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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Retailers biased for or against nintendo?

famousringo on 17 December 2008

I've noticed Nintendo hardware/software gaining greater prominence in store displays. What gets my goat is how a new release on Wii seems to take a week or more to trickle onto store shelves. It seems to be a factor in these tepid Wii launches which end up selling more in week 3 than they did in week 1.

It might not be the retailers' fault. There are quite a few links in the supply chain. It could be disorganized publishers, low priority at Nintendo disc printing facilities, laggard distributors... but it's pretty annoying. I've completely given up on the "first day purchase."



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

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venepe on 17 December 2008
JHawkNH said:
I cannot tell you why they have a small self space for the Wii, but I can tell you why they put it in the back. It is the same reason that you will find the electronics and toys areas in the back of Walmart. It is all about getting you to view stuff that you didn't originally go there for. They know alot of people are going there to buy Wii's and they want you to notice the other systems on your way to the Wii's. They are hoping to peak your interest and that you may buy anouther system also. If you never walked buy the other systems,(and you were only there to by a Wii or a game) you would never think about the other systems.

It is the same reason you have to walk past clothes and shoes to get to the desired items, electronics and toys. They are hoping you might pick up something else along the way.

 

 That is an excellent marketing analysis.  However, during the N64 and GC years such strategy was not applied. PSX and PS2 dominated the front displays.



"¿Por qué justo a mí tenía que tocarme ser yo?"

Voltaire on 17 December 2008

I dont think thats the worst of it. Good luck finding a 'hardcore' multiplatform Wii game in regular retailers. Im still looking for Call of Duty waw.




WiiBox3 on 17 December 2008

Comrade Tovya & Bodhesatva's thoughts are probably the main reason that the PS3 would be in front. It is true that companies often pay retailers to get prime shelf space and upfront displays. Also retailers like to put products that are not selling as well up front so that they may improve the sales of the product, esp. products that cost them a lot in overhead. Retailers may have stocked up on a lot of PS3s expecting a certain amount of Holiday sales, as they did with Wiis and 360s, but the PS3 is not selling as well as anyone expected. Since the PS3 outpaced the 360 most of the year they probably expected it to sell as well as or better than the 360 and thus probably overstocked the product.



Griffin on 17 December 2008

All the wal-marts near me have the PS3 stuff in the back, while the Nintendo stuff is always in the front, the wal-marts have a DS section bigger then anything else, followed by a 360 section the size of the entire playstation family, the wii section is just a bit smaller then the 360 one. At all the blockbusters the PS3 section is always the smallest.



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Blacksaber on 17 December 2008

Mine is very good oddly... when you walk in you have the DS section to the right and psp to the left then PS3 and PS2 in the next section then Wii on the right and 360 has the whole back wall....



Former something....