[prez87]

Earlier this afternoon, I was at Walmart in South Surrey, BC and decided to ask one of the tech sales reps about their Playbook sales. He didn't give me any solid numbers - he seemed to be new at his job.

To satisfy my curiosity, I asked him to bring out a Playbook box (unopened). I led him to believe that I was going to buy one, as I tucked mine into the back pocket of my jeans.

The reason why I asked him to bring out the box is because I wanted to see what date the Playbook had been released. Each Walmart Playbook gets a bar code and on the bar code it shows the date of receipt.

One of the things that the tech sales rep said was that they had 6 on hand. As he went to go get a new box, I played NFS.

He brought it out and I took a look at the bar code....

Seems that Walmart is still selling Playbooks received on April 21, 2011. Assuming that Walmart goes by FIFO (First In First Out), they are still working through their original shipment.

Now, I do not think that this a fair representation of how Playbook sales are actually going, as Walmart is probably NOT the place that most people would go to buy their tech hardware. Thought I would send out my observation and I would like to hear what others have found.

[mr_biscuit]

Isn't FIFO an accounting concept? I think it applies to data more so than physical inventory. I have a hard time believing that some kid at Walmart is going to bother to check that the unit he's giving a customer is the oldest of the inventory. I don't think they're that sophisticated.

I sold electronics for OfficeMax when I was younger, and we had electronics that were easily 6 months or older in our inventory cage.

Dunno, could be wrong...

[greatwiseone]

What I think is happening is that there hasn't been a lot of new shipments of PB's in North America...the units RIM ordered from the OEM manufacturer are being deployed globally.

If you check out NCIX's inventory, they only have 4 32gb's left in their entire system. If you searched BestBuy's website, the 16gb's are out of stock in Metrotown and Cambie BestBuy.

[togardergrosse]

I didn't know that WalMart already sell PB since April.

[bradu1]

Trust me, Wally World is not rotating electronics.

[prez87]

That is what I was thinking. I have not discussed this with any other retailers, and likely won't.

I'm sure that Future Shop/Best Buy, even with their terrible PB support, are selling a wack of the devices.

[JDukeOSBB]

Wally World didn't sell the Playbook at launch anyway did they?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[lawguyman]

From what I have seen, some places were out of stock at times and got more. But, I would not rule out that North America is still working through the original claimed 500,000. In fact, that has been my suspicion all along.

[Kerms]

Isn't FIFO an accounting concept? I think it applies to data more so than physical inventory. I have a hard time believing that some kid at Walmart is going to bother to check that the unit he's giving a customer is the oldest of the inventory. I don't think they're that sophisticated.

I sold electronics for OfficeMax when I was younger, and we had electronics that were easily 6 months or older in our inventory cage.

Dunno, could be wrong...

Just wanted to say FIFO deals with physical inventory. In a warehouse with WMS setup for FIFO the system will tell you to put a product in a certain prime location once it's recieved into inventory.

Let's say a shipment was just recieved in receiving and the WMS told the Replen guys to store it in Prime Location B.

A customer then places an order for that product that just arrived but you have the same product in Prime Location A that you received a month ago.

If FIFO is set up in your WMS. The system will tell the picker to pick from Prime A to fill your order.

As for a retail. When I worked PT at Office Depot we put the new items behind the items already of the shelf or in lock up, so techincally you should be getting the older stuff pulled first.

No clue how wally world do their stuff. I was mainly commenting on FIFO

[backslaps]

wow is Wally World not a fictional amusement park in one of nat'l Lampoons vacation series, with the Grizwalds???? Also funny as ****. I remember Sparky!!!

[01itr]

Wal-Mart does use FIFO, but the employees who work there do not. I worked there for 3 years, recently quit, and the Electronics associates do NOT rotate. Their inventory is in a lock-up, and is jam packed with items. As stuff comes in it is just tossed on the shelf wherever there is room (usually pushing other things back), and when stuff needs to go out it is usually whatever is easiest to grab. I wouldn't look too much into the date when the Playbook arrived at the Wal-Mart, as I doubt that would give you a decent representation of how many shipments they had received.

And to answer a previous question, yes Wal-Mart got the PB on release date, that is where/when I bought mine.

[01itr]

wow is Wally World not a fictional amusement park in one of nat'l Lampoons vacation series, with the Grizwalds???? Also funny as ****. I remember Sparky!!!

Haha I thought the same, but there is actually a legit amusement park here in Ont called Wally World, I've been there when I was a kid. It's like a water park, was tons of fun when I went!

[bb.pl]

Earlier this afternoon, I was at Walmart in South Surrey, BC and decided to ask one of the tech sales reps about their Playbook sales. He didn't give me any solid numbers - he seemed to be new at his job.

To satisfy my curiosity, I asked him to bring out a Playbook box (unopened). I led him to believe that I was going to buy one, as I tucked mine into the back pocket of my jeans.

The reason why I asked him to bring out the box is because I wanted to see what date the Playbook had been released. Each Walmart Playbook gets a bar code and on the bar code it shows the date of receipt.

One of the things that the tech sales rep said was that they had 6 on hand. As he went to go get a new box, I played NFS.

He brought it out and I took a look at the bar code....

Seems that Walmart is still selling Playbooks received on April 21, 2011. Assuming that Walmart goes by FIFO (First In First Out), they are still working through their original shipment.

Now, I do not think that this a fair representation of how Playbook sales are actually going, as Walmart is probably NOT the place that most people would go to buy their tech hardware. Thought I would send out my observation and I would like to hear what others have found.

You can buy a new one for $250. Unless you are the some one who has never heard of ebay or just want to throw money away I see no reason why anyone would pay double the price at full retail at walmart or other stores.

The best buy I went to had an almost non working demo unit and speaking to the rep he mentioned he can't recall any one else asking or having sold any unit in the last few weeks post the hp and galaxy tab release.

So it is likely if you go back in a month you would see the same set of units at walmart collecting dust unless Rim drops the price massively or bundle them for a cheaper price with the new os 7 phones.

[blackjack93117]

Earlier this afternoon, I was at Walmart in South Surrey, BC and decided to ask one of the tech sales reps about their Playbook sales. He didn't give me any solid numbers - he seemed to be new at his job.

To satisfy my curiosity, I asked him to bring out a Playbook box (unopened). I led him to believe that I was going to buy one, as I tucked mine into the back pocket of my jeans.

The reason why I asked him to bring out the box is because I wanted to see what date the Playbook had been released. Each Walmart Playbook gets a bar code and on the bar code it shows the date of receipt.

One of the things that the tech sales rep said was that they had 6 on hand. As he went to go get a new box, I played NFS.

He brought it out and I took a look at the bar code....

Seems that Walmart is still selling Playbooks received on April 21, 2011. Assuming that Walmart goes by FIFO (First In First Out), they are still working through their original shipment.

Now, I do not think that this a fair representation of how Playbook sales are actually going, as Walmart is probably NOT the place that most people would go to buy their tech hardware. Thought I would send out my observation and I would like to hear what others have found.

Bizarre. I can't believe you went to all this trouble and put the sales guy through it for what? Afraid someone might get a stale one? This is the least scientific measure of Playbook sales I can imagine -- a single sample at walmart? It's not like it's milk that needs to be rotated. This proves nothing, maybe they sold a stack of a hundred newer ones that were piled on top and this was the last one - more likely its first in last out.

How did you explain your decision not to buy it after making the guy go to all this trouble?

[Sonic77]

Shuold a price drop happen do retailers with stock get credit for the difference?

[ScoobsDM]

Honestly, I don't think wal-Mart is the best place to try to prove PB sales. I'd say in the last month to month and half the number of PB commercials I've seen on TV have doubled. With this being said, at the end of the commercial EACH and everyone promotes STAPLES as the retailer. Sometimes it will say "also available at other electronic retailers." but still has STAPLES name at the bottom of the commercial. 2 weeks ago, I went to the staples near me to get some office supplies and when i passed their tablets area, i checked on their demo PB. This demo model was fully updated, had demo mode on, and was running about 10 different sites to show what the PB can really do. I checked the IPAD and the GALAXY as well, IPAD was update but just sitting idle so was the GALAXY. Later that day i made a trip to the best buy near me, for a few other things, and checked their PB as well. Best buy's demo was the total OPPOSITE! Not updated, had the cable unplugged and a dead battery. I plugged in it and went about my business hoping it would charge enough while i was shopping to update it. About 45 minutes later i returned to the PB only to find it was unplugged again! The sales guy their saw my plug it in and told me that the power strip they use trips when all the tablets are plugged into it, so they only plug the IPAD, XOOM, and GALAXY in. I asked about sales of the PB and why they dont update it, or turn the DEMO mode on. He said that his stupidvisor is an IPAD junkie and they are to push sales of the IPAD above all others and they other 2 are there to promote android sales. He said as far as knew no PB have been moved from that location in over a 2 months. it's locations like that and managers like the one at the Best Buy that are killing Blackberrys. this is just my thought and what i noticed in a day at 2 locations across the street the each other.