If you’re reading this it means our son Eric has been given the bad news. Wii have failed as parents. His Christmas wiish has not been fulfilled. There will be no Nintendo Wii under the tree.
We tried! Oh, how we tried. Carol stood in front of a Target at 4:15 AM, only to learn she was #28 in line, waiting for 15 units. Curiously, the store manager also had 15 Sony PS3’s, but all except a couple of those went begging!
Early one morning, one of the few truly cold ones we’ve had so far this winter, I was #8 in line for eight Wii’s — until a strange Russian man cut in line behind a strange Russian lady who was #5 in the queue. He insisted he had been there earlier, and she insisted she was holding his place for him. Each of them was buying a Wii. But the all-American nerd who had been in front of the store since 11 PM in his sleeping bag said he hadn’t seen the man before that moment. Not wanting to get into an argument, and hearing from Carol that her car had a flat tire, I chose the path of least resistance and left.
Eric will get a Wii, of course, but not for a while, unfortunately. Four years ago I walked into a Toys R Us and bought a Nintendo Gamecube for Eric. No problem. This year we are not happy with Nintendo. Carol wrote to the company, and somewhat to my surprise she got a reply. Here it is. Apparently, they were planning on lukewarm market acceptance.
Hi!
I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been unable to acquire a Wii console. While we have succeeded in making this the most plentiful hardware launch in our history, the Wii has been far more popular than we could have predicted. I want to assure you that production and distribution were at full capacity long before, during, and after the launch, with every available resource used to its fullest extent. We ship directly to the major retailer’s main warehouses, their corporate offices determine how the product is allocated and when they will be shipped to stores.
If it were possible for us to produce more consoles in time for the holidays, we would have taken every reasonable step to do so. Despite what some will say, there is no benefit to not having enough stock to meet demand. On behalf of Nintendo, I empathize with and appreciate your frustration. Once the initial demand has passed you will find it much easier to walk into a store and buy one. When that time comes, it is our hope that you will choose Wii.
Nintendo of America Inc.
Anna Bates
