It depends on where I am. My local Target (I kid you not) has not restocked basic figures since April 2nd and, as such, I just stick to the fronts of the pegs.
Wal-Mart, however, is a little more difficult because they don't even have a lot of their figures on the pegs. I don't know why, but they have only alotted (again, I kid you not) about 10 pegs to the ROTS basic figures total and decided to put the rest on a shelf, crammed in there rather indiscriminantly and haphazardly. The other local WM is a lot better, since all of their figures are actually on pegs in an actual aisle section specifically for SW stuff, but the larger of the two WMs hasn't even taken the time to set up an aisle for them. They just found an empty area and dumped them on the shelves there.
That being said, at the one WM that has pegs for all the figures, I do the sideways number check for the AT-TE Gunner (38) and anything 41 and up. Sadly, I don't see anything past 32 all that often (e.g. three times since April 2nd), but I continue to look anyway. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.