The Unstoppable Force of the Star Wars Shoppers

Whenever I see this set of Star Wars Legacy Collection action figures, I’ll never forget the day I saw the Star Wars fans force descend upon them like a ‘human tidal wave’!  It happened 3 weekends ago when I first spotted the second wave of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie action figures in a local departmental store.

On that ‘fateful’ day, I had just arrived at the toy section of a departmental store and I was about to walk past the Star Wars section (where the pegs were full of figures from the above series).  Then out of nowhere, a group of 5-6 guys (from young ones who look like students to those in their 30’s) walked very swiftly towards the ‘beckoning’ Star Wars figures.  I forgot to mention - there was a sign there that read: “Buy any 2 Star Wars Figures for SGD 25.00″.

The ‘raiding party’ quickly swept past me and within seconds, each of them had picked up an armful of Star Wars figures.  I wasn’t sure if this group of Star Wars shoppers knew one another but there was an orderly sort of competition for certain ‘prized’ figures.  As there were plenty of figures of every character there for everyone, each of them kept politely to their own space and would then switch places with the next guy, as if there was some sort of unspoken system in place.

The good news is that nobody came to ‘disturb’ me in the next aisle where I was looking at the 3.75-inch Wolverine movie action figures (which unfortunately weren’t on that kind of offer).  A Star Wars shopper came over to the “Wolverine aisle” to examine his armful of Star Wars figures.  (Ah, he used the “grab first, select later” strategy, which I tend to use at warehouse toy sales!)

I managed to glance at his selections and they were all multiples of the Star Wars figures that were adorned in the trooper uniform.  It’s perfectly understandable to want multiple troopers to form an army of them.  But to buy more than 1 of Luke, Han Solo and the other human (dunno what’s his name) in storm trooper uniform?  In the end he left 2 figures of Luke in trooper uniform at the “Wolverine aisle” and left.  Maybe he needed to go the ATM machine first.

Anyway after like 15-20min, the Star Wars raiding party had made their purchases and left, presumably to go ‘raid’ another departmental store along Orchard Road.  In their aftermath, the Star Wars section was reduced by more than half!  At first glance, you could tell that the figures that wore the trooper uniforms were mostly gone!  You’d would have thought that you’ll only tend to see such shopping phenomenon amongst female shoppers at a ladies’ shoes sale.  Well the guys do it too, but more swiftly and more decisively.  They came, they saw and they bought them all!

Important lessons I learnt from that day are: If I ever see the sign that reads ”Buy any 2 Star Wars Figures for SGD 25.00″ at the Star Wars section of any departmental store again, I’ll make sure the coast is clear of any ‘tidal waves’ before going near or walking past it.  This is especially so if the section looks stocked up to the brim.  If the section looks quite empty, chances are that a ‘raiding party’ had already gone through it, so it’s ’safe’ to venture near!