Latest Walmart Planogram Shrinks Vintage Collection Footprint

I've often used the retail footprint for the Vintage Collection as a bellwether for brick and mortar's confidence in the product line. For that reason I always eagerly await toy aisle resets, and get excited whenever I see the latest planogram hanging from the shelves. I immediately scan to see how many pegs the Vintage Collection has been allocated to determine if it's trending up or down. With some disappointment, I bring news that TVC is shrinking form three to two pegs at my closest Walmart.

To be fair, two is probably too many. As we have all observed, stores only get one case for each mainline assortment, which sells within 48 hours, and then the pegs sit empty for months awaiting the next wave. The only time the pegs get used in the interim is when a MOTU Origins Skeletor starts feeling crowded by all the other MOTU Origins Skeletors, and makes a break for it to the Star Wars section. One peg would be sufficient to hold the 8 figures that briefly show up every two months or so. In fact, it shouldn't even be a dedicated peg. Walmart should adopt the "hotel cubicle" office philosophy and tell their employees just to use whichever free peg is available. Who am I kidding? That's already what they do half the time. When the Emperor's Royal Guard Fan Channel wave showed up at my local store, they were stocked in the Marvel section across the aisle while the intended TVC home sat completely empty.

This is all to say that this footprint reduction probably is zero indication of Walmart's confidence in the Vintage Collection. Two empty pegs is no different than three empty pegs. Unfortunately this likely indicates that Walmart doesn't see that situation changing as TVC takes yet another step toward becoming a de facto online only product. My online purchases probably outnumber my in-store purchases by 25 to 1.

The full sized planogram image is below:

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