Just sell me the goddamned Wii and stop trying to create artificial demand!!!!!!!!!!!

The BBQ Pit
1

High on Christmas gift cards and extra cash, I’ve decided to get a Nintendo Wii. I fully understand that there’s a big demand for the things right now and that they’re hard to find and will remain so for probably a few months, but I also understand that as a dilligent shopper, I should be able to source one.

Which I did, this morning - I found out that the local Best Buy was getting a shipment of 20 or so. So I roll down there to pick one up, and was told that sure, they have them in, but they won’t sell me one because they’re “saving” them all until the 31st, when they’ll be doing some sort of “event” to sell them; basically, I have to come back and then get in some sort of line or lottery to buy one.

Fuck that.

The machine was released over two months ago, and this is already the third such “event” that retailers have tried to do. Why will they not just sell the device without trying to create more hype, more exclusivity, more artificial demand? Just the week before Christmas, retailers pulled this crap with the Wii and with the Nintendo DS lite, a machine that’s been out for two years but just this Christmas seemed to reach critical demand mass - refusing to sell them when they got them in stock because they were “saving” them for the next Saturday, when they would make a big deal out of making people line up and take numbers and the sort.

This shit won’t fly. The local grocery store couldn’t just start “saving” all of the milk and bread they get in because they want to build up hype and create artificial demand before they sell them. This is bullshit. Fuckers. Satan.

2

Well, at least now you know where to not buy your Wii. Seriously. You don’t like the practices, don’t shop there. Granted, someone else will just pop up and buy the damn thing, but at least you will end up giving your money to a better business.

3

Look at the bright side, I bet you can get a TMX elmo for dirt cheap.

It isn’t uncommon for stores to do this on lots of items. Especially sale items.

The marketing weasels will never understand why this sort of thing is offensive and customers will never understand them not understanding.

May I suggest you get your Wii from a company that does not cater to these practices?

4

“I should be able to source one”?

Sorry, I have limited sympathy for anyone who uses “source” as a verb.

5

You mean like electrical engineers and techs? Have a look at the technical specs for digital logic chips to see what I mean.

6

Yeah, the battle for the non-verb status of “source” was lost years ago.

7

They probably shouldn’t have told you they had them. But if they’re going to be advertising it in a Sunday ad, then they damn well better have some on Sunday morning. If they handed them out before hand (to you) then they’d have a lot of pissed off customers wanting to know why they didn’t have any on Sunday.

The DS has been out quite a while but the DS Lite has only been out since June.

I did see the Wii systems at Target (about 30 of them) available for sale at the beginning of the month. They’re was one person purchasing one but no other customers around. This was around noon on a Tuesday. I skipped buying one at that time.

I also saw that the Costco by me has the Playstation 3 available. And not for $2000. Just regular price.

8

Can we build a war memorial for that battle somewhere? Perhaps near the *‘Challenge’ as synonym for ‘Problem’ *cenotaph?

9

I didn’t realize this discussion was mong electrical engineers concerning digital logic chips. I withdraw the comment,

10

Agree. I’m surprised the Wii wasn’t referred to as a “video gaming solution” in the post.

11

Yeah, people should stop verbing words. It totally wierds the language.

12

Language is a malleable thing with endless permutations. Quit fucking jerking off in my goddamned thread, ok?

13

The battle was lost years ago? I’d source to source a cite for that, and if you can’t source me one, I’ll have to source that you’re totally sourcing things up.

Daniel

14

'Tain’t the first time I’ve heard of BB doing this. It seems pretty damn stupid to me to withhold an actual sale for the sake of a potential future sale, but what place does common sense have at BB?

Though this thread brings a thought to mind: They should create a Wii “Best Buy Rage” game where you walk into a store to buy something, are given the same spiel that VC03 received, and then you can beat the 22 year old manager with a variety of blunt objects. Careful not to tear your rotator cuff.

15

Yeah, the word “buy” was clearly not doing it’s job, since you don’t sound remotely like a pinhead when you talk about going to a store to “buy” something.

16

And everyone called me a fool for standing in front of Best Buy for nine hours just to procure a Wii. Well who is laughing now??? Muaaahahahahahaha!!!
Ahem, 'Scuse me, I get carried away sometimes. Good luck on your search. I’m going to play Excite Truck on the Wii now.

17

I saw several for sale at a Target in Woodridge, IL (30 miles from Chicago) just this morning. One guy was purchasing one and I heard the store associates talking about another guy driving over to get one right then.

So it appears that Target could give a shit about creating artificial demand. If they have them, they sell them. Check that place out instead.

18

…unless, of course, you’re a grown man complaining in a public forum because you have to wait a few days to buy an expensive toy.

19

It’s almost as pathetic as the adult who has twice as many posts to said thread as anyone else. None of which, might I point out, have anything to do with the OP.

The irony.

20

Plain English-speaking non-tech non-engineering person here, who just wants to chip in that “source” in the OP’s sentence was clearly understood by me at least to be a synonym, not for “buy”, but for “locate” or “find”. Everyone who Shops with a capital “S” knows that just because a store has one of whatever-it-is doesn’t necessarily mean you’re gonna buy it, so when you “source” something, you’ve located a place that has one, and then you’re gonna decide whether to buy it, based on price, location, warranties, the color of the sales kid’s polo shirt, whatever.

And we’ve been talking about things being “outsourced” for a long time now, so I don’t see what the BFD is, frankly.

I didn’t think it sounded pretentious or pinhead-ish at all. English is an evolving language, always has been, always will be. If you’re gonna start nitpicking at the precise way it’s evolving, allow me to tuck you into bed at the bottom of your mine shaft with your copy of the OED and I hope you’ll be very happy together. :smiley:

He’s not. He’s complaining that Best Buy is attempting to artificially–and pointlessly–inflate the demand for an item whose 15-minutes of hot media attention and its concurrent demand frenzy has peaked, and that is now available elsewhere. It’s majorly stoopid, and in the long term self-defeating, for a retailer to do this, is the point here.

Also, January 31 is not “a few days”, and also apparently even then he won’t be able to simply walk in and buy one, but will have to put his name in a hat or something. Which is stoopid. It would have flown when the thing was first released, but it’s old news now, and Best Buy thinks they can recreate that fine hot consumer frenzy. Which is stoopid, too.