sc94597 said:
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. |
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.
