TA TALKS BACK: WHAT’S UP WITH WALMART? LAME DVD PARTY & NO MORE TWI-MERCHANDISE?

I’ve heard similiar complaints about the “release” parties at other Wal-Marts, too. And the whole idea of Twilight as a “promotional” thing only makes me crazy-what? Did they get their pound of flesh from us as fans and they’re done? Honestly, the Borders party I was at was fun; given Wal-Mart’s corporate politics and shoddy ethical practices, I can’t say I’m surprised by either story.

When the soundtrack first came out, I was at my Walmart at 6:30 a.m. to buy it that morning before work. I couldn’t find it so I asked an employee who searched her records and discovered they were NOT going to stock it. Walmart seems to have missed the ball on Twilight and was trying to get in on the action at the last minute but I guess they realized Twihard fans have taken their business elsewhere. I didn’t even bother to go to a party there. They have a VERY small display of merchandise in a corner of the purse section.

THE WALMART I WENT TO WAS PRETTY LAME. THEY HANDED OUT THE TAT AND SHE DOOR HANGER. THEY HAD A DRAWLINGS FOR A DVD,POSTER AND CD. BUT I GOT MY DVD SO ALL IN ALL THATS WHAT I WENT THERE FOR. I FIGURE I CAN HAVE MY OWN TWILIGHT PARTY.

I went to a Wal-Mart Twilight DVD release party also and they did nothing but serve cake and sodas. I was kind of upset.

I had a similar experience for the midnight release @ walmart…there was no party, just a line. I arrived around 11:15pm and I ended up towards the back of the line. By the time I reached the register @ the electronics, an hour later, they had ran out of the 2 disc special edition and were handing out the single disc edition. I ended up not buying it and went to target in the morning and purchased the 3 disc special edition instead…i wasn’t upset, but it was a little disappointing that there wasn’t something more to celebrate the dvd release…

I went to a walmart realease party and i was po’ed. i got all excited cuz they said there would be triva games and prizes and the gift bags were supposed to be cool. i went to walmart at 9:30 pm and the party was supposed to start at 11. i met a few ppl who were there since eight. so every1 is lining up and we get yelled at cuz were blocking the aisles and bout 10:30 there at least 70-80 ppl there mostly twi-moms surprisigly. at 11:10 they are just now setting up and telling us to wait and fill out these raffle tixs for a dvd or books and thats when i started to get really mad im like no merchandise and i didnt get anything that night cuz i had aantoher week till payday.v so now its almost 11:30 and they say grab a bag. these bages are crap. they had a tiny poster, a tatto, a doorhanger, and a vbrocure on how to have a twilight party. that got me riled up again. the website said stuff to host a good twilight party, not a brocure. then they have these cupcakes laying out on the table with bats on them and we all had to buy drinks. then finally its almost 11:40 and i asked a person if that was it and he was like ya. i was furious along with everyone else. i thought i made a smart move but preordering the dvd online so we just went ahead and left. copme to find out i didnt get my dvd till monday whereas i was promised it on saturday. i complained to walmart and i got my shipping back and a dvd on monday. that is stupid they’re pulling the merchandise. do they realzie how much they could make becuz its cheaper. i really wanted to get some of that stuff but now i might not get to. im going to email; them and tell them to keeep there stuff unless they wanna lose money.

Oh what a bunch of loosers! You would think that since they are making money that they would keep selling stuff, but no! I guess they were just trying to make easy money for the time being.

My girls and I went to our local Wal-Mart as well. It was the most unorganized thing I had ever encountered! We, the customers, were not given any direction/instruction whatsoever. I, as well as others, stood in what we assumed was the line to purchase for over an hour. There were several teens sitting behind a red clothed table. On it were slips of paper and a box to sign up for give-aways. There were red frosted cupcakes but for about 30 minutes no one knew we could take one. They did have the soundtrack playing on a portable stereo. After the give-aways (a set of 3 wall posters, the soundtrack, and a basket of Twilight related items), nothing. The Wal-Mart Associate simply walked away. No instruction. No nothing. Ten minutes later I, and several other customers, realized we were not standing in the line to get our DVD….we were just standing in a line! The DVD were going to be handed out at two designated registers behind us. So those of us who had arrived early and stood in line to reserve our spots were now literally at the END OF THE LINE!!!

I hope they continue to sell Twilight merch. I still haven’t got my shirts yet. My dad went to HMV on Monday to get my DVD and they only had smaller sizes left. The guy at the counter said that the bigger sizes were gone as soon as they were on the racks.

OMG!!! Same here!!! So I get there at 1030 and think theres gonna be mad fans waiting but there were only 5 other girls there. So I wait in line and the employees start setting up a table with juice cups and chips. So im like “yay lets party!” but instead people started to form in a line and just stood there waiting for midnight. No games no nothing. The only reason i decided to go to THAT midnight party was because i heard of a free “gift bag” you were getting. So here comes midnight and they give us the dvd and say go to the registers. So everyone is like “wheres the free gift??” So i pay for my merchandise and they throw something in the bag. I immediatly open it to see what it was …..a peice of paper that says do not disturb and a small temperary tattoo????!!!!! I was truly upset. I mean i wasnt expecting tshirts and posters but i was expecting a little more! All I know is that when New Moon gets released im headed to Hot Topic!!

(in case you were wondering this walmart is in Greenville, SC….where was yours???)

I also went to a nearby Walmart with several of my friends. We stood around the electronics department for a while and nothing ever happened. I had even read that there would be some sort of “special” message showing on the tv’s nearby but there wasn’t. One of my friends finally asked a store employee about the release party and he didn’t know what she was talking about. We arrived there at 9:45 by the way. There was no other fans when we got there. Around 1045 a few other girls showed up. By then, my friend called 4 other surrounding Walmarts and they too didn’t know what we were talking about. They treated us like we were dumb. It was boring and the party consisted of us “waiting” in the electronics dept. At midnight, someone announced that the dvd would be sold at the cigarette counter so we all (approx.25 people) walked up to the front of the store, purchased our dvd’s quietly, and left. It was a bunch of bull crap.

I’m so happy that I didn’t go the the Wal-Mart (considering the closest one is over an hour away). However, Hot Topic had a party, Borders didn’t. Regardless I didn’t go to any party cause it was a friend’s birthday party.
So I showed up 10 minutes before Borders opened since I had an appointment to get my truck fixed down the road soon after. I walked into the store only to hear one of the employees say “I’m so sick of Twilight” and “You know, that’s the only reason why all these people are here this early.” First off, if you can’t handle your job, look for another one. Until then put a smile on your face. Second off, the grandpa in line for coffee wasn’t there for twilight.
The whole lack of respect from all the stores and their employees is BS. Working in a department store or music store is going to require you to do some things you might not be interested in, but Deal with it.
Sorry everyone had such a bad experience.

I went to a FYE midnight release party with some friends and the same thing happened. We were told there would be games and trivia, that you would get a free tote with an additional dvd purchase, and some great coupons for that night. Fun right? NOPE. It was horrible. Out of out group only one of us got a tote even though we all bought other dvds, no games, no trivia, nothing.

I went to the Walmart midnight release as our Borders decided not to do one. Stood in line in the Electronics department with every one else. They gave us the tatoo and donnot disturb knob hanger. They had cake and icecream and a drawing. Then at midnight they set all of the dvds at the front of the store while all of us are in the back. Then they had 1 checker open for about 200 people. Hello use common sense people. The whole thing was ridiculous but they were the only ones open to get it at midnight in town.

So that’s why WM’s stock was so depleted! I had wondered. Well now I don’t feel so bad…I went to a Hot Topic Twilight party and we did what you all did – stand/sit around and wait for 2 hours with a couple of cookies, 20 minutes to browse the store (nothing on sale – all regular price) until midnight. I threw a Twilight party the next night and pulled out every stop I could afford! Too bad the stores didn’t kick it into Alice Cullen style!!!! Can you imagine the difference it would have made even in the future when the next DVD comes out? I’ll be ordering mine ahead – straight to my house!

I didn’t go to any midnight DVD release parties and now, I’m glad I didn’t. I went to 2 Wal Marts-2 diff. states that day-Sat. the 21st.
I couldn’t find any Twilight merchandise at all in either store and they both only had a few copies of the single-disc edition left.
Very lame. I went to Best Buy and they had plenty of the 2 disc special edition for $17.99. Well, it’s official, Wal Mart sucks! And not in a good way.

I left work early and a coworker and I went over to our Borders midnight party. It was so caotic and unorganized. They did do some games and giveaways but it wasn’t worth participating because you couldnt hear or see with how they had it set up. I had preordered a regular copy (I didnt get the SE preordered in time)and decided I wasn’t going to pay $22.99 for it when Walmart was going to have it for $17.99. We left Borders at 11:10pm when we decided it was just lame and some of the tweens were just acting down right rude. We have 2 Walmarts in our city so we went over to one, where all they did was tell us to line up outside in a line. So we went and stood outside in the line. That was all, just stand in line in the freezing cold. I had to borrow a winter coat from my friend (it wasnt suppose to be that cold & I thought we were going to be inside) I dont understand why they couldnt let us line up inside, it is a superwalmsrt, its not like they dont have the room. But they did pass out numbers and they only took 10 to 15 people at a time in to the service desk area, where they had the DVD’s behind the counter. That was very organized, I liked that they did that b/c there was a girl behind us in line that said she was just going to run and push and shove to get up there first. When they handed out the numbers her plan went out the window. All to get my cousin her copy of the DVD. So overall I was disappointed with the supposed “parties”. I went to Target the next morning to get my copy and talk about rude. Even the parents were pushy and shoving. All I thought was “wow” what a great lesson to show your kid.

Looks like alot of stores and compaines dropped the ball on this one. I have noticed that past few months in certain stores i.e. Walmart and Hot Topic and even borders that customer service has gone down the drain. I ordered my copy of twilight from Target a month before release. I wasn’t able to go to the release party at the walmart here so I don’t know what it was like. I do know that when I went in the next day that they had very few copies left and they had several carboard stand things up over near electronics. Personaly I would complain to the GM of the store and or write a note to the Walmart company you can go to their website for that. Maybe next time they won’t drop the ball seeing as how we are all paying their wages. If people didn’t do their jobs then they shouldn’t have their jobs. It isn’t that hard to be organized and try and get people to have fun.

I went to a Borders release party and left after 30 minutes. They hardly had any merchandise, only ONE special edition had been delivered to the store and it was someones preorder. It was so disorganized. The girl running the whole thing lost her voice before it even started and they continued to make her do everything. No one could hear her during the trivia and half of the answers they had down as correct were wrong. There was an uneven amount of questions and so even tho both teams got every one of their questions right the last team that got their question won because they had the extra odd numbered question. Not only that but the teenaged ones that went outside for air where told that there was a curfew and they couldn’t be outside. It was ridiculous and I was really disappointed but I had my Dvd shipped to my house so I didn’t even bother to stick around.

That MAJORLY sucks!

But I went to Borders and it was a lot of fun! I went with me and my friend, Clio, and totally by accident we ran into 2 of my other friends from school. We did a scavenger hunt and a word search and they had a raffle (but I didn’t win anything). We had numbers on the wristbands we got when we came in and they called us up on groups by our numbers to get our DVDs. It was sooo AWESOME!! I got the Borders Exlusive 2-Disc one and I’ve already watched it 3 times. But I’ve yet to watch the second disc with the special features………..

OME! my friends told me they got/saw some really cool twilight stuff there! so i was like cool ill go there and buy a whole bunch of stuff…YAY! but now i hear that they aren’t even selling it anymore!?!?!!??!?
*is very sad*

I too found the Walmart “release party” extremely lame. I showed up at 11p and there was maybe 20 people in line in the middle of the store. They had a small area set up near the changing rooms and purses and were playing the soundtrack on a boombox. There was cake and punch and they had already handed out lil promo folders that had: temp tattoo, door hanger, pic of edward and a flyer on how to host a party. I managed to get one but then some girl in line behind me kept trying to steal it from my purse. There were no givaways, no trivia contests, NADA. About 11:30 we all got yelled at because a line was forming clear back through the store so of course when the line shifted these teenage girls tried to cut in front of everyone. By midnight there was probably between 150-200 people if that in line. It was so lame and then about 12:05 they started passing dvds out down the line. For all the hype they had Walmart pretty much crapped out on this like they do everything.

Well i was not able to go to the Twilght party at my local Wal-mart and i have not got the dvd yet. I think it sucks that Wal-mart is not going to restock their shelves. Hopefully there will be some Twilight dvds and other stuff when i am able to go to Wal-mart.

I went to a hot topic release party, blah! we got there about 10 ish and walked around the store till about 11:15 when we found out that they were going to kick us out of the store at 11:40 to line up for our pre-ordered dvd’s. They had 4 trivia questions where they gave away their twilight window clings! I actually won the Bella one, they gave everyone a free poster and they had free water, chips and cookies. It was ok, much better than what alot of you went through, i was just kind of hoping they would have some of their stuff on sale just for the release party and all. I did get my twi shirt at walmart for $10 instead of paying $22 or $36 those are the hot topic prices where im from. All in all it was ok, i just got tired of standing around for an hour and a half in a tiny store. LOL i expected more trivia and games to get the crowd more involved.