Don't you know that? It has always been dude, always!!!

1. Sony could be stuffing the channels by giving deals to companies. for example, Sony could be offering a 10 1 deal. To elaborate, just as an example, Philip Morris used to offer me a 50 1 deal. For every 50 cases of cigarettes I order from them, they give me one case for free which i can sell for a profit. (and yes, I use to work in retail as a purchaser)

2. Even if Sony is trying to stuff the channels, it is still the companies call wether to allow such channel stuffings. I use to do this a lot, as i said, if i was offered a really great deal that in the long run would make more profit then I would increase purchase orders for that specific item or product. Of course, this is done after some carefull analysis

3. It is true, that it is possible for stores to be overstocked with certain items especially for large retail outlets. This is because most of the time, to save on manpower, certain activities are centralized at the corporate level. One example is purchasing. I dont know how it is there in US of A, but when I used to work at retail, I was an assistant merchandising manager and i was responsible for making the ordered quantities for about 1500 items/products for about 25 or so stores. I based my ordered quantities on past sales trend as these sales trend usually give a good picture of demand. Anyways, I can see how it is that PS3s are being ordered in larger quantity compared to last year. It is a common practice to assume that sales would increase vs last years sales. This is because ALL companies' goals is to grow their business. And to grow ones busniness, especially in retail, would mean that sales would have to increase.

4. If its gamestop we're talking about, it is very likely that the ordering is done automatically. Meaning, there is already a replenishment system that does all the ordering for all the stores. All the purchasing department has to do is stuff the DC or distribution centers with stocks and the system would automatically replenish the different retail stores / branches. This saves a lot on manpower especially if there are more than 100 stores.  so my guess is, the OPs store is being replenished automatically based on last years sales trend.

5. Its the christmas season. If the store is already stuffed with stocks, you can bet that it'll be even more overstocked as the stores are getting ready for massive sales. Like i said, I use to do this stuffing shit all the time. There was a time where I stuffed all 25 stores with a shit load of beer/wines and other spirits in preparation for christmas. I did this during October and my boss and all of the store managers for going "what the fuck did you do you morron"!!! and i was like "relax you dumbassess!!" i know what i'm doing...

45 units = channel stuffing?

And why your store ordered "so much" PS3? Maybe for holiday sales.

depends, if that 45 units translates to an inventory level of more than 6 months, then yeah. that is stuffed.

yeah, could be for the holidays or could be due to the replenishment system they use. most relplenishment systems use past sales data as basis for ordering and last years sales of PS3 was crazy. Hence, that sales would most likely be translated to larger sales projections for this year

Without knowing how the retailer orders this is essentially meaningless.  Does Sony deliver to the store based on a store order?  Did Sony just deliver this quantity?  Did it (more likely) come from some central DC storage of the retailers based on store orders?

Details.  They make things clearer.  And the OP is short of them.

And you are just stuffing fuel to fanboys for flamewars :)

YES! Go SONY! 

Z0MG S0NY DUN OVERSTUFFED TEH CHANNELS AGAIN! LOOK @ MA STOREEE

Seriously, there must be something your shop can do to keep this from happening.

Epic thread and rant, mainly because you only get what you order!

The most likely reason that your store is overcrowded with ps3's and no 360's is because you probably have a team of employee's that are persuading people into getting 360's instead of ps3's.  

That's the problems with gamestop's and why the corporate headquarters probably can't get shipments right.  Some stores are probably selling out of ps3's like crazy, but can't sell 360's.  Small staff = more likely to have a biased sales team.