Those are logistics issues... I don't think you're understanding what I'm saying. Case assortments is what I'm discussing when I say adjusting cases. Case dimensions? That's a logistical issue and WM's entitled to say, "Change this because you're costing us..." to the manufacturer. For instance, the way steel was bundled at my father's old job had to change for a new account, as the current method didn't meet their needs, and the account's size was enough to warrant the change at the manufacturer. That happens a lot.norman888 wrote:WM tells us how big a carton they want for the shelf, also how many cartons per case and also pallet height!! WM wants to avoid the cost of having to open 4 different cases to get an assortment on the shelves so they make the manufacturer do it. I don't know if this happened to 21C but I have my suspicions.Jesse James wrote: ...but they dont' tell the manufacturer NOT to adjust cases... That's simply not true.
THey've told toy manufacturers to cut down on card size, for instance, which is being seen across a number of lines. STar Wars is coming down in size per card this year (Marvel Legends early in the year already, etc.). That means, for collectors, less pack-ins that are big/bulky like cantina tables or something, so it trickles down negatively. Hasbro's adjusting card sizes because retailers (WM and others) have demanded smaller sizes to adjust how much space they have to sell more stuff. More junk in the same ammount of space, basically, or the same ammount of junk in less space. Those are the kinds of demands WM generally makes to manufacturers... Same as adjusting pallet sizes, case sizes, etc. When they're working one-on-one with a manufacturer over an exclusive, creative ideas and requests are sometimes made, but that's individual product.
The assortments inside cases though, are the manufacturer's responsibility to adjust so retail doesn't become stagnant. To use SW again as an example, WM didn't tell Hasbro not to adjust the cases so less Yarna figures got out, that was Hasbro's job, and as such there's a glut of them at retail right now... To WM, that's just another SW figure on the pegs, and they don't know why... That's the crapshoot manufacturers play, and it blows up in their face when they don't adjust. 21st was a company that, to the best of my knowledge, never adjusted... ever. I don't recall ever hearing of a change in assortment to limit the figures that weren't moving and get more of the ones that were out to retail, or to move out one plane type that sat stale over another.
