We think people who camp out overnight for electronics (even the iPhone) are dumbasses in general, but Best Buy is looking to force them to do just that, it would seem.
Word is the biggest of the big box retailers is sitting on a glut of Wiis, keeping them from the shelves, and is planning on a few door buster sales in the coming weeks.
Why they’re doing this we’re not sure, unless they’re trying to pull some “bundles only” crap like Fry’s, which we’re not expecting.
More on this rumor as it pans out.
I would not put this past Best Buy, since they frequently turn out to be The Evil Empire(tm).
I normally don’t go for the camping out angle myself, but a year ago my roommate all night in front of Target and picked up a Wii on opening day. It has turned out to be a wonderful decision, since I’ve managed to enjoy a year of Wii-tacular goodness while laughing at those less fortunate than I.
Matt: us Blog Business Summit folks are holding another blogger party at CES this year on January 8th. If you’re going to be around, it’d be great to have you or any other bloggers from Crunch Gear show up.
If you’re interested in some invites (or just more info) shoot me an e-mail: jason AT blogbusinesssummit DOT com.
So is conns.
I work at Fry’s Electronics. We get one shipment a week. Usually around 200. They go on sale friday and they are gone by Saturday afternoon. I used to work at Best Buy and I know people who still do. They get shipments every 2 or 3 days and keep atleast 300 in the wherehouse. Nintendo does not have a supply problem. They just instruct every supplier to hold back.
i work for best buy and i’ll spill the beans. omg we have wii’s… and we hold them for our Sunday Ad’s that state we have them. it’s either we do that, or we sell them now and “false advertise” on sunday. you pick.
we don’t get wii’s on normal shipments, they come UPS so they can arrive any day any time. we dont have 300 in the warehouse… most stores have empty warehouses or if they have any product in them, it’s tv’s and appliances.
nintendo does not instuct suppliers to hold back, otherwise fry’s over there would be “holding back” as well… when we get them, they comes in boxes of 3… so we may only get 21 or so and if we put them out as soon as we get them, w/in minuets they are gone
so to clear it up… if it’s in our ad for sunday, we’re going to hold them until they ad, if they aren’t in the ad, we sell them right away… you just have to be in the right place at the right time…
I work at Best Buy as well, and I can verify the previous poster’s claim. We don’t horde them, we hold them for the ad on Sunday so everyone who looks at our flyer has a better chance of getting one. Our shipments have been few and far between, and the only time we know for sure we are going to have them is if there is enough stock company-wide to create an ad. When we get the small shipments via UPS, they go out immediately on the floor, and of course are snatched up within minutes. Then the word gets out that we have them, and by the time people get to the store, they are gone and then we have angry customers.
Also, annoying re-sellers send their people in to try and get as many as possible to sell on eBay – I wish we could throw those people out, but unfortunately company policy forbids it. So really, a bigger problem than holding items for an ad is the deluge of bottom-feeding resellers (like DealsPointer) who take product away from moms & dads and jack up the price online.