I waited outside a store yesterday morning in line with about 20 other people, all waiting to buy a Wii. It was -15 at 10am; it gets like that in Minnesota. For the uninitiated, the Nintendo Wii is being short supplied, driving up demand and price, with high speculative prices on eBay and craigslist. It's the new hot commodity, better return than oil. At 10 am the doors open. First thing the store employee says, 'Unless you were here at 9am waiting when we gave out coupons to buy Wii units, they are all sold out.'
What??? Long lines are a common occurrence around every hot item, particularly during Black Friday shopping. But a voucher??? I objected. Strenuously. Nothing in the Sunday morning ad mentioned 'vouchers'. I was told that the store had always done this. Really. Outside the fact that I was second in line with two expectant kids beside me and with a frozen brain, the attitude struck me as arrogant. Go figure.
Ok, why shouldn't any retailer do this?
1. Leaving customers standing in the cold who expect the game to be played by the rules isn't smart. The store employee knew exactly what was going on. He could have put a sign in the window. If they opened the doors at 9am, they could have opened the doors at 9:45am and told people. Nobody did.
2. So we still don't know how many units were in the store. Another person in line said that he had been at another branch store a few days ago that said they had 10 (which they couldn't sell until the sale day). So where did the units go? Were that many people actually standing in line more than an hour before store opening in that temperature? And why when we pulled up at 9:30 was nobody else in line yet? Just one answer - somebody got preferential treatment, a head start. Somebody got a chance to buy units for $250 that they could sell for $400 almost anywhere on the internet. Not a bad day's profit.
3. After this announcement almost nobody entered the store (where were all the people with vouchers?). So much for the promotion. I had to explain to the kids what happened. I used the term 'cheating'. Cheating is something a first grader can understand. I'm already scouring the internet for opportunities to bring this to light, to say nothing of all the people I've begun to tell. What do you suppose those other people who stomped off cold and mad are doing?
4. We are a techno-geek family. We spend a lot of money on gadgets. My first laptop I bought from this same store. Not any more.
Think I'm just another crazy customer? Not when I'm done with this. I have small business and marketing contacts all of the US. I'm no where near done with this issue.
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