TRU VS. NECA Intel?

[Confessional]

In anticipation of the coming Gorilla 2-Pack, I was recently chatting it up with a friendly TRU employee about Neca's new Ape products. I asked about inventory and he stated that no employees of the store order nor stock Neca products (declaring "Oh we don't even touch that stuff!), and went on to say a representative of Neca comes in and decides what, and how many of each product, will be made available to said store in addition to determining the display features.

With that, anyone have an informed perspective on this business practice/relationship between the two companies? Is this common practice in today's [few] retail toy outlets otherwise? Truth or delusion?

[Joshua the Atomic Robot]

I work in retail (not at a toy store, unfortunately) and we have several vendors who do that. Typically those vendors will give us full credit for whatever doesn't sell, so there is less financial risk for us, and we let them decide what to bring in and how to stock it. For items that we do not get credit for (things we would mark down to 50% clearance or lower if they didn't sell) we typically order and stock those things ourselves.

[apes3978]

As far as the NECA APES go, there were none at the local TRU when I checked there tonight... "But" a guy from a different message board posted that that's where he bought his NECA "Dawn/POTA" figures of Caesar and Koba, so maybe it varies by store (or state?)

In any case, when I asked if they had them, the guy I asked and the other worker who he asked both seemed to have no idea of what I was talking about...

[Confessional]

<Oh yeah!> …and talk of a TV-Gorilla multi-pack.

https://twitter.com/NECA_TOYS/status/511555619061764096/photo/1

[apes3978]

Agreed, this Gorilla 2-pack looks great... I do hope they include bandoliers with them though...

<Oh yeah!> …and talk of a TV-Gorilla multi-pack.

https://twitter.com/NECA_TOYS/status...764096/photo/1

[Toy Timelord]

Neca is looking to gain a controlling interest in Hastings. It would be interesting to see how they handle competitors, should that occur.

[Spyweb007]

Toys R Us employees don't order any store merchandise, inventory needs are computerized and the warehouse sends them what they need based on how many pieces sell. as far as stocking the shelves, they used to have an overnight crew that did all the stocking, I'm not sure that employees working during store hours would know who stocked what in that case. Companies like Mattel and Hasbro send there own stocking people to the stores to make sure there merch is out, but the store stocking crew will still put out that merchandise as well when it comes in.