Been to Target Lately??

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed Target is not offering nearly as many lights as they once did. Maybe it is just my local branch however I once looked forward to a visit to Target as they always had a few better lights. Now it seems as if their inventory is mostly the same old stuff with more and more novelty type stuff added daily.

My local branch still has a few Inova lights however has switched over to cheap plastic incans as well as a few cheap keychain type lights. Not very many luxeons at all and never any new stuff to offer.

Has anyone else visited Target lately and if so do you see the same problem with their inventory having less lights than before?

None here, only rubbish

Oh man, don't say that. Were still 2 to 3 years from getting our first Target here on the Islands (Oahu) and I was looking forward to hitting the light aisle.



Bill

Still a pretty decent selection at the Target closest to me.The INOVA section is smaller though and some of the lights are old stock making me wonder if they will eventually phase INOVAs out.They do have a couple of the newer Energizer LED lights and some other Luxeon models and of course the common cheap lights you can always find.

Wow, that is unfortunate if they are not selling as many nice lights anymore. I have always enjoyed their large flashlight section. My favorite light I ever bought from Target was the Brinkmann Qbeam Big Max 3 Million MaxPower Rechargeable spotlight, it is just an amazing all around light.

I hope it is just a seasonal change,and a expanded update will be coming as we get to the holiday shopping season.As we all know flashlights make great gifts.

I noticed that here in California. But they don't seem to be shrinking the range of lights offered; rather, there are a lot of empty pegs that are not being restocked.

I was just there yesterday. Compared to the new releases at DX, Target and wally are pretty un-interesting to say the least. Although my target has the new 2C-Cree river rock, a Cree version Brinkman 3AAA, and a 2CR123 Cree headlamp. All are 4-wire P4 BINs I think, and should emit around 100 Lumens. I almost walked out with the $9 2AAA river rock.

I wish they imported more River Rock Nuwai lights though.

They had a pretty good deal on a Swiss army knife and flashlight combo for $23. The flashlight was all silver, Luxen emitter 2AA.

And of course the Canadian Walmarts sucks even more so. Some stores do carry the 1w 2xAA Rayovac extreme (no 3w) so nothing really good as it would be nice if they had the 1xAA Rayovac headlamp for starters. Also Walmarts in the states tends to have clearances/sales, Canada nope.

DaveG said:

I hope it is just a seasonal change,and a expanded update will be coming as we get to the holiday shopping season.As we all know flashlights make great gifts.

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Actually, IIRC, soon after Halloween is when Target traditionally begins to clearance the flashlights, and other stuff too. The rush for lights for Halloween is over, the camping season demand is over, and October/early November is when Target thins out the entire store inventory to make space for Christmas stuff in inventory. We flashaholic geeks may think flashlights make great gifts (don't people usually give gifts that they themselves would like to receive?), but the normal, Uninfected consumers do not usually give lights as Christmas presents. Also, the Uninfected masses tend to taper off their flashlight use as camping season dwindles, completely opposite of the Infected, who can't wait for longer, colder days so they have more hours to play with their lights.

I blame the internet. Why stock stuff in all your stores when you can sell it online and ship from one or two warehouses. :thumbsdow

Target used to have a much better selection. Now it's just slim pickings. :shakehead

I haven't been to target in months, maybe it's time to visit again.

If you lower your expectations, you won't be disappointed. :sigh:

HAHAHa

Just like the Mad TV sketches huh?

I can hear that sketches theme song now!

It appears as though they're sliming down the good lights for more "disaster preparedness" lights with more cheap plastic ones, more of the big "high candlepower" ones, and more novelty as other's have stated. I didn't see any Inovas at my Northern CA target a couple days ago. But if you go to the camping aisle with all the coleman stuff, they put some lights there too.

Maybe holloween is why there's more cheap plastic incans there...and the little $5 led lights that have fixed batteries.

I picked up 2 lights at Tarzshea recently:

The silver Energizer 2AAA pen light. Ok so it looked like metal, but turns out it isn't. I guess $6 gets you... spray painted plastic(?). The clicky jammed. This is no Streamlight Stylus. Felt like a cheap toy. I actually took the time to return it when I was in the area (gas prices render some things in life irrelevant, like cheap flashlights), sacrificed a gallon of gas...

...and got that $10 River Rock 2AAA that I've been meaning to pick up. Great little light, good beam, spill, decent color beam, good size. Momentary button could be a bit larger or taller. Overall the best bang for the buck out of all my lights.

Energizer 2AAA: 1 star out of 5
River Rock 2AAA: 4 stars out of 5

Yea, they have mostly junk now. $19 to $39 River Rock chinalights with luxeons. Several year old Inovas are the best I can ever find there. And they never have sales anymore. I used to have a habit of stopping into Target when I was close by, but I don't ever do that anymore.

The Target near me had almost no lights today. Maybe they had a run last weekend with folks getting their storm lights, or there's big changes about to happen.

Geoff

JRTJRT said:

...and got that $10 River Rock 2AAA that I've been meaning to pick up. Great little light, good beam, spill, decent color beam, good size. Momentary button could be a bit larger or taller. Overall the best bang for the buck out of all my lights.
River Rock 2AAA: 4 stars out of 5

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It was a nice light, over 3 years ago, but it really is begging for an update of some kind. I still use mine almost everyday, but you can't help but notice how dim it is, even if it's a really handy size and has a handy pocketclip.