Sounds like you're defending a thread like this.  

No one is debating the importance of retailers.  However, this is a picture of one store.  Even if it were a picture of multiple stores, there will be varying degrees in all sorts of places.  Demographics are a thing.  If it weren't, then all stores would look the same and advertising would be extremely simple and the console war would be very easily decided.

I don't think anyone here can accurately say how the shelf space is for each system as a whole.  At best, you know your local area.  This is why you go to those who track the sales like NPD. 

So, since we already know the WIi U isn't doing amazingly and given what I said, this thread serves almost no point at all except to say that where he is, at Best Buys around him, the Wii U isn't stocked very well.  It means nothing beyond that.

It already has been a disaster..... Where were you for the past 2 years? This is not new. 

My local stores are just like this too. One of them is actually attached to a mall and the entrance from inside the mall has the Wii U at the front door (surprising) I went there the weekend Hyrule Warriors came out, there was a kid playing the Hyrule Warriors demo. There were no copies of Hyrule Warriors on the shelf, the game section/shelves looked similar to the OP's picture, depleted and only stocked with games like Just Dance, Bass Fishing, Assassin's Creed III and other random older games, nothing that would make you want to buy the system.

This is Nintendo's fault, their retail presence is terrible in almost every store. This isn't Best Buy's fault. Nintendo needs to fix this. A lot of time when games come out I have to ask a employee about it and they have to go in the back and dig it out, for some reason it doesn't go out on shelves. Nintendo needs to put more promotion for their upcoming titles and get retailers more interested. The PS4/XB1 sections are fully stocked on huge screen TVs and neatly organized with releases on the shelves on Day 1. I kinda get the feeling Nintendo is printing a conservative amount of copies of games hoping it can push people to digital (higher profits), but really it's killing the impulse buyers and word of mouth sales that advertising in-store can create.

How do you know this? As far as I understand it, the retailer buys the games from Nintendo in whichever quantity they predict demand for, and it is then their responsibility to advertise the game (in-store) and have the right quantities on shelves. Nintendo is just the one who sells to the retailer. In fact, your post supports this train of thought with you anecdote about you having to ask the employees to go get the games from the back. The retailer is the one who decides what is on the shelves, and Nintendo has no control over that, other than possibly paying the retailer the difference in opportunity cost so that they place more Nintendo content in their store at the cost of other shelf placement. Anyway, this seems to be a regional/store-based issue. All of the walmarts and gamestops in my area have a healthy amount of Wii U merchandise. 

Not surprising considering the sales of the console.

call your local fire department!

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo has representatives that visit each store, generally about once a month.  They're the ones that go to the store and replace broken demo controllers, update the demo disks, put up some of the marketing/posters/etc for upcoming games.  They're the ones that go to the retailer and make sure that their product is being represented properly.  Microsoft and Sony's employees seem to be doing a great job at it, they seem to be doing a great job at keeping the retailer informed on the upcoming releases too.  I see pre-order displays for the PS4 and XB1 games but do not see them for Wii U games.  I also own a PS4 and the releases are on the shelves Day 1.  The games section is always well organized and stocked, even though they're clearly getting more traffic and customers fumbling through them.  The Wii U section tends to be harder to make look nice because it's so under stocked with so few games to choose from so it looks sparse and almost like a clearance section. 

All of this points to Nintendo either cutting down on representatives, not training them properly, or just putting no importance on the representatives that visit the store.    Those corporations, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Apple, Whirlpool, BeatsbyDre (I know it's apple) all of them basically buy representation in the store and shelf space.  Nintendo seems to not care or see the importance of their brand in the store and are expecting the consumers to be educated on the product, walk in and buy it.  That is what you or I do, but that is not what your average consumer does.  Besides having a demo playing Hyrule Warriors they need to have the section stocked with copies of Hyrule Warriors, stocked with the already released hits of the Wii U and promoting the upcoming games on the Wii U.  That is how you get someone to impulse buy a Wii U or start considering buying the system that previously hadn't paid attention to it.

I honestly haven't seen a demo for any console for years. I figured they broke far too much and it was too costly for it to be worth the extra marketing. Especially touch screen consoles like the 3DS/DS (and the would be Wii U.) There are Xbox 360 controllers attached to what used to be a demo in my Walmart, but they are not connected to anything now, for example. So I can't comment on that. But I just want to make sure you are not ignoring the issue of retailers not ordering some of these games because they don't believe there is much demand for them in the first place. I just can't see how a company not putting certain WIi U games on the shelves, but keeping them in the back is Nintendo's fault. It seems to me as if they want that shelf-space for something they think will sell more. Anyway, at my Walmart there were many displays for Mario Kart 8 and SM3DW, so certainly this is a localized issue and not the generalized one you are making it seem to be. I mean, if a company doesn't want to buy so many copies of a game, it isn't Nintendo's role to persuade or force them knowing that the company probably has sound reasoning for not stocking such games at those levels. This is especially true for games like Hyrule Warriors which are somewhat niche and Nintendo wants to maximize the supply to areas in which it will sellout. Nintendo's role should be more in advertising their games through media, and that is where I believe they are doing poorly. Anyway, if what you say is true, why doesn't this issue extend itself to 3DS releases? The 3DS section at my Walmart and at the few Gamestops I frequently go to tend to be the largest and most varied sections. 

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing.  If Nintendo were the problem, the 3DS section should be suffering the same fate.  Also, if Sony were doing so well with their representation, why is the Vita suffering the same issue as the Wii U?

It seems the smash bros direct worked wonders for the system, almost everything is sold out