I go to my local best buy quite often.  For the past several months I have gone there and noticed that there is only 1 or 2 X1/PS4 consoles out on the floor while underneath the customer service shelves there are literally dozens of next gen consoles...  I saw someone buy a console and afterwards the cashier went over to customer service and put another one in the aisle.  Best Buy is clearly trying to make it look like these consoles are hard to get a hold of.

Why is Best Buy not putting all the next gen consoles out on the floor?

I go to the X1 area and no X1's are to be found.  Same with the PS4 area. I walk by customer service and there are 1 or 2 X1/PS4's in the aisle.  Yet underneath customer service they are full of them!

Link to my Twitter picture taken in the store: pic.twitter.com/u5ECL9pU9F.  (I have put red rectangles around the stock under the customer service desk and in the aisle).

They are managing theft. Certain stores can have them out, and others completely can not.

Maybe its so that someone can't break in and hall ass?

Yep or just to save shelf space. No point in having all the consoles out if it's not necessary.

Shelf space.
Public view stock has to look good but not get in the customers way. In a back storeroom they can just stack them whichever way takes the least space... whenever someone buys a console it's easy to bring another one or two out.

It's to combat theft. Theft is a huge problem in retail. People will pick up several big ticket item and just simply leave, as most employees are told not to stop them. It's very common for many stores to only keep a few highly targeted items on display. Where I work, we only keep a few rechargeable batteries for power tools on display, as they have a high price-to-size ratio and are a favorite of shoplifters.

didn't click the link and 1-2 sounds a little bit too low to me but otherwise it's just using space for the better. If you have two or 20 consoles on the same place, as long as you don't forget to put new consoles on the shelf if the two are gone you will still sell the same amount and have more space for other things or simply a better looking store without all the "crap" standing around.

And what Pokoko said. There is a reason why you find many things only behind a sliding glass door someone has to open for you if you want what is behind it. Mostly cameras and stuff like that.

This. Expensive stuff like this tend to have a higher capability to walk out on their own.