tins ::: Rick Klau’s weblog » Finding a Wii
Rick is in the same world of hurt I am with fulfilling Junior’s Xmas request. A new Nintendo (aka “Nofriendo”) Wii — the game console you can swing, golf, bowl, or bat with — is nowhere to be found and grown men with jobs don’t have time to camp outside of Best Buys in December. Why does every holiday season have the “Tickle Me Elmo” product? I’m going to revert to a Dickensian Christmas and give everyone an orange and encourage them to eat the peel the way Tiny Tim did.
“Wow, this is really nuts. I had a chance to get one with Mike when they were first available, but we were having friends over that morning, and sleeping at a Wal-Mart the night before having friends over seemed a little, um, not-so-smart. So I passed.”Three weeks later, there appears to be no real chance at getting one. I understand that demand far outstrips supply, but the completely haphazard delivery, clueless retailers and luckless shoppers seem wholly unnecessary. In a day of incredibly efficient supply chain management (pioneered by Wal-Mart, available on an outsourced basis by UPS), I cannot for the life of me understand why this is so difficult.”
ahhh… yeah it’s tough to be a consumer without retail connections on this one… but real supply and demand schedules are at play here… As a arguable talking points, Nofriendo now has real data points on US demand which it didn’t have before the release… could be used to adjust pricing (price), control the value chain (product), optimize the supply chain and logistics (process), and the lack of supply sets the stages for “viral…” (promotion)… 🙂
Why does the holiday season need Tickle Me Anus? Because we’re sheep. We used to be lemmings until the myth became the legend and now we’re just sheep.
We, polite society — defined as those large, sleeping men who DON’T flattulate on crowded airplanes — when confronted with too much choice, a bewildering array of products that talk, squawk, squeek, and chirp, we will undoubtably turn to look at the person to our right and see what they’re having for dinner. “Mmmmmm, that looks good,” we say to ourselves and tell the waiter to bring us one of those.
Fads, by definition, have fadsetters and then the great, unwashed masses. And they usually fall into two general catagories: truly great products and total crap. Crap would include things such as the Pet Rock, pierced eyebrows, Web 2.0, and Communism. Great would include things such as the iPod, laser hair removal for women, the invention of the bong, and, yes, the little Wiiiiiii.
The must-have product is what defines the holiday season, not the endless muzak of holiday albums or the made for tv specials or the other endless commercialism. Don’t decry the must-have product for that product is us, all of us, huddled around the tree, drinking egg nog, singing and laughing. Sure, a few people will get sick from sitting out in the rain for days, maybe shot for a Playstation 3, but isn’t that a small price to pay for a defining product for the year? Something for us to all look at in years hence and fondly remember?
And would you truly begrudge the ability for a nerd to become super-cool overnight and actually have FRIENDS because his mom and dad loved him enough to spend the moola to pay the maid to wait in line for three days? I mean real, honest to goodness friends, not those imaginary things. Would you truly begrudge him that?
Don’t be a Grinch, David. Smile, it’s all about peace, love and the Gap.
By the way, your Wii is in the mail.
Love,
Uncle Fester
So Junior is off punishment for his WOW transgression?
I don’t think he’ll get in much trouble bowling.
On behalf of Master young, I travelled all the way to freaking Tijuana to find a Wii for Alistair James. no luck, but I’m thinking about buying him “Conchita” who was hanging out next to a cigar store in Tijuana. Eight stops, no Wii.
Screw me running.
Jim
I like the thoughts on sheep and conditioning. Consider that this is a repeating model with each generation of game box. There is a reason that Sony, Microsoft, and Nitendo all release their competing technologies just in time for Christmas, all within days of each other.
Its the same reason the “blockbuster” movies come out at certain times of the year.
This is what, the 3rd generation for these players? Replacing the earlier battles of Sega vs Nintendo. It’s a “must have” consumer product, released into market at time to capture the highest demand and support full list price plus. No discounting required to move the product.
If this were introduced in say July, people might wait for the price to come down, and supply would better match demand which is not really want the game companies (or oil companies for that matter) want.
After all, whether your selling laptop computer, home game consoles or car tires, you don’t want inventory sitting around, and you sure don’t want your competition sitting on it either. You want the “perfect storm” of demand.
have you tried eBay?
Looks like $400 on Ebay. Amazon resellers had it at $700 on Sunday.