I'm thinking if they're out of stock on Walmart, that it might be because they're selling the stock they do have through their brick and mortar stores first, while they ramp up production to be able to keep the Walmart sales going. Seems like it might be more important at this stage to make sure the stores are stocked so that they get happy customers there. It would be pretty bad if you went to their store, got fitted for a hearing aid, then they told you, sorry we don't have any in stock. You'd leave a bad review, and they'd have a tough time getting anyone to come back there again.
I only have about $900 in this, so it's more of a speculative buy for me. But I think if this company gets their act together, it could flourish. If those stores start getting customers, and those customers are happy and leave glowing reviews on Yelp or something, then they're off to the races. It's probably hard for them to sell hearing aids on Walmart online right now anyway, because people probably aren't likely to plunk down a good chunk of money for something that they can't test in person, from a company that they may not have heard of yet, and that doesn't have any reviews.
Those kiosks are a good idea. Even if someone doesn't use the kiosk or look at them much, it's still a good way to get the name of the company and their products out there to the public. It gives them more credibility. People like to buy from companies they've heard of. So if they walk by it ten times they'll start to become familiar with the name and with the company. And maybe some of the customers didn't even realize there was such a thing as a self-fitting high quality hearing aid. Good advertisement for their business.
I kind of get the idea that Innerscope tries a bunch of different strategies all at once, and they just need to figure out which ones work, and which ones don't. To me the kiosks and the brick and mortar stores make the most sense at this point, compared to some of the other things they've tried. And if those work out, things look pretty good for them. Also I think there's been too much downward momentum lately, and there will be a point when it suddenly bounces big time as long as nothing too terrible happens.
