In a conversation with a fellow collector this morning, he noted that his local Target had shelf tags out for both the ARC-170 vehicle and Battle Pack, and that they had cases of both in the back that could be stocked, but for some unknown reason, Target wouldn't stock them. I know that Wal-Mart gets a lot of flak for their shoddy distribution (and it's deserved), and I am in no way, shape, or form defending them, but Target takes the cake as far as their exclusives go. I have never seen a retailer that is so difficult to deal with in this regard. There's simply no excuse for the shelves to be empty when you have a tag, you have the product to put out, and for whatever reason you just don't put anything out. Given Target's lack of simple courtesy most of the time, as well, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks they do it out of spite.
I mean, seriously, DPCIs are helpful and all, but the fact of the matter is that we shouldn't have to be using them in the first place. Target should actually have the stuff out where it can be sold, to us or to parents shopping for Christmas, and we shouldn't have to go on a scavenger hunt to find the stuff.
Needless to say, none of this stuff has shown up near me either, and given my last two experiences with the wonderful folks at Target here in my neighborhood (search for threads on the Mace Windu Attack Battalion and Betrayal at Felucia Battle Packs for those stories), I'm not even going to waste my time asking them to look. Usually once they heard "DPCI", they already have their finger on the button to hang up on me.