Sorry if this is posted in the wrong location, and in NO WAY am I blaming Bethesda for Targets behavior. I just want the Fallout community to see what happened with this partnership.

This is a PSA for some scummy Bait-And-Switch used by Target retail stores, specifically Valparaiso IN, Merriville IN, and Highland IN.

Today Target advertised a special, limited edition item, a special Fallout themed Nuka-Cola Quantum drink. The bottles retail for $2.99 each, but sell online for $50+ currently.

A friend and I called the target store in Valparaiso IN last night and spoke with a manager to find out when the items would be on sale and how many were in stock. We were told they had 12 cases and would be on sale beginning 8am this morning, first come, first serve.

My friend and I arrived at that location at 5am and waited for the store to open. During our wait, 3 Target employees left the store with several bottles of the drink as they ended their shift, before the store was officially open.

To our dismay, when the doors did finally open, the crowd was greeted by a manager who informed us that they only had 3 bottles in stock. When I called him out on what we were told the night before, he laughed and said it was misinformation. We were then told both the Highland and Merryville store had them in stock, but when we called those store, they claimed they "Never received their shipments"

The reason for this post is not to complain about something as silly as a drink, but to shame these retail chains for their unfair practices used on consumers.

To add insult to injury, I did in fact call their corporate office to make an official complaint, and both times I was disconnected by their customer service reps.

My friend and I waited 4.5 hours, in the cold, only to be lied to by a member of management. I wish I could say that this was an isolates incident by one mismanaged store, but it seems that all the Target locations in my relative area pulled the same stunt.

This is a simple post to show how Target employees took advantage of the special partnership, leaving us vault boys with nothing to drink in the wasteland.

Yep. Same fecal matter going on here in N. California. Those employees are serious scum and should be fired. Except they helped Target generate false demand and supply aka false publicity for their store. I suspected something like this would happen when a non game retailer --that's not a Best Buy or even the scale of a global distributor like Walmart--jumps the bandwagon to turn a quick profit. But I didn't waste my time camping out in the cold last night, for the obvious reason I didn't want to miss the 9:01pm PST launch. That being said,

1. friend of mine did the same thing this morning. We'd both called in --AND checked the online store supply which listed the item but with no retail price. Red flag #1.

2. The store clerk who answered for this Target superstore location said they had ample supply. But that these would be unavailable until release date today. Which was odd since Fallout 4 was officially released on the West Coast/PST zone at 9:01pm last night. Red flag # 2.

3. My friend did the same thing that happened to you with over 30 or so more devoutly faithful [censored]. Only to be rewarded by being informed the store had ZERO product shipped this morning. Because the store didn't receive the drinks from whatever wholesaler (Beth? some other 3rd party?) due to a logistics screw up. Red Flag #3

IMO, I think Target got in the game late and cobbed together a deal with Beth to received a LIMITED supply of the drinks. Which means just like the Pip Boy collection edition, over some 80% of the fanbase who seek to buy this will be left out in the cold. It's all one big giant scam IMO. Target needs to apologize for it's false advertising of this whole business. Particualarly in your case in which what you described sounded like criminal behavior and/or false advertising by both management and employees. I'm personally boycotting Target for Walmart for all my shopping needs in the future.

edit: I improvised and made up for this deficiency with a half a dozen pack of Mike's Hard Berry Lemondade last night. Looked like the Nuka with a taste like the kick of a mule!

Same thing happened to me....the "we never got our shipment" deal, even though it said they had it in stock when I checked online. Thank you Target!

OR (and working in retail myself, this is what I suspect) the shipments are being mostly re-directed to stores that have higher service rates. Smaller stores get their shipments cut at the last moment and half the time management finds out a day later. If the product is handled by a private vendor company (some companies like Coke, Pepsi, and bread companies require the delivery drivers to stock the product) then the store will only have a projected inventory, but ultimately it is at the delivery driver's discretion (or THEIR boss) if store X gets a full order.

And sometimes, Stuff just gets broken when it comes in. It happens.

Finally. NEVER trust the online inventory for ANY retail store. No one at that outlet has any control over what is on that site. They are all handled by tech teams either at another site or the home office.

TL;DR- Crap happens. Wait for the next shipment and if you HAVE to contact anyone, call the distributor.

It does sound like a supply side problem rather than a deceit on their part. svcks either way though.

True. Very true. Your best bet is to schmooze the vendor if you catch them stocking it. Play it up thick and be buddy buddy with them. Sometimes they get little promo things like lanyards or pins and you may get lucky and score something

My wife went there for me a 8:00 when they opened. About 8 people went in before her (she said they looked nerdy). They bought all 12 bottle before she could find them. That was it. Nothing left.

I'd say it sounds like a combination of both the suppliers not giving the anticipated stock and store staff taking first dibs. The two largest target's in the Chicago land area had a few employees tell me and others they only got 1 case and then a manager seeing all the people wanting it looking dejected and "finding" 1 for each of the 4 of us. Fingers crossed they do another run of the stuff.

I was there at opening. Just one case- 12pk, sold out in several minutes and I was just behind a few people when the "soldout" was shouted. Uh-huh, sure. Went home, called another same thing just one case and, of course, sold out.

For me, one bottle is all wanted just to collect, unopened. Find it extremely "convenient" a national chain only has one case/12pk available to sell per store. Only silver lining is when I picked up XBOX One/FO4 bundle at Gamestop at midnight I received a Nuka-Cola Bottlecap. I'm treasuring that thing as simple as it is, it's absolutely cool.

Back to the Nuka Cola Quantum, extremely disappointed at the limitation of that magnitude. If anything, Beth should have sold it on their website than Target. Pure BS on that severe limitation to be selling at store comparable to Wal-Mart.

Same thing in Reno, NV: Called last night, verified in stock, first come first serve this morning, 50 plus people in line braved 8 inches of snow to be there when the store opened, 12 bottles was all they had...

Personally, imho, I don't mind the small supply. I expected it to be a tiny shipment, which is why we went so early. The thing that disgusted me was the fact that the store sold them to the employee's before even giving the consumers the chance to buy it. I've worked at Wal-Mart, and though you wont hear me sing them praises anytime soon, they (at least at my store) are incredibly strict about not letting employees buy anything before the customers.