Christmas light inventory

[friskybri]

Has anyone else noticed the stock levels at the stores. I don't think they are going to make it till after Christmas. Lowe's is out at both locations, Menard's is out of LED and mini's and wal-mart is out on the north side of town. If this keeps going we wont get the 75%off at wal-mart sale. I talked to one manager in another location that had 500 sets of lights. I told her that I would purchase all of them if I can get a break on the price. She said regular price is what she can offer. So I am taking the Christmas light guy thing out that talks about walmart. Was wanting to add a mega tree next year but wondering if there will be lights to do it.

[JeffF]

Yeah, it looks like this year is not going to be a good one to refill the stock.

[ItsMeBobO]

Sell them at a loss to me or I will be mad at you! That makes sense, sure lets do it every year!

[Tim Fischer]

This was predicted by news sources back around Halloween -- that retailers took deep losses last year and would not make that mistake again, instead erring on the "running out too early" side of things.

[Gary Levelius]

Another thing I noticed was the complete absence of yellow/gold lights, either incandescent or LED, in anything other than multi-color light strings.

-Gary-

[JeffF]

One of our Lowes had a lot of gold minis in the beginning of the season but they sold out quick. That was the only color I really wanted to stock up on too so I was a little bummed. I was hoping for $1 a strand pre-Christmas sales this year but that didn't happen. Man... I look back to two years ago getting $0.33 and $0.50 strands and I wish I bought 100,000 lights then.

[friskybri]

I know what you mean. I hit up one walmart that had them on sale for 1.84 so I took all the red, green I could get. Having family in different towns look for white and multi. Only need 32 of each after that I am done unless I walk into a store that has them less then a dollar. Im kicking myself for not getting all of the ones last year. Guess I am only adding a Mega Tree next year.

[stanward]

Same here! Home Depot and WalMart are almost totally gone!

[HowardShank]

Took my wife and I 10 stores to get enough lights for mega tree and colors for the bushes!

[stanward]

I assume you were successful in getting lights! Congratulations!



HowardShank wrote:

Took my wife and I 10 stores to get enough lights for mega tree and colors for the bushes!

[Bruce Kryfka]

I found some at Walgreens. Only the clear were buy one at 3.99 and get one free.

[HowardShank]

stanward wrote:

I assume you were successful in getting lights! Congratulations!



HowardShank wrote:

Took my wife and I 10 stores to get enough lights for mega tree and colors for the bushes!

Yes, managed to get about 15k lights. 1 Target, 1 Home Depot, 5 Lowes and 6 Walmarts. Guess it was 13 stores total, not 10! We did leave a few boxes on the shelves, mostly white, amber and purple. Found one store with a couple cases of red lights on white wire.. Retail: $1.84ea 100/light strands.

Target was about $4 - $5 per box and they were fully stocked. Hmmm.. I wonder why.

[bwaldrep]

I went out yesterday to check local stock, as I was planning a big trip the morning of the 26th. I went to Target, Lowes, Home Depot, 2 local hardware stores, sears, k-mart, Meijers, and the only place I found lights I could use with one local hardware store, and they already had them 30% off. It looks like I'll be looking online for sales after Christmas.

[stanward]

I had to drive to the other side of the island today to scope out the lights inventory. Only could hit the KMart, WalMart and Target. Didn't have time to go to Home Depot or Lowes. May need to do another run next Sunday.

[DanCampbell]

A lady in one of the Walmarts here said the warehouses would be dumping whatever remains during the week before Christmas. Don't expect sales, though.

[rick gorman]

All the big box stores around here have almost nothing left. Sure glad I found the 60,000+ last year minis at .20 - .30 /box. Enough for a few new projects for next year. I don't expect to find much of anything after christmas this year.

[csf]

Ya there is nothing left around here... I always try to buy things after the holidays for the next year.

I was plaining that I will need about 3,000 mini lights for what I would like to do next year and as a college student, I really don't have much money.

[Richard Esposito]

It's the same thing here in the Chicago area. I guess I won't be able to stock up this year.

[George Simmons]

Jeff Millard wrote:

I was going to get all the blue I could so I could replace it all over the next year. It's all flaked off the 3 year old stuff.

Boy, it sure is nice to have those blue LED's in my yard looking as blue as blue gets and no worry about flaking from year to year... every blue light in the yard looking totally blue... just like they did last year, and the year before that...

[George Simmons]

Jeff,

You can be sure that I'll be thinking of you each year when I get out those beautiful blue LED's and just start putting them out immediately without having to find a blue Sharpie and try to spruce up the most faded bulbs trying to coax one more year out of them. There's something about having all my blue lights exactly the same color that I really enjoy...

If you decide to burn your LOR controllers, why not send them to me instead? With 160 amps of electric available in the yard and LED's that pull almost nothing I'll never run out of power for controllers. I'll burn something in effigy and send you the pictures.


George