Slashdot Mirror
Whither the Impulse Shopper?
An essay discussing the frustrations of the pre-order graces the pages of GameGirl Advance today. From the article: "I have had explained to me this morning, very pleasantly by an earnest young man, how there will be no PSPs available for drop-in customers on Thursday, and how, because of this, if I haven't pre-ordered, I won't be getting one for months, windfall tax refund or not."
I worked at EB for a few years and this is the way their business model is setup. Someone decides/predicts how well a game or product will sell and order a certain number of them for each store. If a game does not have alot of buzz around it, then they'll usually only order 1 or 2 copies for each store, if that many... The preorder system works somewhat independant of this, and any games preordered are guarenteed to come in...blah,blah,blahh... I'm sure you've heard the shpeel before. Anyway, if a great game comes out yet no one pre-orders it and there's not a whole lot of buzz for it, they'll only bring in one copy usually, and because of this it sells poorly and it's a downward spiral/vicious cycle from there. As for extremely popular stuff, because there are limited quantities they require a pre-order so the stores that have more customers wanting one will get one, which actually makes sense...but most shoppers are unaware of this system and get screwed like the guy who submitted this article...
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Go to Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, or Target (or a similar store). You'll be able to fine one without a problem.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
Probably doesn't matter. We've all been through Sony launches before, we know the drill. They promise fewer units than people demand, they deliver fewer than they promise, stores weave gloom and doom about it taking months to restock and then two weeks later, we're all playing happily at home waiting until the inevitable disk read error or stuck button pops up to remind us why we told ourselves not to buy the next Sony system for at least three months after launch.
If there were no pre-orders the fanboys would just wait outside at opening and you'd have a half hour of chaos before they were all gone. Pre-orders actually allow the casual gamer to get a particular item they may happen to be looking forward to but not be able to line up pre-dawn like a Dead-head to get one. They're a good thing.