palidor

Walmart.. open 24 hours. THE place to get a new release if you want it right away, right? Maybe not.

I camped out at wal-mart for FOUR hours along with many other people for the game boy advance. I didn't know i was getting one until a few days ago, so i didn't reserve it (i tried to, rather, but was too late).

Anyways, by the time the clock hit midnight, there was around 40 people waiting for the GBA (which really surprised me). At 12:20 they say "We're looking for them in the back".

Well jeeze louise, don't you think they'd have them out and ready to go for a major release like this? Of course not.

Here's what really gets me.. THEY ONLY HAD *FOUR* GAME BOY ADVANCES. FOUR! They only ordered the ones that were reserved for people (and only 2 of those people showed up). They didn't tell us this AT ALL before we waited.. They didn't so much as look for them before midnight.

Also, they only have a few of the games (8 of them, to be exact, but none of the good ones). No Mario, Fzero, Castlevania, Fire Pro Wrestling, etc. They had the Namco Museum one, and a couple of other crappy titles. Nothing in the back.

So what does the manager say? "Sorry. There's nothing we can do". BULL! So i said to her, "So much for planning ahead, huh? There's a major release like this and you only ordered FOUR GBA units?". She blamed it on their computers.. they called other walmarts in the area and they didn't have any ordered besides the reserved ones either.

I'm really ticked as a consumer. They could have at least told us so we weren't waiting there all night.

Is there anything I can do?

dave955

Write a letter to Walmart's top management. You'll feel better.

Knives

http://www.planetfeedback.com


You can write the letter there, and probaly get a response from the ceo's.

homeslice

You're angry at the manager, because you didn't plan ahead, by pre-ordering?. Would suck to work retail and have to deal with you

Anyhoo, you can probably pick one up online in about a week, after stores restock.

ModoReese

I'd be ticked too if no one in the store bothered to verify if they even had any for sale (for the public), I think that's the real issue. You don't let people line up in front of your store for over four hours and tell them at 12:30 am "Oh gee, looks like you should have pre-ordered".

Especially if Wal-Mart did any advertising of the GBA. Did they?

M

Thespian68

Actually palidor, it was a carefully contrived plan. Wal-Mart's team of well trained security specialists, using sophisticated monitoring equipment picked your face out of the anxious line of consumers, compared it to video surveillance of the "no-receipt" return lines, and determined that you had returned non-Wal-Mart acquired DVDs. In a tactical move designed to avenge such questionable practices, an immediate store wide alert was issued to conceal and destroy all evidence that GBAs were even present in the store..sales staff and management braced for the inevitable repercussions of this action, but knew it served a greater good. Also unknown to yourself, 4 security specialists joked, drank beer, and reminisced about your DVD returns from the week as they watched you commence a verbal offensive against the manager...the only sad part is that the other 39 or so people in line had to suffer in this incident, but were deemed civilian casualties in the war on questionable returns....

Neitzl

Ungood.
I went to Toys R Us at lunch yesterday and bought it
in a total of half an hour, would have been much
faster but two ladies had cartful of sale priced
toys and decided to change their items during checkout.
Grrr!!
Mario is fun!
Castlevania is next, or maybe F Zero.
Oh, at toys r us, you also get 5 bucks off your
first game. The handheld itself was 99.99, but
it was about 8 blocks away from me, while BB or
Target are a drives away!
Neitzl

AndyCapps

Since when does individual Wal Mart stores have any control over their inventory? What I'm guessing happened is that they maintained a preorder list, and when corporate realized they weren't going to get as many as expected, they had to resort to shipping enough to cover preorders. The local store didn't know how many they had until they opened the boxes more than likely.

palidor

I waited outside K-Mart (worth a shot..) 10 mins before they opened. They had about 30 total - 15 reserves, 15 extras. I was first in line and got mine. I picked up Castlevania (which is really fun!), Tony Hawk 2 (havent played), and Dragon Warrior 1&2 (GBC game, 2 games on 1 cartridge. those games ruled!).

palidor

BTW - a few people posted about walmarts inventory.

I would have been FINE if they would have told us they only had enough units for the people that reserved them. They let us wait there for hours, they had NOTHING ready to go, and it wasn't until after midnight that they even started looking for the GBA's in the back.

If they were running the operation smoothly, they would have already had the cases of GBA's behind the counter ready to go at 11pm, and they would have already had proper inventory done.

Instead of that, they let us wait for hours, before telling us they weren't going to have any of them.

DVDKrayzie

smoothly? I guess this must have been your first time inside a Wal-Mart.

anyways, that sucks that they didnt even bother to tell you, but did you get your GBA anywhere else afterwards? I can't believe Wal-mart only got 4 when i walked into KayBee and just bought one with no reservation or anything they had around 20-30 im guessing.

[Edited by DVDKrayzie on 06-13-01 at 02:01 PM]

Darren Garrison

Wait a few weeks and the shelves of every store will be drooping under the weight of stacks of these things. Sure, they look cool and I'll probably buy one some day (even though I'm not much of a gamer) but they aren't rare, and will not be rare until they are so obsolete that most of them are in landfills (which is what, two or three years from now?). Don't fall for the sense of urgency that they want you to have. You've waited this long for a GBA, another couple of weeks won't kill you.

skipperdee

[outfromunderarock]
what's a gameboy?
[/outfromunderarock]

-skipper

Wampass

"[outfromunderarock]
what's a gameboy?
[/outfromunderarock]

-skipper "


Not sure myself...sounds like something that pedophiles like, think I'll go to the DVD Bargain Forum...don't see those kind of questions around there.

palidor

I know it's not rare, and it's not going to be like the PSX2. When I want something, I have no patience

I got home from Wal-Mart at about 1 in the morning, set my alarm for 7:30 and hit K-mart a few minutes before they opened. I was the first one in, and got a GBA. They had about 10 GBA's (plus the ones that were reserved), and they were all gone a few minutes after I got mine. People started pouring in a few minutes after me (surprised me.. seeing more than one other customer in a k-mart is a rare event).

I got Castlevania, which is a VERY fun game, THPS2 (this game surprised me, it's JUST like the original version.. very cool), and a gameboy color game - dragon warrior 1+2.

I wanted to get Fire Pro Wrestling but they didn't get any in

AndyCapps

"running the operation smoothly" and Wal Mart really doesn't go very well together. If it was a small store and everything came by UPS or something, I could see this. But we're talking about huge semi trucks that come in everyday. You think anybody working there at 11pm really gives a crap?

Music

pantala

Picked up a GBA Glacier at Kmart for my brother a few days ago. Went in about 40 mins after they opened and saw no line, and only one other guy buying one. They don't have a great selection of games either.

I was disappointed when I turned it on and saw how dark the screen was (playing Tony Hawk). Anybody else notice this? I know that you need lots of light to get the full brightness, but it seems like you'd need stadium spotlights or something from what I saw.

Perhaps a defective unit? I got Mario yesterday and saw that it was a little better color/brightness wise, but it still a strain to see.

palidor

pantala -

wait till you try castlevania its not just you btw.
I got a 3rd-party device that's kinda nice for $8 at walmart. when the GBA is off, it acts as a screen protector (to protect from scratches), and when you flip it up, there's a light on it.. kinda spiffy, and helps you see the screen at least

CaptDS9E

You would think Game companies would know how hot a product would be and make more before a launch. The stores around here really stink kind of like that walmart. I mean they have something in a ad and then they get only like 10 in and 8 of them are Pre-orders so only 2 people can get the sale price. I went to like 10 stores yesterday and not 1 GBA, but tons of games just sitting there without a home

Capt

DVDKrayzie

no, NIntendo, i guess to save a fe bucks, didn't mke the screen backlit, which REALLY sucks...especially with Castlevania, even with a light it's a pain. But the Lightshield, as paildor mentioned is the best thing to get IMO

palidor

Nintendo made the right decision by not putting in a backlight for the GBA.

Battery life for the GBA as it is now, is ~20 hours (without any accessories plugged in). Remember the Game Gear? Or the Nomad? Those were both backlit, took *SIX* AA batteries, and had a battery life of 4 hours. The GBA takes 2 AA batteries for 20 hours.

The GBC wasn't backlit and people didn't seem to care. I will say that the GBA is a little dark, but if you get a good light it shouldn't be a problem. The Pelican Light Shield Advance works well for me (on a side note, and i can elaborate if necessary, the pelican light shield + a GBC game in the gameboy advance + AC adapter = doesn't work)

DVDKrayzie

$12 will get u an ac adapter, dc adapter, AND 6 rechargeable batteries at Frys, i would definitely rather have it backlit. hopefully theyll offer one sometime

another reason

[Edited by DVDKrayzie on 06-17-01 at 03:44 PM]

palidor

*shrug*

You might find this link helpful:

http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?to...00&replies=370

DVDKrayzie

cool idea, but id only get one if nintendo released one