Wii Shortages?

[nakimushi]

Two articles, one about a projected Wii shortage, and another about an artificial Wii shortage.

[Lego]

Amazon is going to have a 90 dollar Wii like they did with the 360 last year, so expect tons of them on Ebay.

[Suwako Moriya]

Interesting one thing I will say about this shortage is this. I find it amazing that the only things certain places offer online are these expensive bundles. Often including games I'd want to avoid. Because they just won't work for me.

I'm personally starting to become a bit suspicious. Maybe each Wii includes a rare philosopher's stone in it.... All I know is that there's no point to a system being more affordable if it's impossible to find and various stores are apparently taking "advantage" of that fact.

[HitokiriShadow]

I've become rather suspicious of this shortage myself. I know the Wii is the most popular thing since Tickle-Me-Elmo but I find it more than a little suspicious that over a year after the launch, people still have to hunt to find the damn things. In light of that Best Buy article, I almost wonder if they are being horded by less scrupulous retailers for the holiday season to help inflate their holiday sales.

[Lego]

Originally Posted by HitokiriShadow

I've become rather suspicious of this shortage myself. I know the Wii is the most popular thing since Tickle-Me-Elmo but I find it more than a little suspicious that over a year after the launch, people still have to hunt to find the damn things. In light of that Best Buy article, I almost wonder if they are being horded by less scrupulous retailers for the holiday season to help inflate their holiday sales.

There we stories from earlier in the year where I think Toys R' Us and Best Buy did that same thing.

[Nilrem]

I wouldn't be surprised if some retailers are hoarding some stocks, but over here they have been in limited supply almost constantly.

I've only seen them in stock in B&M stores a few times in the last 6 months, I suspect the release of Mario and Metroid has probably caused a number of people to buy recently, add to that the normal Christmas rush.

It's a bit surprising that Nintendo haven't been able to ramp up supply more, but then given it's apparently selling faster than the 360 (aren't the totals about even now despite the Wii's later launch?) it possibly shouldn't be.

[jecca-neko]

The shortage now, honestly, seems area dependant. I could point you to several stores in my area that have a lot of Wii consoles in stock.

I see that changing a little bit come next weekend, but you really gotta expect that between Black Friday and Christmas. The DS faced a shortage last winter and that has been out for quite some time.

[ellone]

It could be horders that are expecting to turn a profit on ebay during the holiday season. Some line up to buy when they hear a store is getting stock in and see if they can sell it on ebay. If they can't turn the profit they want, they just return it within the store's return period.

[Jumbo]

Originally Posted by Reimu Hakurei

All I know is that there's no point to a system being more affordable if it's impossible to find and various stores are apparently taking "advantage" of that fact.

I blame this more on "location" than the retailers themselves. I live out in the "ding-toolies" and while we do have a Best Buy, Target, Walmart etc. the Wii has never been stocked by any of these stores in great amounts due to them not being high sales stores as far as national figures go.

I figure the major B&M stores are going to send their stock to where it sells fastest, so the Gamestop or BB out here are going to be much lower on the totem pole for "getting" the system in the first place, let alone being able to build up any back stock. I have yet to ever see a Wii in stock at our BB, the only place I've seen them is by the pallet load at the local Costco and usually those are gone within the week as well and out of stock for a month until the next pallet load arrives.

Then again, who knows, maybe Nintendo is simply being overly cautious with the production of the system to try and "meet" demand as opposed to manufacture as many as possible and then sit on them to sell (A symptom I would attribute to poor sales of the GameCube, which you can still find just about everywhere, turning Nintendo overly cautious.)

From a business standpoint, it makes more sense to send the machine that sells well to the higher density populated areas where you can figure they won't be sitting on the shelves as long but then again it is always hit or miss with this as well.

Sure there is the whole "Each store will only be getting 10 or so stock" during the holiday rush but at most places you don't see that happening throughout the entire year do you?

[Suwako Moriya]

Originally Posted by Jumbo

I blame this more on "location" than the retailers themselves.

Hmm if location is the real issue then I wonder if the fact I live in Virginia is actually bad luck for getting a Wii.