The Toys R US where I live has been keeping display WII boxes on the shelf even when they don’t have any Wii’s in stock. I wonder how many people have gotten upset because it looked like the store had Wii’s on the shelf.
May just be anecdotal, but you may try not shopping in large urban or metropolitan areas. Not far from where I live is an EbGames and a GameStop that I frequent semi-regularly and every time I’ve been in over the past 2 months I’ve seen a minimum of two Wiis on the shelves. Have even seen a few people coming in and buying one of them–so they’re definitely there and moving, just slower than they are in other areas. I eventually bought one of them myself because I understood they were so hard to find, I thought maybe it was some weird exception that I saw around 2 or 3 on the shelf every time I went in.
Both stores are in strip malls and get way less traffic than game stores in more urbanized areas (just speaking from my experience at game stores in more urban versus less urban areas.)
That’s why I asked, because the Game Stops and EB stores did exactly that. Pissed me off to no end. However, I haven’t seen these Wii promotions that VCO3’s been talking about any time recently. Everyone I know who has a Wii just went into the store and got it. It took about two or three days for the Wiis at the Target near me to sell out, and I’m located in the city of Chicago. So they’re there, you just have to be persistent and look.
Just an aside: Nintendo requires Toys R Us to keep those damn empty boxes on the shelf, even though it causes customer anger / dissatisfaction when they realize that the store doesn’t actually have any Wiis.
I can’t speak to Game Stop / EB - but I imagine it’s the same deal.
Curious; how do you know this?
I made some cash doing a brief stint in Toys R Us’ shipping & receiving department during the last holiday season. It was interesting, to say the least. Honestly, everyone should experience black fri— oops! I mean green friday from the other side of the aisle at least once.
So there you go - first hand knowledge.
I second that it depends on your location. I could go in tomorrow and pick up a Nintendo from at least 3 stores.
BTW The Toys R Us by me had explicit (though typed up) signs denying availability in the store’s entrance as well as in the games section.
Apparently there is no debate if you can leap from the fact that the units sell out quickly when they *are * on the shelves to " the retailers must be hoarding them in the back room". :rolleyes:
The requirement of displayign empty boxes must be a new thing because the EB/GameStops by me didn’t start doing that until after Christmas.
The first time I saw I saw a store do that I asked the clerk if that meant they had Wiis. When he said no I told him that was very misleading. His reply was classic:
“Why would you think we have Wiis just because we’re displaying the boxes?”
I have bought 3 of them so far at Wal-Mart. I know it’s evil, and all that, but I must time it right or something, because whenever I decide to go find one, they have one.
-Joe
Well, your both a little bit right. I wouldn’t call it “hoarding” and I wouldn’t call them “sales events” but every retailer does a little thing called “ad hold”.
Most retailers put out a weekly ad that gets stuck in with the local newspaper on Sundays. The flyer has items that are designated “as advertised” for the week.
Now when they decide to show a Nintendo Wii in their advertisement common sense would tell you that it would probably be a good idea to have some in stock for the ad. Otherwise you run into problems. “Your ad starts today. I’m here for the Wii. It’s in your ad.” “Well, we don’t have any to sell.” “Then why is it in your ad?” “Well, we got a bunch in on Friday but we went ahead and sold them all.”
“Are you getting more for the ad?” “Oh, who knows? Maybe, maybe not.”
It’s a lot easier to get a shipment on Friday, hold them (not hoard) in the back room and wait till Sunday. “Your ad starts today. I’m here for the Wii. It’s in your ad.” “Yes sir. Here you go. Glad your here early cause I’ve only got 15 for the ad, and when their gone their gone.”
And it’s easier to tell the guy coming in on Wednesday “Yeah they were in the ad, we had 15, they sold real fast” compared to “no, we never had any for the ad to begin with.”
I think “recently” is the key word. When various stores had ads printed saying they would have Wiis available on a certain day, they felt obligated to have at least some available on that day. Now it is clear Wiis sell out without any advertising. Why use valuable ad space for them, when you can use it for another product?
Read VCO3’s 1st post in this thread. I would think that “a little bit right” wouldn’t apply to his statement that retailers have “hundreds of systems hiding in the storeroom”.
Most retailers in my area haven’t had them on the shelves or part of a sales event in weeks.
If you were to agree with the “hundreds of systems” idea then you would have to believe that Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Kmart, Gamestop all have them stashed in their storerooms and are cooperating with each other.
I agree with you that retailers will hold a recent shipment to match an ad release. But VCO3’s statement implies that the retailers are sitting on large quantities only to dole out portions during sales events. It makes little business sense to do that and I can find no evidence that it is being done.
Don’t worry, he’s just like that. I hear Macs are, like, ten times more expensive than the equivalent PC, too.
-Joe
okay, I re-read his post. No, they don’t have hundreds, and it’s not an artificial shortage created by retailers. It’s a legit shortage by Nintendo.
If retailers had their way they’d have them consistently sitting on their shelves “and” have enough for an ad.
Could be, but I don’t know as I wasn’t in the hunt for a Wii until about two months ago, and I didn’t notice any hyped up sales events or anything like that. My objection was that VCO3 seems to think there’s some sort of great conspiracy by retailers to hoard Wiis for such events, and my experience shows otherwise. I am not arguing that some retailers might not do this, but his reply that no cite was needed for these sales events, as it’s clearly self-evident to anyone around that they’re everywhere, does not gibe with my experience in the last two months. Or, simply, cite?
Your cite would be the Sunday circulars for the last six months of nearly every big box store including Best Buy, Circuit City, Toys R Us, Target, Kmart, etc, etc.
These Sunday sales events have become fewer and farther between in recent weeks though, so I think this “hoarding” is coming to an end and most stores are putting them out as soon as they get them in.
Like I said, I haven’t noticed that in this area over the last two months. I assume you are talking about the present since the OP is complaining about the difficulty of getting the Wii now. And, like I said, the Target near my house has no such promotion, and I believe never had any such promotion.
Well then, I’m sorry, but you haven’t been paying much attention to the Sunday circulars of these stores.
It is pretty common knowledge in gaming circles that many big box stores are holding Wiis for Sunday advertising blitzes and a Google search of various video game forums will turn up loads of threads with titles like this: “[Random Big Box Store] to have Wiis this Sunday!”
These are national promotions and to say they’re not happening in light of many people describing how they work to you is just plain ignorant.
Then obviously I’m ignorant. I have a Target a half block from my house. I go there at least twice a week. I have been actively looking for a Wii as of three months ago. I think I would have noticed if they had some promotion, especially since I asked the staff about it. It took me dropping in randomly on a Thursday to find Wiis on the shelf.
edit: Also, please don’t misrepresent my point. I did not say anywhere that these promotions were not happening. I said that it doesn’t gibe with my experience, and in my area I have not noticed such a thing. And I sincerely believe the Target near my house doesn’t have such a promotion. What more of a cite do you need than me actually asking the employees about it?