they know they are going to get some profit out of it.Even i too get excited when things are at a good rate but if i don't get it i feel sad.
.Either the product will not be good or the product has not been sold for a long period of time so they cut off their profit and give the item at a discounted rate.If you were interested in the product they should have kept one for you in the store as they know they are going to get some profit out of it.Even i too get excited when things are at a good rate but if i don't get it i feel sad.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
30 Sep 09
I think I've only ran into the latter part of that once or twice before... Where it's not inputed into the scanners... as for the whole only four in stock, they should say "limited supplies" instead of making you think there's so many! I hope you get / got that for your kids.
1 person likes this
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
2 Oct 09
I am so glad you were able to get it! Such stress and a few months away from Christmas! Hope that this doesn't happen again anytime soon!
@prinzcy (32305)
• Malaysia
28 Sep 09
It's like when I go to Tesco, grab a flier and spot something nice and found out it's no longer available. It's always like that. I know I am not the only shopper but if they want to promote that stuff, place more of it. How many people they assume will buy that thing? If 2000 people think like me, wouldn't anyone rush to the store to buy it? I don't even live near Tesco. How am I suppose to compete?
1 person likes this
@happy6162 (3001)
• United States
26 Sep 09
When a store puts an items on sale it is because they only have a few left and they want to sell them so they can order a newer model. They never put it aside for anyone because they can not be sure if you will come in.
1 person likes this
@sunmoonandstars (46)
• United States
25 Sep 09
It's the law of supply and demand. If it is in demand, you stock a lot of it and charge full price - because people are willing to pay the price for it.
However, the one consumers are not willing to pay that price, you need to put it on sale and get rid of it while you still can. Otherwise, you will lose money on it because the demand is gone. There is no reason to buy bulk inventory on something you aren't sure is going to sell. And if you are sure it's going to sale you want to make the most profit possible form it.
2 people like this
@hexeduser22 (7419)
• Philippines
25 Sep 09
I had once work on a prestigious mall here in our country,I can attest that the things usually on sale are literally left overs or the one's that are unsaleable during the period they were first launched. When an item is put on sale it means that there is a 100% chance they will never release the same item again unless requested by popular demand. If you really want it go early shopping or call the toy manufacturer to produce another set:)
