Now that parents will be rushing to stores in search of, oh, a video game--something called, “The weee?”
Actually, Nitendo’s new gaming system, The Nitendo Wii, is not to be found on shelves at toy stores this Christmas. If you’re asking clerks whether they have a “weee?,” they may even laugh at you, or call you names.
But this isn’t a surprise, given game-makers knew their system would be in high-demand months ago.
Is it a scam to amp up demand, by purposely lowering the supply? Hot concert tickets are “hot” because it typically only lasts a night for a given city. Garth Brooks smeared that strategy by performing several nights in a row at a city.
So Nitendo has agreed to meet parents half way by giving them a rain check if they now purchase the game before Christmas. The catch is, the kiddies won’t receive their system until January.
Fun Christmas morning, huh?
What will you do if your child wants the Nitendo Wii or other high-demand items that might not be on shelves this week?
Just what every kid wants -- a gift certificate instead of the real deal. I thought the USA was superior to all others in the creation, production and availability of consumer products. Oh that's right, they are USA corporations with production overseas where labor costs are cheaper. What a joke. Nintendo should be embarassed.
We were able to get a Wii console after my ex-wife called Game Stop every day for 2 weeks and then I rushed over to purchase it. Game Stop won't let you prepay, instead they want you to call their store everyday to see if it's in stock. This was late Oct. At that time, I put $5 down for the Guitar Hero 3 which means Game Stop is supposed to call your home and then you have 24 hrs to pick it up or they will sell to someone else. I never received the phone call and when I asked the manager he admitted they have problems with the automatic phone system. Funny, I receive emails from Game Stop all the time. They seemed to have no trouble coming through. Perhaps Game Stop should stop manipulating the market and instead use an email notification system if the phone system doesn't work.
Merry Christmas !
Wii shortages aren't a scam. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's head honcho has said himself- "This shortfall benefits no one."
Check out these two stories:
http://wii.joystiq.com/2007/12/14/notes-from-reggies-wii-shortages-conference-call/
http://wii.joystiq.com/2007/12/14/wii-unavailability-costing-nintendo-a-billion-in-sales/
Anyone looking for a Wii should sign up on http://wiialerts.com/ and provide your cell phone number so you can get text message alerts as soon as they go in stock somewhere, Amazon.com randomly adds more stock. The best way to get one from them is use Wii Alerts, but always keep an Amazon.com tab or window open in your browser set to the Wii product page and have your Amazon account enabled for one-click ordering. Keep your phone by you, when you get an alert that they're in stock, refresh the page, click order... bam. I've managed to secure two Wii's this month using this strategy for friends with kids who are trying to find a Wii for Christmas.
If you've got a kid looking for a Wii and you can't find one, a DS is a decent substitute and in plentiful supply. It has the added benefit of being portable, and having been released much earlier than the Wii it now has a catalog of a few thousand games instead of a few hundred. (And it also is backwards compatible with Gameboy Advance games!)
Also another great tip is to get a GameFly account to go with any new video game system. It's like NetFlix for video games, and much cheaper than buying video games which you or your kids might not like and then either be stuck with or have to trade in at GameStop at a substantial loss.
I have no idea what I'm going to do this week. I procrastinated like many other parents and I'm so worried. Does anyone have more advice out there,like Eli's.
I tried few of the ideas and I'm just now waiting.
With a week before Christmas... you're going to need a lot of luck, or an intense desire to track down a Wii. Why an intense desire... well... Target and Toys R Us (along with other retailers) historically have saved their Wii shipments for Sunday sales. Just so happens this Sunday is the day before Christmas Eve, so the amount of people desperate for a Wii might prevent this working.
You need to get friendly with the stock boys and find out exactly when stores are going to be getting Wii's and when they will be selling them. Don't forget to call stores like Sears, Costco, Sam's Club, Fry's, K-Mart, and anywhere else that has any kind of electronics department instead of just relying on the bigger retailers. Once you've gathered your Wii intelligence comes the next part...
Camp. Yes, camp. You know those nerds everyone made fun of who spent all night waiting in line for the Playstation 3? You're probably going to have to do the same thing. At this point, most places are probably going to tell you that they're not going to have Wii's again for sale until this Sunday. Pick a place (from reading online, Target generally gets the biggest shipments) and show up at about midnight Saturday just to see if anyone is there or not. Depending on how hard core people are, there might already be a line. If there are a ton of people in front of you at Target, go somewhere else. Average shipments of Wii's (again according to information online) are 20-50 units. If you have 30-40 people in front of you in line, it might not be a bad idea to high-tail it over to Toys R Us of Wal-Mart.
This late in the holiday season, there's pretty much no way you're going to just walk in to a store and pick one up. You're either going to have to camp or hope you get lucky with http://WiiAlerts.com
There is of course a third option, buy from a scalper on Craigslist.
Here is all the local advertisements for people selling Wii's locally: http://chicago.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=wii
You're going to pay around $400 for one going this route... but really, when you consider what your time is worth to you, paying the scalper premium might be "cheaper" than spending potentially ten or more hours standing in line in the cold. In that case, it's not really hard to rationalize especially if the forecast for Saturday night/Sunday morning is particularly miserable. (Although that could work in your favor too with fewer people deciding to camp!)
Best of luck, I love my Wii. Super Mario Galaxy and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 are my two current favorites. :)
I just told my kids they would have to wait until the sanity ended. So..they picked other things. I lived without gaming systems. I am sure my kids will survive as well.
We found one a few weeks ago at Toys-r-Us. They had 98 that morning! The only trick is reading the Sunday fliers and then showing up an hour or two before opening. Worked like a charm the first try. And there was no mayhem since T-r-U hands our tickets to ensure your place, preventing a stampede to the counter upon opening.
I've got to hand it to Nintendo. If they were really out to manipulate the market, they're doing a poor job at maximizing profits. These units are still $249, the same price all year long and cheeper than the competition. This certainly flies in the face of the old supply and demand model that suggest the price will creep up to the maximum the demand will accomodate. However, I suspect that many parents would pay twice the current price to get one.
I got my Wii on eBay. We paid a little more, but it was the number one on my kids' lists.