That's quite simple, people have more or less money to spend at a given time. For example the weeks before christmas, especially on black friday, people have spared a lot of money for gifts and they are here to spend them at this time.

So when you run a store, you obviously prefer to make the consumer come to your shop the day they're walking around with pockets full of money than the average day.

Double post, sorry (that's the second time in 2 days, though I didn't do anything that could have resulted in a double post. weird)

There's a number of reasons why stockpiling is done, two of which are:

1- Supply should be higher when demand is higher. During Christmas, demand is higher.

2- People looking to give consoles as gifts in Christmas won't wait a month or two, they need the console there and then. People buying consoles during the year can usually can wait until they find one. Therefore it makes sense to have higher supply during Christmas.

Last year there was a lot of debate about this, with some people not believing Nintendo was stockpiling (there were even bets). Turns out they were stockpiling, and quite heavily as is obvious from looking at 2007 holiday sales.

In 2007, not only did Nintendo stockpile, they even sold part of January's supply in December. They did it by using air shipping instead of the usual boat shipping. This was mentioned in a few articles including this one.

As for the retailers' perspective, other people have already answered it.

I see everyone wanted to explain why stockpiling was good

Thanks for the info. Retail is not in my area of expertise. I hope there is a lot tucked away because if they were sold out this early after Nintendo increased production so much; it would make one wonder if it will ever be possible for them to meet demand.

If I were a mean spirited person I might suggest that they rent unused production facilities from Sony, but fortunately, I'm not that mean.

There must be a lot tucked away otherwise Nintendo wouldn't hit their hardware shipment forecast for the fiscal year. Nintendo is conservative in their shipment forecasts, so if anything there's more Wiis tucked in than we think.

idk, it might not be tucked away. Did any retailer advertise Wii hardware or Wii Fit in their black friday ads?

quick search of http://www.bfads.net shows these stores advertising Wii hardware
kmart
meijer
navy exchange
walmart (Sams Club)

and these stores advertised wii fit
meijer
navy exchange

so, no. Most stores are clearly not stockpiling it for black Friday otherwise they would have advertised it.

Sams Club is definitely stockpiling. I saw a report on CNBC where they said that they were stockpiling Wii's. In addition, they are selling Wii Fit at a discount which should cause a stampede.

 That's probably good idea. I think especialy during this holiday season when Wii sell out quick in America, that they should bring most of the amount of Wiis from Japan to USA. Like you said yourself SaviorX, not much people are purchasing Wiis in Japan as they are in America. If they just bring in some of those suppies of Wiis from Japan, they will double the sales they are predicted get in this holiday season.