Hasbro Pulse Canada when?

[usernameprime]

Excuse my Rant but...

Hasbro office/distribution centre located in Quebec. It's been in service for many years now.

Why is there no Hasbro Pulse in Canada?

I wanna buy a Trouble Bubble at $60usd but then I get hit with $25usd tax and $25usd shipping.

After conversion it's $130cad.

That's insane!

[Zeroflamez]

likely never. we're too small of a market and the costs to have a pulse canada probably outweigh the benefits otherwise we'd have a pulse by now. As it is now its only certain city/ provinces that get product while the rest barely get anything if any at all. like where i am walmarts and trus dont have shit and gamestops carry very little product and mainly sell Po's. Its literally a waste of time for me to go to stores hunting in my area these days. Where im going with this is that the market in canada was already small and its getting worse with certain locations cutting back on product entirely and it will get even worse considering the stupidly high cost of living here and hasbros pay more get less philosophy when it comes to their customers.
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[duelerx]

They have 1 Pulse for all of Europe, they're not wasting their time making 1 exclusively for Canada dude.

[Robimus]

We will never be as cool as Finland.

I think the best thing they could do minus our own Pulse is making those exclusives available to Gamestop here, like they have done in the past.

Paying almost double what our American friends have to for these exclusive items is a tough pill to swallow for a lot of collectors.

[nighthawk]

Yeah, I hate Pulse exclusives cause of the price. If they at least even offered free shipping, that would make it a little easier to want to buy.

[canprime]

Yeah they have made the decision it isn't worth having a separate Canadian Pulse site. That's why we are lumped in with the US site.


As others have already said it is too expensive now for a single item purchase from Pulse. That is why most of us try and bundle a lot of stuff into one order to spread the shipping cost around. At least the shipping is somewhat reasonable.



I know, I know, $30US is reasonable? Actually it is once you get to larger orders/items. I did a check recently on an order from Nerdzoic when he had those cases of ML waves on sale for $95US. I did an order all the way up to the last stage (payment) to see how much shipping would be from Pennsylvania (where he is) to Ottawa. For two, I assume, sealed cases of ML figures it was just shy of $70US for shipping.



So Hasbro has decided to slightly subsidize shipping at least. Could they do better? Of course, Mattel Creations is much cheaper on shipping. However that is offset by their insane pricing on shipping now for their crowdfund projects.


Anyway, Pulse is really only worth it now if you can get stuff on big discount (30+% off) or bundle up a large order to make shipping cost single digits per item.

[Canukle]

They don?t even need to have it exclusively ?Canada?. Just lump us in with America

I get that the Pulse warehouses are in the US, so it HAS to originate internationally. And they already include duties in prices, so we are not getting that extra ring when importing. But a break on shipping to Canada would be nice - even 25% less with the subscription would be worth it over a year

[Darth Cujo]

It is very frustrating. Two factors particularly make it difficult for Canadians.

One is the general lack of long term (and concurrent) supply of items. If items consistently stayed in stock long enough to be able to combine together into a single order, it would be a little more palatable. $30US for say 6 or 8 items actually isn't that bad. Sure a Canadian retailer like gamestop would qualify for free shipping at that point, but it isn't terrible, as has been pointed out above.

But things like the holiday special Chewie are ridiculous. It came in stock for seemingly minutes, and if you just want one or two of him, you add $30 shipping and tax, (no duties, we don't pay duties on toys). You basically double the price.

The other issue is the "regular price" on the figures in general. They are excessive. Especially for deluxe figures and the army builder packs. I don't care how much paint and tooling costs are, Hasbro is charging what they charge because people are paying. I count on the odd sale or a gamestop discount to make things a little more reasonable, but a lot of the time, you have to pay full price or you don't get it. And Pulse exclusives, if you don't buy right away, you run the risk of missing out. Which is what they prey on; fomo. It's a manipulative business practice, but they use it.

But the prices are ridiculous. Hasbro is saving on tooling (supposedly a significant portion of their cost) and packaging with the trooper builders. There is no way they should be charging the same as 4 individually packaged figures. But they do.

For me the best solution would be to provide pulse exclusives through a Canadian retailer. Whether Gamestop, or TRU, or through local fan channel shops. But they need to clearly and well in advance communicate where they will show up. If we're that small of a market that they won't distribute through Hasbro Canada's warehouse then they shouldn't worry about the little business the pulse store will lose by us buying from a Canadian retailer.

Bottom line though, Canadians are insignificant to them. Therefore, all we get is the bare minimum. And I expect that will not change.

[usernameprime]

Lot's of great responses. Here's my conspiracy theory....

The cost of a Hasbropulse.ca site is negligible. A warehouse/office space is already in place.

Hasbropulse.ca as a whole would require a few employees at most to manage an entire country.

Yes, our population is low in relation to US and EU but if a brick and mortar Canadian retail outfit can survive with many employees and a website then how would Hasbro harm itself by simply implementing a site and a few employees in order to act as a nation wide retail option?

I am guessing that it would actually do so well that it would end up harming the Canadian brick and mortar stores that sell their products.

In conclusion, my insanity says that retail does not want Hasbro to retail to you directly in Canada because it would risk other businesses, TRU being one obvious retailer, and so Hasbro is complying with that.

[MapleMegatron]

Originally Posted by usernameprime

Excuse my Rant but...

Hasbro office/distribution centre located in Quebec. It's been in service for many years now.

Why is there no Hasbro Pulse in Canada?

I wanna buy a Trouble Bubble at $60usd but then I get hit with $25usd tax and $25usd shipping.

After conversion it's $130cad.

That's insane!

The quebec location is not what it used to be. It's shrunken significantly with its primary function as creating the packaging for various Hasbro products.

Hasbro Pulse will never come to Canada, the market is just too small. But honestly, your rant is more that products are expensive overall. That is fair and true, but none of that gets resolved with Pulse being in Canada. That would still be a $80-$90 product, plus standard taxes which are unavoidable. You'd pay a bit less on shipping, but it will still cost you since even in the US there is no free shipping threshold. That trouble bubble would still cost you around $115-$120 CAD.

Pulse being in Canada would be more helpful for the lower priced items, like the exclusive Chewie described above, since the shipping cost is flat rate. That's where it really stings.

Also, there is no conspiracy theory, we just arent worth the trouble.