[Chad92]

Hi there,

First post here, but I thought I'd mention something that I found today. Stocked on the shelf was the CD/DVD set of Michael's Crazy Love album at the Wetaskiwin, AB, Canada Walmart. Yeah, you read that right!

I'm a little frustrated with this. Why preorder if it's released three days early anyway? I was really excited to be one of the first hundred (thousand?) people to get the CD, but now that's kinda not happening. I hope this is just an oversight. Has anyone else seen this happening?

[Mandee]

Oh myyyy. That doesn't sound good.

Yeah, that doesn't seem fair..

hopefully this was a mistake that got fixed quickly.

I used to work at Target..and something like this happened..but we did get it taken care of before anyone got their hands on it..

[Chad92]

Mandee, on 06 October 2009 - 08:37 PM, said:

Oh myyyy. That doesn't sound good.

Yeah, that doesn't seem fair..

hopefully this was a mistake that got fixed quickly.

I used to work at Target..and something like this happened..but we did get it taken care of before anyone got their hands on it..

Yeah, I didn't buy one, however my friend did and it's legitimate. I hope they only made a mistake. But even still, someone was able to buy it. I don't find that very fair to everyone who is waiting for the announced launch date, and preordered the album. Do you think going into the store and telling them about the error would do any good? Who should I talk to? I'm going to be a good person and wait until the email comes with my online download link before I dig my fingers into the new album. My excitement/surprise/curiosity almost got the best of me tonight though!

[bublefan85]

Mandee, on 07 October 2009 - 03:37 AM, said:

Oh myyyy. That doesn't sound good.

Yeah, that doesn't seem fair..

hopefully this was a mistake that got fixed quickly.

I used to work at Target..and something like this happened..but we did get it taken care of before anyone got their hands on it..

it has to be a mistake. i used to work at Target too and one time one of my inventory team member accidentally put out some of Jewels cd before the release date. Luckily we caught it before someone got their hands on a copy.

[Mandee]

Wow.
That is upsetting. I would definitely talk to someone about that if I were you.
I haven't been to Walmart or Target to know if they are selling it here in the US. I certainly hope not.

Well, I too will be waiting until Friday to download my copy..

[steelbreeze]

Man, if I had some money and a Canada Walmart anywhere near me, I know where I'd be racing off to now.

[Chad92]

Mandee, on 07 October 2009 - 06:23 AM, said:

Wow.
That is upsetting. I would definitely talk to someone about that if I were you.
I haven't been to Walmart or Target to know if they are selling it here in the US. I certainly hope not.

Well, I too will be waiting until Friday to download my copy..

I'll go down there during my lunch break and see if they are still out on the shelf. My friend bought the one with red titles.

steelbreeze, on 07 October 2009 - 06:45 AM, said:

Man, if I had some money and a Canada Walmart anywhere near me, I know where I'd be racing off to now.

Hopefully it's just one store's mistake!

[ANAngel]

If it's on the stores I don't know, here in Brazil the realeases take a long time to arrive, but someone have already rip from AOL website and put it to download. It's not completely bad, see us, we'll by the album anyway, and everytime he'll be performing we'll sing along.

[Navihawk]

Yep, here in the States (specifically, northern Virginia), at least the one Wal-Mart I went to had the CD already out for sale. I almost bought it, but it was only the CD, not the CD/DVD combo, so I left it. Besides, I'm hoping Target or somewhere else will have some kind of Special Edition or something (I wasn't all that impressed with what's on the Buble Store Fan Edition), so I'll wait until Friday. As for telling someone at the store, I considered that myself, but I realized it wouldn't do a bit of good. Wal-Mart employees simply don't care about things like that (or about much of anything, for that matter, at least in my experience).

I also went to 2 Barnes & Nobles today looking for a CD, and at both of them, their New Release boards behind the CD counter said Michael's new CD was supposed to be released on the 6th, which was Tuesday, of course. I mentioned it to the woman at the 2nd B&N, and she did thank me for noticing it...

[Mandee]

Gah, the more I sit here and think about it, the more it upsets me.
I know, I know..I'm still getting my Special Edition copy Friday..BUT STILL!!
That's so unfair. What's the point in pre-ordering if they're just gonna break the rules and put 'em out on the shelves two days before the release date?!?!
That's SO not right.

Anyways, I'm still excited..
..just slightly irritated.

[Navihawk]

I'm not sure Wal-Mart intentionally put the CD out early; I think they just don't know any better. No offense to anyone that may be employed there, but it is Wal-Mart, after all. I imagine the managers or whoever is in charge of that sort of thing just don't bother checking the release dates for anything, since 99% of new CDs are released on Tuesdays (here in the US anyway; not sure about the international markets). So Wal-Mart probably got their shipments of Crazy Love when they got the other releases for this week; and since they figured it was just one more CD that was to be released on the 6th, they put it out for sale.

I know all this may be small consolation; it is pretty frustrating...

[Chad92]

Navihawk, on 07 October 2009 - 04:40 PM, said:

I'm not sure Wal-Mart intentionally put the CD out early; I think they just don't know any better. No offense to anyone that may be employed there, but it is Wal-Mart, after all. I imagine the managers or whoever is in charge of that sort of thing just don't bother checking the release dates for anything, since 99% of new CDs are released on Tuesdays (here in the US anyway; not sure about the international markets). So Wal-Mart probably got their shipments of Crazy Love when they got the other releases for this week; and since they figured it was just one more CD that was to be released on the 6th, they put it out for sale.

I know all this may be small consolation; it is pretty frustrating...

My friend also works at Wal-Mart, and they keep all prerelease items in a big cage, padlocked, and it can only be opened once per day. And on boxes in that cage, it says "DO NOT STOCK UNTIL OCTOBER 9TH" all over them. So I don't understand how they can mess that up. Same thing with books - stores can get in some pretty big trouble for selling products before they're supposed to. It should appear on the corporate side of Wal-Mart and hopefully be flagged, I mean, they watch us shop there right? I think if I were Michael, I'd be a little upset. That's now two confirmed stores where they are selling the CD or CD/DVD albums already.

[Andrea91483]

Okay, so after reading this thread, I decided to head to a local WalMart to check it out.

I went back to the electronics section and, lo and behold, there is a display with ten or so copies of "Crazy Love". Although I am waiting on the fan edition, the thought of getting to listen to the album this early was just too tempting. HOWEVER, when I took it to the register, it scanned as unable to purchase. The lady told me they had all been recalled. I tried another WalMart and the same thing happened.

Here is what I am guessing might have happened. CDs are usually released on Tuesdays. Some head honcho at WalMart saw that the release date was for October 9th and went "Huh, that's a Friday, but CDs only come out on Tuesdays...they must have meant Tuesday the 6th!" and gave the okay to release them on the 6th. Then someone realized the error and told WalMart that they weren't to be sold until the 9th. Instead of taking the displays down to avoid confusion, they made it so that all products with that barcode wouldn't ring up until the 9th.

[Chad92]

Andrea91483, on 07 October 2009 - 10:36 PM, said:

Okay, so after reading this thread, I decided to head to a local WalMart to check it out.

I went back to the electronics section and, lo and behold, there is a display with ten or so copies of "Crazy Love". Although I am waiting on the fan edition, the thought of getting to listen to the album this early was just too tempting. HOWEVER, when I took it to the register, it scanned as unable to purchase. The lady told me they had all been recalled. I tried another WalMart and the same thing happened.

Here is what I am guessing might have happened. CDs are usually released on Tuesdays. Some head honcho at WalMart saw that the release date was for October 9th and went "Huh, that's a Friday, but CDs only come out on Tuesdays...they must have meant Tuesday the 6th!" and gave the okay to release them on the 6th. Then someone realized the error and told WalMart that they weren't to be sold until the 9th. Instead of taking the displays down to avoid confusion, they made it so that all products with that barcode wouldn't ring up until the 9th.

Well I'm glad they have done something about it! It's a shame it took them that long to figure it out. People can still steal it I guess!

[vegi]

these reports of street date violations are really upsetting. The bottom line is that albums bought in the store BEFORE the street date will NOT count towards Michael's first week sales. These purchases will not help him chart high. So talk to the managers and make sure they realize they are in violation of their agreement. This is really lousy news.

[Chad92]

Yeah, it really is. Who knows how many have been sold so far but it's definitely not fair to Michael but it's not fair to the consumers who have preordered and everyone who is anticipating an October 9th release. I hope someone important catches this and does something about it!

[Mandee]

I know I sound like a broken record, but that just sucks on their part. I mean COME ON. Rules are made for a reason..and should be followed.
I feel like they could get in big trouble for not following the rules and going against the release date..


It's just unfair all the way around..
for Michael and for us.

Well, what's done is done.
Tomorrow will be here before you know it and it won't even matter then..

[Allen]

Humm...that's interesting!

I think it's only that store that made the mistake!

But I am definitely sure that the album was leaked before the relase date on the 9th

[vegi]

Mandee, on 08 October 2009 - 02:13 PM, said:

I know I sound like a broken record, but that just sucks on their part. I mean COME ON. Rules are made for a reason..and should be followed.
I feel like they could get in big trouble for not following the rules and going against the release date..


It's just unfair all the way around..
for Michael and for us.

Well, what's done is done.
Tomorrow will be here before you know it and it won't even matter then..

we won't know until next week whether it matters or not. A recent album of Barry Manilow's debuted at #2. It missed debuting at #1 by around 1000 copies. That's almost nothing. Let's hope the street date violations weren't rampant enough to make a difference in Michael's chart entry.