> I think maybe the distribution channels messed things up for the smaller big box company.
Gamestop is not a "smaller" company. They should have more volume than Target with regards to video games. I would expect Target to be the smaller between the two, because Target's video game section is kind of sad most of the time.
It is Gamestop who is messing up here, they don't want to stock the goods because Gamestop clearly doesn't have the money to keep their inventory count high.
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The Gamestop in question was in a busy mall. I was there for other reasons (food / hangout with family), but realized that an impromptu-buy could help out my nieces. I assume that most foot traffic is like this, I wasn't "planning" on buying anything (If I were planning, I'd have bought it from online). It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.
And then they failed to have the stock, so I didn't buy anything. And I don't think "Advance Wars: Reboot Camp 1+2" is that obscure of a game. It was clearly 3x stocked at Target.
They're bigger as a company and more successful too.
The thing is that yeah Gamestop is putting focus on their product. But do they care?
A comparison would be Best Buy vs Apple Stores. Best Buy is bigger than Apple Stores, but Apple Stores is prioritized. But the only reason is because Apple is deeply connected to them to the point of owning them. The mom and pop mac stores get lower priority than Best Buy, even though they focus on selling macs. GameStop is at an arms length from the game publishers.
Also I wouldn't be surprised if there were more people walking through the video game aisles in a Target than in a Gamestop. If a gamestop looks quiet it probably is in fact quiet. Whereas there are a lot of bored people wandering Target stores because someone brought them there.
I guarantee you there were more people at the mall where I was shopping at Gamestop, and fewer people in the neighborhood Target that I was forced to go to to find my game.
If no one was shopping at Gamestop, that was Gamestop's own fault. It was in a very busy location with regards to foot traffic.
Gamestop absolutely needs to make sure that these prime retail locations have the inventory to make impromptu-sales. Otherwise, why the hell else are you renting out prime mall real-estate?
Source: Myself. I walked by both store locations and know the area.
I vaguely remember this was always a good trick when new big games had come out. Dedicated game store sold out? Check Target and Walmart ASAP, nobody is lining up outside Walmart for a game release, they might have a couple copies hanging around. Not guaranteed but better odds than you’d think.
Yeah but are the video game stores to blame at all for this good trick? Or is it just the unfair advantage of big box stores? If the latter this is like the story about grocery store mergers from a couple days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36264717 Or how medical bills for something routine wind up in the tens of thousands. And it contains little insight about being a savvy SMB except things are broken.
Oh yeah, sorry, I wasn’t trying to portion out the blame or come up with a counter-argument to you. It was just a tangentially related anecdote that I thought was amusing.
All good you helped me explain my position better I think. I also remember my friends noticing that hack. Good times in spite of the change it was indicating, where megacorps thrive at the expense of others. Which btw fits into the story of some video games, like Umbrella Corporation in Resident Evil.
Went over to the Target down the street: they had 3x physical copies. I picked up 2x copies for my two nieces so that they could play together.
Physical stores still serve a good purpose for quickly buying gifts on the go throughout my day. But Gamestop is not a reliable store anymore.