Over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of my best friends dragged me out on Black Friday, he was searching for a Nintendo Wii for his nieces. I however wasn't really shopping for anything, but wanted to see what it was like. So at 5:30 am we awoke to a lovely, dark, cold, snowy day to face to masses of crazy shoppers.
Here's the thing, NO ONE has the Wii, NO ONE!!! We went to 6 different stores looking for one, online, even on ebay, but there aren't any available. But the question of the day is Why? I think I can give you that answer: Nintendo, along with every other kids toy manufacturer, realized after the Cabbage Patch Doll Christmas that they can dribble out as few of their products as possible and still keep the demand high and the price even higher. In this case, Nintendo and it's marketing/advertising crew have hyped the product to the nth degree, making sure that the demand for the Wii is through the roof, but at the same time making it virtually impossible to obtain one.
Meanwhile, Nintendo competitors Microsoft and Sony are making their systems readily available this year, although in years past they have done the same thing. My complaint here is not only for the manufacturers, but also for us, the consumers. We as consumers have allowed these companies to take advantage of our wealth. As a society we are wealthy and have a lot of free time, but also we want to give our kids whatever they want, so in turn we fall for the advertising.
So what can we do about it? Well, we can stop falling for the advertising, as adults that is not as hard to do(except for those gamers out there!). But what about the kids? Well how about purchasing after the Christmas rush? That would help the situation, but how can we remedy it altogether?
My advice: Stop falling for the glitz and glam of these products, rent from video stores, because if the demand is low then maybe WE can control the market instead of the manufacturers.
Good luck to all of you out there looking for a Wii this holiday season!
1 comment:
Sorry to hear he wasn’t successful in getting the Wii. This particular item has been hot for the past year and I can tell you it took me eight months before I finally was able to get my hands on one. I totally agree with you that the demand is high as well as the price. I can remember going to five different stores when I first started looking for it, this wore me out. The only reason I think I was finally lucky was because when I got my paper on Saturday it was in the Wal-Mart ad that was going to start on Sunday. I made it a point to go to a Super Wal-Mart at midnight and buy the system. Just to let you know I was told by the person who was working, that they generally only get a few at a time, which makes it a lot harder to get.
I wish him good luck as he continue to look for the Wii.
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