>>8959039There are a few factors for this, and it's NOT just walmart since this reminds me of a few local stores
>physical toys are losing ground to digital entertainment>only cheap blind bag crap will sell consistently and thus get more attention>toys in general are a low priority for retail department stores over other goods like seasonal clothing etc>constant theft+lack of staff attention to identify said stock means autostocker systems may not pick up on lack of stock>in case of things like transformers or hasbro figures in general they come in waves and retailers take guesses with stock, either they overstock on the first wave and then stuck with shit or under stock but are forced to wait for the next wave when their 2 of each cartons are out of stock>locksdowns+shipping issues as per the current situation>certain suburbs get better stock allocations based on sale history and suburbs>seasonal toys ie "what's in/movie" shit is a big influenceSure, I myself work in a supermarket but we sell hotwheels and matchbox and I know collectors are willing to come to us for the rare cars in cartons when they're willing to pay our inflated prices and I've talked to staff in toy stores and department stores about their situations and even pointed out stock issues (although some are just stupid, fancy putting an obviously broken one step transformer that's literally missing half of itself after pointing it out exactly, guess they have it worse than me)
I just buy my shit online, may not help the local economy but I just amazon and bite the bullet when a figure has paint blemishes, I'll be quitting when my holy grails get made anyway and that'll be on soon
