Lights, or disappointing lack thereof

[dakotasbub 10]

Well having been at 2 walmarts, target, walgreens, home depot, and lowes this morning i can officially say no one has lights except target, and if you werent there at 7 then you are probably S-O-L. So the walmart i went to first , a week ago had around 30 cases of minis in the garden center, so i was confident i would get some lights today, but upon arriving at the christmas area, there were hardly any lights at all at all. What was there almost looked like last years leftovers, with the green box minis, which i believe this years were in blue boxes. So i am under the assumption that they packed up all of this years stuff and sent it back to the warehouse or something. So to sum things up i returned home with no new lights....but at least i did find a nice pet bed for $4.99 lol.

[depper 0]

Ditto here. One Wal-Mart, Meijer and Home Depot and NOT one box of minis in any store. Looks like I'll be paying full price next season:(

[Jdwagner888 0]

i work at walmart, we did not send anything back for next year. we just had the lights out so early, that they were sold out well in time.

[jtf107 10]

I saw they were going fast 2 weeks ago. Went out to buy what I could find almost nothing!

[Surfing4Dough 10]

Hobby Lobby here was the only place that had anything worthwhile. The manager said they decided to include the lights in the 50% off sale, rather than the 30% they were advertising.

[ptaylor 10]

Went out to 2 Wal-Mart's w/o any luck. Even during the season it didn't look like they had much available. Shelfs were pretty bare throughout Nov and Dec.

Anyone have any ideas on stocking up for mini's for 2010?

[Bill V 65]

When my Walmart dropped the price to 1.88 a box two weeks before Christmas I bought 15,000. Saw they were going fast but hoped there would be something left. Last year I went home with 60,000 after Christmas, this year 0!

[ScroogeLightsUp 10]

We had the same problem here. Two cars searched in 4 surrounding towns at all of the big retailers and everything was gone... Problem was that there isn't anyone in northern Wisconsin that does any display's, so I wonder where they all went ? :121_reindeer:

[cozzi 11]

My wife and I went hunting yesterday morning. She took the southern part of the state and I took the north and just over the Mass border. She found nothing. I hit paydirt on my third Walmart. I only use multi and clear. They had plenty of multi but clear was a bit more complicated. They had 400ct boxes which are two 200 sets. It's fine with me because the 200ct are just 4 sets of fifty so I just need to take them apart.

I don't know why this particular Walmart had more than the 5 others we checked. It is in a very poor area-maybe that has something to do with it.

But I did get everything I need (and more) for next year's plans so I really lucked out.

[HiramDawg 0]

I beleive this problem was every where! Walmart, HD, Lowes didn't really have a ton to begin with and nothing left the day after.

I've decided to save throughout the year this year and buy what I want when they put it out next year, that way it don't kill the wallet!

[terryj529 0]

We went shopping 100 miles south of us yesterday and the walmart there had lots of mini's left at 3pm. I was looking for white tree's, c9 strings and some rope light so I didn't buy any mini's at all. I did get some white and multi rope lights, a bunch of the 3ft light up candy canes and some c9 strings.

Home Depot, Kmart and Ace Hardware were pretty well cleaned out of lights, but we found 2 snowman blowmolds at Ace.

Getting back home last night, we were going out for dinner but 2 of our favorite places to eat where closed so we decided to head to our local Walmart. They had lots of mini's left over as of 7pm. If I remember right, they had mini's in clear, multi, red and maybe green and even a bunch of white wire mini's but not sure of the colors. They even had some led's strings left. I did score on 6 boxes of red rope light and a couple more boxes of multi rope light. They had bunch of clear rope light left too, might have to try painting the clear for a couple of projects I want to do in rope light this year.

Isn't that the way things work, its the first time ever I have seen our Walmart have any other mini's except clear and multi and last year I looked all over for blue and green mini's. Now this year I don't want them and they have a bunch.

[FrankAZ 0]

I didn't even bother to go out to try and find lights here - I had been to Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Target pre-christmas and they were empty.

[craig1979 10]

We had the same problem here. Two cars searched in 4 surrounding towns at all of the big retailers and everything was gone... Problem was that there isn't anyone in northern Wisconsin that does any display's, so I wonder where they all went ? :121_reindeer:

I searched all over down here E scrooge and didnt find anything. all walmarts homey depot lowes target hobby lobby nothing except tons of led net lights.

[Leroy 10]

Well having been at 2 walmarts, target, walgreens, home depot, and lowes this morning i can officially say no one has lights except target, and if you werent there at 7 then you are probably S-O-L. So the walmart i went to first , a week ago had around 30 cases of minis in the garden center, so i was confident i would get some lights today, but upon arriving at the christmas area, there were hardly any lights at all at all. What was there almost looked like last years leftovers, with the green box minis, which i believe this years were in blue boxes. So i am under the assumption that they packed up all of this years stuff and sent it back to the warehouse or something. So to sum things up i returned home with no new lights....but at least i did find a nice pet bed for $4.99 lol.

Quad:

You are right. I've been all over my area and found only clear white bulbs or multi's. No single colors to speak of. I found one box of 100 blue's at a drug store and that was IT!

[bgraham34 1]

I didn't even bother to go out to try and find lights here - I had been to Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Target pre-christmas and they were empty.

Same thing in my part of NJ. This is the first year the day after Christmas i did not even bother to go out. I noticed many retailers carrying less this year and most places were sold out 2 weeks before Christmas.

[kpharr40 0]

No lights in north Texas. I spent 4 hours, and only found 10 sets of icesicles... I did score 7 cases of candy canes that do not expire until 2012.... Last year, I purchased 80K lightsd after Christmas at 75% off. One of my team members found 50 boxes of blue on white. never used white wire, but I'll find something.. lol

[emedic99 10]

Same here in Toledo area. Spent 3 hours at all major retailers and found 7 boxes of ropelight at a Big Lots. The shelves that did have minis before christmas has flower pots the day after.

[nipster 10]

I went to 4 Wal Mart's and found only 1 of them had any lights at all, and the one that did only had a few sets of 100 count mini's, multi and red on green cord. I bought what they had of red, and some ornaments, but that was it. 100% opposite of last year when they had TONS of lights.

[Carrie Sansing 0]

I didn't even try. Everything was gone last weekend, nothing but wrapping paper and junk was left..no lights anywhere.

[FrankAZ 0]

I figure I'll toss $10 in a bucket each paycheck then when next august rolls around I'll just buy what I need new.

[jldavis1969 10]

One of my team members found 50 boxes of blue on white. never used white wire, but I'll find something.. lol

White wire on white pipe? ARCHES that blend in with the snow? Mega poles that blend in too.

[MACK3RZ 10]

True Value had a good deal of different things left, but no mass amounts of any kind ( I was contemplating a mega tree, finally) but they didnt have a great deal of any type of lights to buy them out.

[peppers-palace 12]

I was able to get 2 cases of assorted LED lights.Only found 1 set of the C4 teardrop LEDs.Needed more for my mega tree.I have 5 strings out now & they were all new for this year

I got about 15 sets of blue & 12 of red.Also found about 15 sets of warm white.Only found 1 set of the color changing blue & white.Would of liked to get about 15 sets of those for the roof.

Picked up about 6 sets of the multi function LED minis too.Might make a mini tree with those.

In the next few weeks I will shop for garland.

They also had quite a few inflatables left.Want to get the chubby snowman to go with the santa I picked up last year.

Ran out of money so no more this week :giggle:

A Word of advice folks!

Check your receipt really good.The 1st walmart I hit I got overcharged 25.00.Good thing I looked before I left the store.I had to go back to the register I checked out of & they had to call a manager to come fix the messup!

[dakotasbub 10]

well i am still under the assumption that my walmart sent the lights somewhere, less than a week ago they had like a 40 ft long shelf loaded with lights, and a ton of unopened cases on the top, easily 100k lights, and when i was there yesterday morning there was nothing, i just find it hard to believe that they sold them ALL in 4 or 5 days.

[BrightChristmas 0]

Visited all of the major walmarts in Sacramento -- 12 total -- in the last two days starting at 6am yesterday.

Yesterday, many had LEDs in the morning. Picked up a couple hundred from the first three or so stores. By evening, many were empty of LEDs. Today, I checked 6 stores and found some garland LEDs and one case of C9's. Many were void of all lights today including minis.

Of the LEDs I picked up, about 6 cases of C9's, 4 cases of C7's, a case and some of C6 teardrops, about 5 cases of warm white 60-cts, about a case and a half of red 60-cts, 6 boxes of multi 60-cts, and about 6 cases of warm and cool wire garland lights. I also have some odds like one box of multi-function, one box of white icicle, one box of blue icicle, about 5 boxes of warm white M5's, a box of multi M5's.

Of the stores that still have minis, they are only clear or green on green wire. I picked up about 5 cases of green and 4 cases of clear. If they are still around at 75%, I'll pick up more. Also picked up a case and a half of red, a case of blue, a case of red on white, a case of multi on white, and even a case of amber on green. Also picked up 6 cases of the 400-ct white on white.

So, certainly had to get them early or they were gone entirely. Next year I'll need to do some recon work on the 23rd and 24th so I know what stores to hit first on the 26th.

Hit my Ace on the 24th and picked up 250 boxes of LEDs of various kinds (no solids except cool and warm white).