WalMart Estes Rockets

[johnnwwa]

Went to Wal Mart last night they had a new batch of Estes rockets. Bullpup, Fat Boy Sky Writer and and a 2pack didn't get the name on those list price $8.88 and the A-B-C motors at $4.97 I would not buy the #2 Sky Writer at this price, listed at higher than list. All other were well below list. so I picked up a 2nd Fat Boy for a conversition to a D motor. Thought I'd pass this on.

BAR
John

 

[sandman]

Well, I was keeping this a secret.

I went to my local Meijer and I found a few Fat Boys some Baby Bertha's the Bullpup 12D and a few others.

Took a Fat Boy to the cashier and she rang me up...

I looked at her like she had lobsters coming out of her ears!

The "clearence" price was.....$0.80 each...yes I said eighty cents!

Eighty five with tax...

Needless to say I went back and filled up a cart!

OK...I'm greedy! I admit it but...EIGHTY CENTS EACH!!

sandman

 

[pdooley]

I did the same thing, went to Wal-Mart, got 3 Fat Boys. Used one for a Super Bertha build, one 18mm build and one 24mm.
Can't beat the price at $8.88.

On the other hand, WM prices all their models the same.
The baby bertha is no deal at $8.88.

 

[doxiedog315]

My wal-mart always has very little stock,i end up buying retail,or online.

 

[Stymye]

before long ....the only rockets at Walmart will be the
launchables hanging on peg hooks ,like the diecast cars down the aisle,all at the same price,and mabey a few starter sets thrown in. but the motors are a good deal.

 

[Rocketmaniac]

Originally posted by sandman
The "clearence" price was.....$0.80 each...yes I said eighty cents!

Eighty five with tax...

Needless to say I went back and filled up a cart!

So, how many did you get?

 

[Austin]

Well Sand,

You must have got a miss price on your Meijer deal, as our's had them marked at $6.99 ...still a good deal for the price. I like shopping there because they still have alll the Estes 18mm motors for $3.99, except for the C6-5 at $4.99

Carl

 

[bsexton]

Originally posted by sandman
The "clearence" price was.....$0.80 each...yes I said eighty cents!

Eighty five with tax...

Needless to say I went back and filled up a cart!

OK...I'm greedy! I admit it but...EIGHTY CENTS EACH!!

sandman

Showoff!

 

[sandman]

he he he

sandman

 

[rock2p]

Wow! .85 cents for a Fat Boy.

I had bought one for my wife at Wally-world for the $8.88 and thought that I was gettig a good deal. I guess it is a good deal but nothing like .85 cents

Sandman, if you would like to sell one of those for ( I don't know, let's say a 200% profit ; ) ) I'd buy a couple off of you, I want to do a 24 mm version.

I still buy most my motors at WM $4.97 for most engines up to C-65's. I used to always buy my D-12's there too but they stop carrying them when the stopped stocking the Dude rock.

but for the most part the WM's here keep a good stock of the Launchables and starter sets and corresponding motors.

I wish we had one of the Meijer's here in tampa, good pricing on those 18mm motors.

 

[rokitflite]

*sigh* I remember back in the eighties when Kay Bee sold rockets. They always had whichever kits Estes and Centuri were discontinuing that year at discounted prices. I have SST Shuttles, Der V-3s and Bulldogs among others with Kay Bee $4.99 price tags still on them! Its too bad I didn't have more money to spend on rockets back then!!!

 

[n3tjm]

I remember when Kay Bee sold rockets... well, they still do... but only a couple starter sets... but they used to have a HUGE selection... I remember seeing a lot of classics there. They were right next to the Atari 2600 cartridges...

Kay Bee was where I got my first rocket .

Such a shame, they have a Kay Bee in ever mall that I know of... bummer .

 

[Johnnie]

I noticed at my local Wally World supercenter that they are also carrying the Patriot and Python 4 in the $8.88 Flyables package...

 

[astrowolf67]

I don't know if it's nation wide or not, but the K B toy store at our local mall is closing due to a bankruptcy. They've had some good sales, but the store here never did carry rocketry items.

 

[mkmilion]

Originally posted by CTulanko
Well Sand,

You must have got a miss price on your Meijer deal, as our's had them marked at $6.99 ...still a good deal for the price. I like shopping there because they still have alll the Estes 18mm motors for $3.99, except for the C6-5 at $4.99

Carl

I'm sorry to hear that, but my Meijer sells them C6-5 for $3.99. To be honest they sell all of them for that price.

 

[rock2p]

Originally posted by astrowolf67
I don't know if it's nation wide or not, but the K B toy store at our local mall is closing due to a bankruptcy. They've had some good sales, but the store here never did carry rocketry items.

The cloest K B store to me also closed down (Tampa, FL), but it wasn't in a mall. I don't know if this one carried any rockets or not but i thought I had also heard KB wasn't doing so well.

 

[GoBang]

Originally posted by astrowolf67
I don't know if it's nation wide or not, but the K B toy store at our local mall is closing due to a bankruptcy. They've had some good sales, but the store here never did carry rocketry items.

Three here in the Nashville area. Gone. I used to enjoy looking at stuff but apart from a Nintendo controller many, many years ago I never bought anything.

Hey David, what's up? You ready for the Thunder? We did the Hobby Lobby thing a week or so ago and picked up a Renegade (cool, already built but not painted) and an Outlander. Half price on two of the new models! PJ is 9 today and finally appears to be taking up the hobby semi-seriously. We hope to see you and yours in Manchester in about a month!

 

[flying_silverad]

Has anybody ever tried to get a manager to order Estes stuff other than what they carry? I was thinking about asking for the manager this week to see if they would order some of Estes newer stuff.
My though was thatmaybe they only handle Estes "lost leaders" (for lack of a better word).

 

[rokitflite]

Hi There Silverado,
Are you talking about getting a Manager at Kay Bee to order something? The way Kay Bee is set up that would almost be like asking a Mobil gas station atendant to order a special type of fuel. Kay Bee is such a huge company that the only thing that drives the stores inventories is sales. The stores are computer linked and headquarters does the ordering. From what I understand the merchandise arrives from a central warehouse already priced. The central warehouse orders X thousands of dollars worth of maybe 4 or 5 different Estes items and it is distributed to the stores. You would have to convince them to carry whatever it is you want in ALL of their stores that carry rockets. The employees just put merchandise on the shelf and sell it, I think thats the limit of their involvment with inventory. As I said before the rockets that I saw at Kay Bee were the ones that were being discontinued that year which means they probably got it WAY cheaper than anything that was new and hot. I would be surprised to see say an Outlander at a Kay Bee store!

 

[Stones]

Originally posted by flying_silverad
Has anybody ever tried to get a manager to order Estes stuff other than what they carry?
....

I always thought it would be great to get Wally World to carry D and better yet, E motors. I know they use to have D motors and got rid of them after discontinuing the "dude" rocket. With what you pay in hobby stores and online for these motors, WW would more than likely have the best prices out there. Instead of $15 for a 3 pack of E's, I'd bet WW's price would be somewhere around $9 - $10, possibly cheaper. At those prices, it'd be cluster time for sure, on my build table.

 

[Rob Fisher]

Its nice to see that estes finally had the sense to package their rockets in something more substantial than a plastic bag! Wally world definitely has the best prices on motors.

 

[mkmilion]

Originally posted by flying_silverad
Has anybody ever tried to get a manager to order Estes stuff other than what they carry? I was thinking about asking for the manager this week to see if they would order some of Estes newer stuff.
My though was thatmaybe they only handle Estes "lost leaders" (for lack of a better word).

To tell you the truth I tried to get my hobby store to sell something a little different in the Estes line up and even suggested that they should sell FlisKits or at least become an authorized dealer.
The owner answered with: "I've been doing this for thirty years I think I know what is best for my store."
Might I add he only carries Estes. (I do love Estes though.) And this is the same guy that told me that they don't make 24mm C's anymore. One last thing when I ask him to order a brand new release of a kit, he says, "I'm sorry, but they stopped making that kit a long time ago." Even if I show him it in the current catalog.

Geez I'm glad I got that off my chest. Thanx to anyone to accually read my mindless rant.

 

[sandman]

mkmillion,

What a "Jerk"!

You might be better off shopping on line.

sandman

 

[rokitflite]

Wow,
As much as I am into supporting the local hobby stores, that guy does not deserve to be in business with that attitude. I would let some things pass, but not the fact that he lies to you like that! I know some larger stores (I work for one part time) will not carry some of the smaller manufacturers kits because they are not available through the big hobby distributors (Horizon and Great Planes). Also alot of the smaller guys need to get out of the dark ages on their packaging if they want to sell to retail stores. A line drawing or a simple computer generated picture will not do. As I recall Jim Flis is doing a good job with his packaging. Only experienced rocketeers know to look beyond the packaging and we only make up a tiny amount of the rocket sales. The folks on these forums, the NAR, Tripoli and such make up about 1-2% of the people who buy model rockets. This is why Estes does not carry as many of the kits that us, as dedicated hobbyists, would like to see. I am happy to see the Outlander and the Renegade, in actuality hobby stores and in turn the major rocket manufacturers make the most sales and profit off of the $5-$8 rockets with the flashy full color packaging. I think the Estes/Star Wars Episode 1 disaster humbled them a bit and made them cater to us hobbyists a little more.

 

[Initiator001]

Originally posted by rokitflite
I think the Estes/Star Wars Episode 1 disaster humbled them a bit and made them cater to us hobbyists a little more.

I heard rumors that Estes had to pay Lucasfilms a very large licensing cancellation fee to get out of their Star Wars contract.

 

[rokitflite]

Hey Bob,
Yeah, I heard they had to pay something like 30 million for the rights. I wonder if that figure includes them having to get out of it. I know Wal-Mart & Toys r Us returned a TON of that stuff to Estes too. I hope this will spare the model rocket community from being swamped with plastic crap again! Steve Gram is comming by tonight, I'll tell him you said hey!

 

[Initiator001]

Originally posted by rokitflite
Steve Gram is comming by tonight, I'll tell him you said hey!

Scott,

Please do say 'hi' to Steve for me.

What is he doing out in your neck of the woods?