Archived People hanging out in toys waiting for the push

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I have seen this a lot recently. Specifically, they want Hot Wheels, most of the time. I can understand being a collector, but there are some people that show up everyday early in the morning. These are almost 30 year old men hanging out in the toy section of my Target all day, just hoping I put some Hot Wheels out. Apparently, my TL got harassed worse than I have by someone so she literally wants to take them off the Uboat if she sees them. I really didn't see this phenomenon until recently so my question is; any idea why this is a thing all of a sudden thing?
 
I have seen this a lot recently. Specifically, they want Hot Wheels, most of the time. I can understand being a collector, but there are some people that show up everyday early in the morning. These are almost 30 year old men hanging out in the toy section of my Target all day, just hoping I put some Hot Wheels out. Apparently, my TL got harassed worse than I have by someone so she literally wants to take them off the Uboat if she sees them. I really didn't see this phenomenon until recently so my question is; any idea why this is a thing all of a sudden thing?


I thought it was just my store. There's a man that comes in at least once a month asking about hot wheels. He may come more than that. I just see him when I have to pick a batch in toys. He even knows when our truck comes in. He'll even ask can they just open of the box with the hot wheels in it. Ridiculous!
 
We have a guy in a wheel chair all the time ask if he can look through a box and put the ones he doesn't want on the shelf. I did not know he was in a wheel chair on the phone. Omg it looked so bad but no one saw.
 
Out of all the guys that come in for those, we have one legit collector. Real nice guy. He's been coming in since before I started there, I guess. He knows exactly which ones he's looking for so he'll come look through them and get just one of whichever he doesn't have, never walks away with armfuls of anything. He never makes a mess of the stuff; always puts the cars back on the pegs if he takes any off. If we get any in on the truck, they let him look through the box.

For the rest of them, we've been told to tell them there aren't any more in the back even if there are.
 
I thought it was just my store. There's a man that comes in at least once a month asking about hot wheels. He may come more than that. I just see him when I have to pick a batch in toys. He even knows when our truck comes in. He'll even ask can they just open of the box with the hot wheels in it. Ridiculous!
This exactly is a problem. They want to open the boxes themselves. Most of them are OK with me saying something like "No, sorry. I need to put it on the shelf first" but I guess one guy went and complained to Guest Services because I didn't let him.
 
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We have those people, but they actually will push the box of Hot Wheels FOR YOU...

And yes, they do it accurately.
This is inherently not allowed at my store. I could get in huge trouble for letting a guest even look through a box.
 
Out of all the guys that come in for those, we have one legit collector. Real nice guy. He's been coming in since before I started there, I guess. He knows exactly which ones he's looking for so he'll come look through them and get just one of whichever he doesn't have, never walks away with armfuls of anything. He never makes a mess of the stuff; always puts the cars back on the pegs if he takes any off. If we get any in on the truck, they let him look through the box.

For the rest of them, we've been told to tell them there aren't any more in the back even if there are.
Edit: I missed the last part so never mind. Yeah they don't let anyone look through boxes for some reason, even if they are well known and there every day. It's been portrayed as a big nono so I have to refuse, even if it seems like no big deal to me.

Speaking of regulars, there is a guy at my store who comes in everyday and is very polite, but still a little weird (staring at you the whole time you are working). Today, I felt kind of bad because I didn't think we were pushing anymore from that section, so, when he asked, I told the regular this... turns out there was more. Some other guy (who looked like he had done more than his share of illegal substances) gobbled up some of the things I put out there, breathing down my neck and snatching them as soon as I put them up. I don't think it was what the regular would be looking for, but if anyone deserves them, he does for that dedication.
 
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I remember when we had the Hot Wheels event around father’s day last year and everyone got a free hot wheels. There were.. a few collectors.. and they all politely asked to look through the dump bin. I told them as long as they put them back and didn’t disturb anyone else trying to look on the table they could. They were all super respectful, just a little odd. Most left with a car, only two I think didn’t take any. Which was cool, if you don’t see something you want don’t take one for the sake of just taking one, right? Anyway, about twenty minutes left and I can pack up, I have maybe 40 cars left to hand out, and I’m literally giving them away to anyone that I can make contact with. This kid and his mom come up and she finds a car pretty quick that took her back to her youth and a story she isn’t willing to tell her son. I silently thanked her. Then her son picked one up and almost started shaking. His eyes got huge and he got a little pale and asked if he could have *this car* which he was holding up and somehow his go go gadget arm kept sliding it closer to my face. I smiled and said of course, it was out in the table and all his. Apparently the little bar that holds the wheels up in the wheel wells wasn’t attached under the car. Manufacturer defects are rare enough that they are quite the collectible. He was happy, mom was happy, I had cars off the table so I was happy. And to think I was just really hoping nobody would take the little pink toilet truck but all four were taken so I couldn’t get one 😩
 
Weird, we have guys who also do that. In their defense, we used to have all the product out by 8 AM so it was easy for them to see new stuff, now they never know when the new stuff will go out so they come later in the day.
 
Mattel delivers Hot wheels brand collectibles inside the regular mass production shipments into retail stores, and alot of older men have been collecting them since childhood. Hot wheels was introduced in 1968 so you've got to imagine they had them as kids. I wonder how she was "harrassed".

My ex gf dad builds racecars and he had an entire wall of his shop dedicated to unopened hot wheels, I thought it was awesome to look at. Hot wheels are the shit
 
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Yeah they don't let anyone look through boxes for some reason, even if they are well known and there every day. It's been portrayed as a big nono so I have to refuse, even if it seems like no big deal to me.

We were also told absolutely not to do it, but our leads let it slide for just him. The guy's been a customer for a long time. He's always respected the rules and has never asked to open a box himself, he looks through them with a TM there. He stops and chats with all the workers he knows... though he commented to me last time I saw him how that number has dwindled... lol. And he doesn't come in only for Hot Wheels, he'll do regular shopping too.
 
Yes all the time when I do my floor walks opening shift. What I’ve heard is our unloading team bends the corners of the package, so that the collectors or “resellers” can’t use them or sell them.
 
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The collectors I've spoken to have mostly been nice and not pushy (except one guy, who apparently has one of those sites that gives arrivals & quantities and will be a dick to TMs about bringing boxes out), but the ones I want to take a sledgehammer to are the ones that don't talk to us, they just pull all of the Hot Wheels off the pegs and leave them scattered on the shelves. They're too cowardly to ever talk to us, but leave a ton of work for TMs who have to deal with their messes.
 
It’s not a new thing. We have had hot wheel collectors for ages. Some collect them for themselves and some most likely resell them but won’t tell you that. When we used to have the floor stocked by 8am we had the same 4 guys every morning come in and search. When truck time moved to 6 they would still come in to wait. Our STL at the time said if we have a box on the truck freight we could cut it open and the guys would look through it and even stock the floor for us. If the floor was already filled to capacity we would NOT open a new box or go to get more from the back and the guys knew that. They were super nice and caused no issues. With the new process I never see them because we have no set time when we finally push toys
 
So today, that guy that always comes around recognized the box for hot wheels so I was glad to push it for him, but I had an LOD standing right there watching me the whole time, telling me "don't let him look through the box" (I know) and to not over stock it if it didn't fit (I know). He grabbed a few things as soon as I put them out. He said thank you and left for a few minutes... then he came back and wanted to take a picture of the box, I said OK, why not?. He then grabbed the box and started looking through it like I missed something, then he placed the cars he got on the box and took a picture of it, acting like he was having an orgasm throughout the whole thing. This made me extremely uncomfortable.
Another guy came by later and grabbed the same box to look through it, my TL happened to be right there to see him. She came up and told him to not grab the boxes just let us push them. He played dumb saying he didn't grab the box and then got kind of hostile. It was very messed up. I have a soft spot of that one guy and I don't like being even slightly confrontational with guests, but I could have got in a lot of trouble if someone saw I let him take a picture with that box like that. In the future, I'm going to have to tell him (in the nicest words I can) fuck off.

I am definitely going to cut up these boxes instantly from now on. I don't know why I didn't in this case.
 
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Make rules with collectors.
That's a good idea for the ones I see often... but sometimes there are people that I have never seen before like the guy who just grabbed the empty box on the Uboat. And I guess the main guy probably is a collector and not a re-seller due to how ecstatic he was. But why take a picture of the box?
 
Had a Hot Wheels collector and his wife block off the entire aisle a couple of weeks ago. They each had a cart and used them to block each end of the aisle. They wouldn't let any guests or TMs through. Toys DBO had to call the SD. Kind of funny to listen to the collector rant about how much money the store would be losing as he was being walked out from buying his 99 cent toys. There wasn't a single package left on the shelves either. They were all on the ground because that's where the guy was sorting through them.

Having said that, most of our collectors are alright. It's sad that their life is going to Target every morning to look for cheap toys, but they're nice enough. The one guy though. Holy shit.
 
Had a Hot Wheels collector and his wife block off the entire aisle a couple of weeks ago. They each had a cart and used them to block each end of the aisle. They wouldn't let any guests or TMs through. Toys DBO had to call the SD. Kind of funny to listen to the collector rant about how much money the store would be losing as he was being walked out from buying his 99 cent toys. There wasn't a single package left on the shelves either. They were all on the ground because that's where the guy was sorting through them.

Having said that, most of our collectors are alright. It's sad that their life is going to Target every morning to look for cheap toys, but they're nice enough. The one guy though. Holy shit.
This may be a strange thing to even think about, and yes, most how them are cool (if a little weird), but how do they support themselves? Do they not have jobs themselves? I see a 30 year old person hanging out at target everyday at 8am and I can't help but wonder. Maybe they just work from home or later in the day. I'd like to get in on what ever they do to have that much free time constantly.
 
This may be a strange thing to even think about, and yes, most how them are cool (if a little weird), but how do they support themselves? Do they not have jobs themselves? I see a 30 year old person hanging out at target everyday at 8am and I can't help but wonder. Maybe they just work from home or later in the day. I'd like to get in on what ever they do to have that much free time constantly.
Reselling is profitable.
Buy a Hot Wheel for $0.99 , sell it for $200. You don't have to work that hard to do it.
 
Had a Hot Wheels collector and his wife block off the entire aisle a couple of weeks ago. They each had a cart and used them to block each end of the aisle. They wouldn't let any guests or TMs through. Toys DBO had to call the SD. Kind of funny to listen to the collector rant about how much money the store would be losing as he was being walked out from buying his 99 cent toys. There wasn't a single package left on the shelves either. They were all on the ground because that's where the guy was sorting through them.

Having said that, most of our collectors are alright. It's sad that their life is going to Target every morning to look for cheap toys, but they're nice enough. The one guy though. Holy shit.
I would taken the unopened case of hot wheels, here is the rules. You are not blocking my aisle. Please fix the pegs so I can, put up the whole case. You can do that for me. If you want the empty box, take it. Check back with me during the week, if we have more cars, I will get them for you. I try to hold nothing back. We have about 15 collectors come by, at least twice a week.
 
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