Source for Orbit Ball

[jester357mom]

After dozens of phone calls and many miles searching various Walmart's in PA, I finally called Blip. According to their representative, they do not sell to the public (ugh ) and the only store that will carry them is Walmart.

Good Luck teams!!!!!

[Petey]

Called Blip. The lady sounded tired. She said that FIRST will have something up on their website within the next 24 hours. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that means.

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Petey

Called Blip. The lady sounded tired.

Probably has to do with the thousand or so voicemails she got over the weekend.

[Dubdub]

Originally Posted by dipmeinaluminum

i gave the guy the bar code number for it and he tells me that he got nothing, maybe i showed up to early in the morning and he didnt want to bother with me. tell your math teacher Ms Fanelli that i said hi!!!!

I had the same problem. The manager I talked to gave me the upc code for it, but when I had another associate look for the ball, it didn't even come up on their computer, and when it rang-up at the register it was rung-up as a play ball...

[Dubdub]

Originally Posted by Petey

Called Blip. The lady sounded tired. She said that FIRST will have something up on their website within the next 24 hours. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that means.

Probably has to do with the, how many teams are there, like 2900 or so teams all calling her for the same reason: How do I get about ten to fifteen balls. She was probably more than tired, she has probably already fried about three coffee makers... I feel bad for her, that company has probably had more complaints in the past 72 hours that they have had ever since they opened...

[purduephotog]

Originally Posted by Dubdub

Probably has to do with the, how many teams are there, like 2900 or so teams all calling her for the same reason: How do I get about ten to fifteen balls. She was probably more than tired, she has probably already fried about three coffee makers... I feel bad for her, that company has probably had more complaints in the past 72 hours that they have had ever since they opened...

Once again I call on FIRST: BAD FORM!

You did this with those stupid exercise balls last season. If you have a sourced product PUT THESE AGREEMENTS IN PLACE FIRST and then negotiate source purchase methods.

Do they not realize what happens each time they do this?

All of our area (as far as I can tell) has been bought out by one team. From a note I received they seem rather pleased by the fact that they cleaned out all the local WalMarts of balls.

Gracious professionalism at its best.

[Kingofl337]

I don't believe FIRST knew about this issue until right before kick off and didn't have time to react to the news that they were discontinued.

[dipmeinaluminum]

this is a shot in the dark but:
can anyone who baught the orbit ball at your walmart take a very detailed picture of the UPC barcode, cropped out to fill the entire screen so i could download it to my iphone and just scan it when i travel over a million miles across the east coast looking for this thing? i know it comes in a box.

Love Team 354 Mentor. : )

[Team1710]

Someone did post pictures of the box earlier.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

I don't believe FIRST knew about this issue until right before kick off and didn't have time to react to the news that they were discontinued.

If that's the case, (and I'm willing to believe that it is, if only for granting FIRST the benefit of the doubt) then I'm sure they will be calling the supplier of next year's game item AHEAD OF TIME like they should do with everything (we need) to be sure it's available.
At least every team got one of each though, I will give them that.
Why they say 2009 on them, when they are supposedly discontinued at the end of 2008 is the real mystery.

[Team1710]

I don't know if this could help but I found a list of walmart distribution centers.

http://www.algulfcoastvideo.com/Walmart1.htm

[eschanz]

umm err hem ahh ehh

[Petey]

Originally Posted by Kingofl337

I don't believe FIRST knew about this issue until right before kick off and didn't have time to react to the news that they were discontinued.

Define "right before." I talked to someone from GDC at kickoff and they knew about it. My guess is that FIRST has known for at least a week but has been trying to figure out a way to fix it without alerting people to the nature of the balls.

This is something that happens with FIRST routinely. Remember all the fuss in 2003 about the storage bins? And then how hilariously overstocked WalMart was with bins in 2004, and how furious they got?

FIRST needs to take over the wholesale redistributing of their game pieces. Obviously this has a lot of attendant problems and is not the most efficient way to run things. However, it A) keeps stuff like this from happening, B) is the only thing that will work if FIRST truly grows to varsity level, and C) would be in keeping with Dean's message about positive social change to keep people from patronizing WalMart (but that's getting political...)

[NinJA999]

Originally Posted by purduephotog

If you have a sourced product PUT THESE AGREEMENTS IN PLACE FIRST and then negotiate source purchase methods.

I do somewhat agree, but FIRST probably needs to consider the possibility of leaks.

[Team #1502]

We finally tracked down some orbit balls.
Called 5 Wal-marts 6 Toys R us and some Targets and finally tracked down three at a Wal-mart close by. We bought them even though they were all broken. Then we called some more and found another Wal-mart that had five in stock and so purchased them. they appear to be unbroken.
So my suggestion is call stores first then go look for yourself.
Also Toys R us and Target in our area said they never carried them.