Hobby Lobby inconsistent pricing

[JERRYR708]

Went to HL today and searched the Rocket aisle to use a 40% off coupon. I noticed the 220 Swift had a couple of different packaging styles. The older packaging was 11.99 and the newer packaging was 5.99.
I also noticed a pack of E12-6 engines mismarked for only 11.49, so I bought the last pack.
Each time I go to HL, I seem to always find inconsistent pricing or discontinued clearance sales.

 

[cerving]

Back in the day, Radio Shack used to be the same way. It was probably for the same reason... the people that were tagging them had no clue what they were putting the tags on half the time. RS fixed it by going to peg tags instead of tagging the packages. I don't see HL doing that... too many items.

 

[afadeev]

Went to HL today and searched the Rocket aisle to use a 40% off coupon. I noticed the 220 Swift had a couple of different packaging styles. The older packaging was 11.99 and the newer packaging was 5.99.
[...]Each time I go to HL, I seem to always find inconsistent pricing or discontinued clearance sales.

You are a lucky guy to have a HL that has that a relatively rich rocketry section.
The HL that is closest to my house has one (1) of six or seven Estes kits, and a dozen overpriced starter kits with launch pads. And a few motors.
None of the above ever get discounted, or go on any of the in-store sales. Ever.

I usually make an effort to buy something from them, just to let them know that there is demand for rocketry gear.
Every time I buy one (1) of something, they restock it with +1 of the same thing.
I bought one Mercury kit last month, a few days later they replaced the empty hanger with exactly the same singular kit.
I bought the last C6-7 motor pack, and a week later they replaced it with exactly one (1) more C6-7 pack.


a

 

[Zeus-cat]

HL policy is to put price tags on items so that customers are assured of the price that the cashiers will ring up. With price tags you can get different prices as new stock comes in at a different price, or an item gets lost in the store for a period of time.

 

[Tobor]

For the Swift, it is more likely the $5.99 is just really old stock. maybe even stock transferred from another HL location.

 

[JERRYR708]

You are a lucky guy to have a HL that has that a relatively rich rocketry section.
The HL that is closest to my house has one (1) of six or seven Estes kits, and a dozen overpriced starter kits with launch pads. And a few motors.
None of the above ever get discounted, or go on any of the in-store sales. Ever.

I usually make an effort to buy something from them, just to let them know that there is demand for rocketry gear.
Every time I buy one (1) of something, they restock it with +1 of the same thing.
I bought one Mercury kit last month, a few days later they replaced the empty hanger with exactly the same singular kit.
I bought the last C6-7 motor pack, and a week later they replaced it with exactly one (1) more C6-7 pack.


a

Our HL gets lots of Estes supplies probably because of ROC dry lakebeds are up here in the high desert not to far from them. HL is about 12 miles west of me and ROC is about 20 miles east of me. I usually go to the first smaller dry lakebed on Hwy 18 which is only about 14 miles away from my house. The guy that owns the property drove up to my truck a few years back to ask what I was doing. I showed him my NAR membership/insurance card and explained the details to him. I also told him that I wasn't there to destroy his roads by doing donuts and off road on his land like others do. He said that he saw me driving slow with a clean truck and liked that I had the NAR card and not just some strange vehicle messing around to disrespect his land. He said that I could fly anytime I wanted and have been going there ever since.

 

[rockets]

One time I went to HL, and I noticed that they had a Estes Viking 12 pack for $11.99, (It's normally $49.99) It was a great deal, but I was very surprised that they would have it so marked down.



Thanks,

 

[JERRYR708]

One time I went to HL, and I noticed that they had a Estes Viking 12 pack for $11.99, (It's normally $49.99) It was a great deal, but I was very surprised that they would have it so marked down.



Thanks,

A dollar per rocket is hard to beat. Especially when they want 6.00 for a 220 swift with a 2 inch long body tube. You could use one of the Viking tubes to make engine clusters, stages and all sorts of stuff.

 

[dmgrime]

My local HL had the viking bulk pack for $24.99. With 40% coupon ended up at like $1.25 per rocket. I couldn't resist

Built 1 so far but tubes and cones are being leveraged in various ways!

 

[JERRYR708]

My local HL had the viking bulk pack for $24.99. With 40% coupon ended up at like $1.25 per rocket. I couldn't resist

Built 1 so far but tubes and cones are being leveraged in various ways!

I'm still waiting to find a Viking deal like that. I ended up having to buy a bunch of singles, one day/coupon at a time to build my 4 stage Viking which turned out beautiful. I used the original yellow and green colors, but I spray painted most of the areas for the decals. I got 2 stages per rocket, but only one set of decals/stickers. Had to improvise. The extra stages are not shown, but are extras because I lose them. Most rockets are only safe at 3 stages before they turn cruise missile on ya.

 

[rockets]

A dollar per rocket is hard to beat. Especially when they want 6.00 for a 220 swift with a 2 inch long body tube. You could use one of the Viking tubes to make engine clusters, stages and all sorts of stuff.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The "regular" price was $11.99. But, I also used a 40% off coupon, which made it $7.20 + tax, which made it only 60 cents per rocket





Thanks,

 

[JERRYR708]

Oh, and I forgot to mention. The "regular" price was $11.99. But, I also used a 40% off coupon, which made it $7.20 + tax, which made it only 60 cents per rocket





Thanks,

Now that's what I call a ramped up barge gangway of a deal

 

[DaveW6DPS]

I have bought a number of rockets on clearance to use with our 4H STEM group. Usually in summer you see the red tags in the rocket row.
I always buy motors there using the 40% coupon for a bulk pack. The kids get to fly almost twice as much.

 

[DaveW6DPS]

Our HL gets lots of Estes supplies probably because of ROC dry lakebeds are up here in the high desert not to far from them. HL is about 12 miles west of me and ROC is about 20 miles east of me...

I don't know if ROC has that much to do with it, but we will take the credit for stimulating the local economy! I usually go to the HL off Amargosa, and have found some great deals. The weekly 40% off coupon make for a lot of good deals!

 

[JERRYR708]

I don't know if ROC has that much to do with it, but we will take the credit for stimulating the local economy! I usually go to the HL off Amargosa, and have found some great deals. The weekly 40% off coupon make for a lot of good deals!

I went to B&B cycles on Hesperia rd. a couple years ago and found out that they had a whole aisle of model rockets. I managed to pick up many vintage Estes rockets including a vintage Mean Machine along with a lot of OOP Estes engines. The owner stocked up on rockets because people go to the dry lakebeds to fly them. Customers went there for the bicycles and had no knowledge of rockets in the back collecting dust. He had a clearance sale on them a couple years ago and I cleaned him out. If the store sign said Hobbies, I'm sure there would have been no OOP rockets/engines left for the taking. I'm fortunate to have both ROC and HL locally to me and I try to take full advantage of it. The HL 40% coupons have really helped make the hobby more affordable.
The Lucerne Market down the street from ROC had a full line of Estes Space X OOP rockets a while back and I was able to almost complete my collection.

 

[Kallahan11]

What you have to understand about Hobby Lobby is that they have thousands of items they have to individually price, they are going to make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are in our favor.