So I was coming back from Galveston this evening when I witnessed something at the Fry's Electronics store near Lyndon Johnson Space Center and I-45. A young couple wanted to buy a Nintendo Wii and the attendant said they would have to buy two additional accessories. Did I hear that correctly?!

When they said they also wanted to buy WiiFit, the attendant told them they'd have to buy another accessory and an additional battery. The customer asked him if the battery was necessary for the board and the attendant said "No," and that the game would work without the extra battery.

Just to make sure I was hearing him correctly, I asked the Fry's attendant if I could just buy WiiFit and nothing else. He said "No," and that I would have to buy additional accessories, as well as WiiFit. Wow ... just wow.

So, I was joking with the customers and said "I bet you have to buy accessories with your Wii."

The man nodded. "Actually, we have to buy two accessories."

My mouth dropped.

The Fry's attendant nodded too. "That's correct. I don't make the policy - I just work here."

What I think is so sad is how retailers are still forcing bundles on customers - even though Nintendo is not a fan of forced bundles. They are forcing customers to buy crap that is marked up and makes mad money for the retailer at the expense of their customers.

Sad, just sad.

Anyone else see this kind of crap going on where you live?

luckily it is very minimal where i am....they do offer bundles but you can still get a wii or wii fit without buying extra accessories, but the sad thing is they do have those bundles and people who are just entering the video game market don't know what they need and they end up buying the bundles with a bunch of useless junk because they think they need it

@ Tecmo, nice avatar.

It's horrible. Really, they shouldn't do this to customers. I just boycotted a restaurant that gave me horrible service twice. No more.

If a person wants to game, let them game. Don't try to take advantage of them.

From a business perspective I could see forcing people to buy additional accessories for hard to find wiis and wii fits, as a good way to make extra profits.

The consumers hands are pretty much tied since they want the product and most likely have gone through a lot of trouble just to get there hands on one.

So from an ethical standpoint its business exploiting the consumer.

I had to get my DS with some spiderman game. I have the say the game was awful and not worth it. However I stood in line in the freezing cold so I was going home one way or another with a DS.

That's stupid. I hate companies that do that......

That's a dick maneuver all right, but it's the customer's choice. I'd flip them the bird and never come back for anything. That just isn't the kind of attitude that earns you customers.

The only thing we did at Best Buy that's similar is have Wii baskets prepared. For Black Friday weekend, we set up a few dozen baskets full of Wii goodies: A Wii, Wii play, extra nunchuck, Mario Kart Wii and something else. They were just placed on the floor for people to pick up and go. However, we sold Wii's separately as well.

I've seen it at Costco kinda but they bundle them in this huge plastic bubble thing, so it doesn't appear to customers to be as shitty a situation. In reality it's worse because at least at Frys you can pick your accessories.

On a completely different note, I saw for the first time ever a Target full of Wiis today. It was weird. Still no Wii Fits or Mario Karts though.

Wow, that's the first i've heard of an IN-STORE forced bundle.