>>10750439I used to love toy hunting in stores. When ToysRUs was around, there was a road that I'd drive down from work where I'd hit:
>TRU>the local mall (that had a Hot Topic, Gamestop, and local toy store)>Barnes & Nobles>Gamestop>Walmart>another WalmartThen I'd be back home. It was pretty fun overall. However, over time I noticed the toy lines I was interested in shifted from western to eastern toys. I started ordering more things online due to availability and what was only available online. Eventually I would realize it was a waste of time to go to these stores because they'd not have what I was looking for- and if they did it'd be cheaper to buy them online usually. And I'd save myself time, which I started realizing was more valuable as I started working more and more hours.
However, I still do occasionally go around looking at toys in stores, but its more so out of curiousity than actively searching for something. Even the western toy lines I collect, like the Mario Kart Hot Wheels or Mario Jakks Pacific toys, aren't restocked often enough for me to go looking for them. I'm better off just waiting for an online retailer to stock them than visit a store 5 times over 3 months hoping they'll have them. I'd love to see stores actually restock things outside of the holidays. TRU, as much as I did like their selection at times, was really bad about not restocking toys. You'd go maybe half a year before they restocked certain things. They'd rarely put things on clearance towards the end of their life to make room for new stuff. Walmart does this too; now I rarely go shopping there. Target is starting to get complacent with restocking things next. At some point I'll just not be going to stores at all.
