Has anyone tried Wal Mart?

[American Sandlo]

Crazy idea, I know -- I worked at a Wal Mart subsidiary some time ago and all their new shipments came in on Monday morning, and they simply couldn't open anything until the release date. The only catch was everything we released generally was released at like 3 PM instead of 10 AM with the rest of the world. Since today is technically the release date, it wouldn't hurt to call and find out?

 

[JakeCourtney]

I went there this morning before work, no luck.

 

[Linthead]

did you try the post office? If they do'nt have it today try sunday

 

[American Sandlo]

Jake -- you may want to call back to their Electronics department now and ask to speak with a manager. She will be able to open and sift through the media boxes and they probably do have it sitting there, in fact, I'm almost certain that if there is one place that physically already has the copies of the game it's Wal Mart. It technically is the release day, if you can coax her over the phone into pulling a copy for you, you've got yourself a game. I went down to my Wal Mart and asked, but the manager for the electronics section at my Wal Mart is a bitter old man, and he said I had to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Kardinal]

I did wonder about this. It seems that every CivFanatic buys at EB (store or mail) or through Amazon, and I've heard little about whether there are any at Best Buys and CompUSA's. These places are very hard to get anyone on the phone to prevent a wasted trip.

 

[barbslinger]

I am waiting on them too. They get the shipment at around 2pm. Fingers crossed.

 

[JakeCourtney]

Jake -- you may want to call back to their Electronics department now and ask to speak with a manager. She will be able to open and sift through the media boxes and they probably do have it sitting there, in fact, I'm almost certain that if there is one place that physically already has the copies of the game it's Wal Mart. It technically is the release day, if you can coax her over the phone into pulling a copy for you, you've got yourself a game. I went down to my Wal Mart and asked, but the manager for the electronics section at my Wal Mart is a bitter old man, and he said I had to wait until tomorrow.

So they had it? I keep reading it hasn't even been shipped anywhere yet.

 

[American Sandlo]

Jake, yes. In fact, if I was in high school again, I would have just opened the box while doing inventory Monday morning and bought the god damned game. Of course, that's not the case, and its impossible to get them to do that for you, but most everything places like Wal Mart gets for the week comes in one giant shipment on Mondays. It's in their warehouse. Hell, I'd raid it if I could. I don't think Civ 4 is big around here, actually though. I don't even have a pre-order. Guy from EB just told me to come grab a copy tomorrow

 

[Xemu]

The Walmart I checked in Plano, TX, did not have it as of 10:30 or so this morning.

 

[shikaeshi]

Just checked local Walmart.. nothing in stock ><

 

[jened]

Just checked local Walmart.. nothing in stock ><

you looked on the shelves or asked someone to check out back? it's probably sitting in boxes and not stocked yet.

 

[Misty Cross]

I did wonder about this. It seems that every CivFanatic buys at EB (store or mail) or through Amazon, and I've heard little about whether there are any at Best Buys and CompUSA's. These places are very hard to get anyone on the phone to prevent a wasted trip.

I have called both. When I called CompUSA and said I was looking for a product the guys said, "What product? Civilization 4?" I started laughing and only heard that they wouldn't have it today.

The Best Buy I called said that they have 25 copies on order but not in yet. He said that he has no way of telling when they will have it. He did say that it wouldn't be today though.

 

[JakeCourtney]

I just went in to Wal-mart to see if they had it on shelves. I will call an hour before I leave work.

 

[shikaeshi]

you looked on the shelves or asked someone to check out back? it's probably sitting in boxes and not stocked yet.

I have a family friend who works there. ^_^

 

[JakeCourtney]

I have a family friend who works there. ^_^

Call him to see if they have it in back, if they do I'll call mine.

 

[American Sandlo]

Hey guys -- I just talked to my cousin via e-Mail. He works in a distribution center in Virginia. He had to check his inventory list, but said they weren't even expecting it until 2 or 3 today. Now I'm quite confused even.

 

[JakeCourtney]

I hear tommorrow shipments, I hear shipments that get in at 2, this is confusing.

 

[ununcle]

I called Walmart at like 10:00 this morning and the guy said they stock new games at 1:00. Then I called at 1:00 and some girl said that Civ 4 isn't expected until late November I told her that according to all info on the net, Its release in "Europe" is the 1st week in Nov. ,,but, the release date in the US is today. She remained clueless.
I then called Circut City. He said they never release new games on a tuesday,, always on a friday. All 3 of the people I talked too never even heard of Civ. They all had too ask me twice what the name of the game was
Should customer service persons really be answering the phone in a "computer games" department of a major retailer if they've never even heard of one of the biggest game franchises in history? I mean,,, good lord,, It's like calling a movie place to find out when the doors open for the latest Installment of Star Wars and having the person respond with "Star Wars?" ,,

 

[TastySheriff]

I work at a walmart in minneapolis, mn; not in the electronics depty (sporting goods) but ive been around awhile so i know how it works.

First of all: The software is not actually managed by walmart, it is vendor-operated. Depending on the store this could make absolutely no difference or it could mean that new software wont make it to the shelves until a vendor representitive comes in and stocks the shelves (the former is the case at my store.) In either case the Electronics dept. manager does not handle the ordering of the games, and will get chewed out big time by the vendor if they open the shipment of a new game before the floor date (release date.)

In the case of big over-pimped games like Madden or GTA, they usually make a special case to get the game on the shelves at midnight of the release date, or the earliest possible time. However for games like civ4 theyre not likely to go to such trouble. In all likelihood the game will be put on the shelf at some point between 10AM to 4PM, cause stocking items is the job of the day-shift. If its not on the shelf before 7pm then your out of luck for that day because the rule (thats only followed about 75% of the time) is no stocking after 7pm. You might be able to convince an associate to go in back and look to see if they have any back there, but they will need a manager to unlock the electronics lockup in back where they keep things like games and computers. Alot of lockups are very badly organized and after waiting 5 minutes for a manager (give em a break, theyre busy) itll prolly take another 5 to check all the boxes, if they find it at all. Generally its useless to ask anyone at walmart to "see if they have something in back" because there are about 2-300 boxes in the backroom for each department that all look the same. Most of the time when i do get asked to look for something in back, by the time i find it (and if i find it, which is about 20% of the time) the customer has gotten fed up and left.

In the case of stores where the vendor has to stock it you might have to wait as long as next mon. But at least itll be early monday. Vendors typically come in at around 7AM.

Oh, and if your gonna call in and ask, all a regular electronics associate can do is look on the shelf and see if its there, ask for the Electronics Dept. Manager, hell prolly know whats going on.

 

[JakeCourtney]

I called Walmart at like 10:00 this morning and the guy said they stock new games at 10:00. Then I called at 1:00 and some girl said that Civ 4 isn"t expected till late November I told her that according to all info on the net, It's release in "Europe" is the 1st week in Nov. ,,but the release date in the US is today. She remained clueless.
I then called Circut City. He said they never release new games on a tuesday,, always on a friday. All 3 of the people I talked too never even heard of Civ. They all had too ask me twice what the name of the game was
Should customer service persons really be answering the phone in a "computer games" department of a major retailer if they've never even heard of one of the biggest game franchises in history? I mean,,, good lord,, It's like calling a movie place to find out when the doors open for the latest Installment of Star Wars and having the person respond with "Star Wars?" ,,

So you don't know for sure if they will be getting it today or not.