There is no doubt that this holiday season, one of the hottest gifts is the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo of America’s president, Reggie Fils-Aime, warned gamers months ago that supplies would be short and tried to alleviate the problem with a voucher program through GameStop. It’s clear this won’t be enough to meet demand, causing Nintendo to strongly urge retailers not to force consumers to buy bundles of software and accessories in order to take advantage of the shortage…Instead of selling the systems with bundles, a chain of Illinois/Missouri gaming stores called Slackers is simply dumping its stock onto eBay for the Buy It Now price of $399.99, an almost $150 markup.
Ars Technica contacted the St. Louis Slackers location for confirmation of the practice. When asked if the allegations were true, there was a long silence. “That is something you’ll have to speak with the owner about,” we were told. We have since attempted to contact Slackers’ owner multiple times, but have been unsuccessful. Nintendo has also not responded to our requests for comment on this story.
An update at Ars Technica notes that Slackers sometimes had 20 systems in stock – while telling their walk-in customers they had none.
How to build customer loyalty, dude. I wouldn’t buy a battery from those klowns, now.
#1, they will close and open under a NEW name and be CLEAN…AGAIN.
Honesty ISNT a corporate mandate…DARN.
This is no lie. I was at the Slackers in Fairview Heights, IL last month. I saw the shipment of about 10 Wiis come in the back door. Considering I had been looking for one, not as a gift, just looking for one to get sometime, I asked the clerk about them (he was someone I knew from high school). He told me that they were going to create a bundle for 2 of them and sell them at $350 in-store, and the rest were going to be held until closer to Christmas then put up on eBay for almost double the price.
Feeling defeated, I bought an old vhs copy of some ReBoot episodes, a Clockwork Orange poster and Golden Axe for the Genesis to replace my lost one.
My two older brother’s, wily soul’s from way back, bought their gamer son’s their Wii back in July and stashed them.
The kid’s don’t know and think they aren’t getting one for Christmas. Sam, my brother that’s into gaming said he bought a lot of stuff to go with it, so the whole bundle cost a fortune.
My oldest brother Joe, figure’s he was the last kid in the country to get chemistry set and be excited.
Your anger is displaced, the store is only doing what is natural in a capitalistic society ( the market will pay what the market will pay )
Your anger should be with the manufacturer for the false shortage due to low levels of manufacturing to cause the shortage and thus the consumer want
This has been happening in the Comic Book Industry for years. Nothing new to me.
They will get in trouble from Nintendo if this is true. The reason is they signed a marketing agreement with Nintendo. I don’t know the exact verbiage, but basically they MUST sell the Wii at the retail price. PERIOD. Why do you think EVERYONE sells them for $249. Why do you think they NEVER go on sale. Why do you think the Ipod is the same price at every store. Why do you think that HP ink is the same price at every store.
Personally I feel these marketing agreements should be declared illegal price fixing. That way Nintendo would not feel compelled to create artificial shortages to help hype their product. They would ramp up production to meet the initial high price. Pay off the production ramp up costs, and then drop the rice gradually as demand slows down.
Don
#6,
the problem comes with finding a reliable manufacturer. ASK Microsoft..
And if they are dealing with a specific CPU maker…THEY MAKE the board.. And its up to the Manufacturer..
PS…
Nintendo has ALWAYS built things SLOW…
Go back and look at the DS, and previous machines…
I thought this might be happening but with GameStop instead. There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of Wiis on eBay… where are they all coming from? My thinking is the Nintendo/GameStop rain check program is Nintendo’s way of helping to ensure the boxes make it to their customers at MSRP. It will be interesting to see if the rain checks end up on eBay.
#6
I don’t see the motivation for Nintendo to intentionally keep production below demand. Its not like Nintendo is holding back production to get more money for the Wii. They will sell it for $250 regardless of how many they make. In addition, people who want one and can’t buy a Wii may get frustrated and just buy an XBox 360, PS3 or the much lower priced PS2. If anything there is a clear incentive for Nintendo to make as many Wii’s as they can.
Do you think it is easy to just go out and qualify new companies in China and to obtain the additional parts to make additional millions of the Wii?
Take off that tin foil hat. There is no conspiracy here.