Don't Go To Wal-Mart For Your Holiday Shopping (especially if you want a PS3)

[THUNDER HANDS]

It's being advertised that the store I work at will have 10 PS3's available on Friday at midnight.

Except, well, we're not.

We're getting 4.

There's been a guy camped out (literally, in a tent) outside the store since Monday. Another person camped out on Tuesday night.

I've never worked retail on black friday before (which is next friday, the one after thanksgiving), but I'm going to be in when the doors open at 5 a.m.

I've heard it's a madhouse. Last year there were fistfights over laptops. This year I'm sure it will be worse when people find out that the great giant retailer, Wal-Mart, has less than 5 individual items of both Nintendo Wii's, PS3s, Tickle-Me Elmo's and Baby Alive's.

And it's not like the store is telling people this. There's a small piece of paper put up on a wall that if you didn't stare at it, you wouldn't even know what it was for.

People are going to be pissed. Expect to read stories about unhappy shoppers and retailers upset with not getting more products early in the holiday shopping season.

[alarimer]

1. Why do stores do that?

Actually have less than they advertise they will have. That really sucks. Of course I don't understand why anyone has to have a PS3 right this very minute anyway. In six months the price will drop and they will be everywhere.

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. most people buy them to resell them on ebay

The PS3 is going for $600 and people plan on fetching $2,000 for them on ebay.

[Broken_Hero]

4. It changed within a few days...

it was 10 units per store, but Sony had to change it, so that all stores would get units...so Walmarts, unit of 10, got cut to 4...so that Sony could provide other units to say, Target, Sears, etc etc...

[MrCoffee]

3. bring your cameraphone! record the holiday spirit

and sell it to CNN

[Initech]

5. After last year, I expect to hear stories of looting and things being lit on fire.

:popcorn:

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. a guy told me

last year people were stealing items out of other shoppers' carts when their backs were turned. :evilgrin:

[Initech]

8. That's why I plan on sleeping until noon this year.

Just like last year... and the year before that. I dont feel the need to fight people for cheap crap.

[Pithlet]

6. If that's not illegal, it should be.

I thought stuff like that was considered bait and switch.

My kids aren't old enough to appreciate or desire things like Playstations, so I don't have to worry about it right now. I try to shield them as much as possible from the effects of aggressive commercialism, so I didn't even think they aware of brand name toys. They watch no commercial television. But, my 5 year old son picked up a flyer out of the paper and said "Look! A Baby-Alive!"

ETA I see now that it isn't Wal Mart's fault, for a change.

[Rosco T.]

9. saw that today, that SONY cut the US shipments from 400,000 to 175,000 - 200,000

for launch day.. so this ISN'T WAL-MART'S (or any other retailers) fault.. they were told 'x' and at the last minute got switched to 'y'... even pre-orders won't get honored...

add to that that SONY will be LOSING between $250-$300 on EVERY MACHINE SOLD, PS3 is gonna be a bigtime flop... just like blue-ray.

[Broken_Hero]

10. I still dont' get blue ray...

its all lost on me...but I'm technically challenged at times...:)

[Dukkha]

11. I wouldn't shop at Wal Mart for ANY reason

not even if I've been crawling through the desert for days and they were giving away water.

That being said retailers don't have total control over how many units a distributor ships them particularly a very hot item like the PS3. I worked at a Macintosh retailer when the iMac first debuted and it was really hard to get just a a few of those in at that time. They should never make a promise to the public what they will have in stock ahead of time. They probably got all 10 and 6 went to employees.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

12. Even people from Sony are saying to wait..

Don't buy it for at least a year. The first release is a piece of crap. It's going to burn up easily and they don't know when they'll be able to replace it. THEN, the Blue Ray format is still sketchy and it over heats when playing PSone or PS2 games. Yeah. Wait until the rerelease.
Duckie