I've been on a bit of a lucky streak. Plus I had a nice conversation with a TRU explaining a little bit of distro, too...
Where I live in NJ, it's swarmed with scalpers. In my area there's about 3-5 Wal Marts, 8+ Targets, Kmarts, TRU, Sears... and every single one hasn't had a wave of TVC figures past Wave 2 since October of last year. Over the last two months it's gotten a little better, but most of my scores have been online.
The problem in my area definitely isn't new figures, it's scalpers and their deals with WM, Target and TRU. The stores order case upon case but it's the same 2 or three guys buying them all and flipping them on Ebay, the local comic stores, and the two flea markets in the area. I've stopped going to the stores closest to me because the local flea market toy dealer pays off the employees to save him every single new figure. His average price per figure at the flea market is $20 and up!
I managed to pick up a nice set of new figures at the Toys R Us in Times Square in New York City. This is really the only store you can get *anything* besides Sandtroopers, Stormtroopers, yellow clones, and the occasional Rebel Commando at for a 20+ mile radius.
I managed to score Ackbar, Bom, AND Fordo all in one go. There were a lot of Bespin Hans too there, but I'm waiting on one i got last week from ebay.
I also got to chat with a kid restocking the SW isle that morning. He collects too and says the stores are ordering a lot heavier on TVC he last few months, that their store alone gets several cases each week, and that if you don't see much this summer, your local store is getting scalped...