Wow! I put out a call for "retail reports" and you people delivered! Nothing like a bunch of great reader submissions to brighten one's day! Better yet, thanks to these contributions, we're getting an increasingly widespread look at what's going with retailers right now, not just for Nintendo either.

First, while a couple other people wrote in, I've mainly be interested in getting reports from retailers. Keep in mind that our "retail reporters" are just telling us what's going on at their individual stores and that their comments do not reflect any particular retail chain. Plus, things like system prices is all unofficial and this is just things they're hearing.

You also might want to remember these guys are probably Nintendo fans to some degree, which is why they're reading and writing in. These guys all seem pretty un-biased however & all are informative.

We totally appreciate our volunteer retail reporters taking the time to chime in. Anonymity is assured, so keep 'em coming if you have something substantial to add.

First up, "Saucy" was all too willing to answer the question posed by Louie earlier "why did retailers dislike the N64?" A question that might hold an answer to what Nintendo is doing in relation to GameCube and why retailers are comparing the two systems. Saucy works at a retailer but asked we not say which one:

Saucy says: Do I know why retailers were unhappy with N64? Yeah and from first hand experience too. Several Hot games were unavailable for long periods of time; Zelda and Golden Eye were the worst offenders. Nintendo just couldn't keep up with cart demand, resulting in lost sales for both Nintendo and retailers as well as creating a very bitter side product: customer disappointment.

The only other thing I can think of to be sour about hardware wise is frequently needing to buy in higher quantities from Nintendo, but I don't know how much more above the competitors if at all they are. I think retailers will be very happy with Nintendo this time around. There should be very few shortages this time -I hope.

-Saucy

"TEH WINDEY DALE" (if you don't know who he is, we aren't telling you now) wrote in to reveal his dual nature as a K-Mart employee and the presence it has there:

TEH WINDEY DALE SAYS: Yep, it's true... the ol' K-Mart is doing the GBA pre-order thing too. All one needs to do is to plop down $10 and they have one reserved. However, there is one small problem with this. As we all know, there are only going to be 500,000 GBA systems ready for the North American launch. Considering that the GBA will probably be in such a high demand as the PS2 was at its launch, then we could guess that we will be getting in the same amount of GBAs in June. Well, we got six PS2s in our store October 26... last I heard, we've already pre-ordered 8 GBAs.

However, there's one interesting thing to note here... our release lists have the GBA shown to be released on June 13, as opposed to June 11 which is the release

date that Nintendo is sharing with us. I don't really know what to make of that.

-TEH WINDY DALE

"Popetastic" wrote in to tell us what's up at Best Buy, where they apparently have not received much in the way of "next-gen" promotion, for GameCube or X-Box.

Popetastic says: Hey - I work at Best Buy. I have to agree that I usually have people ask me about the X-Box. No one really seems to know about the GameCube until I tell them. I usually mention GameCube's possible price point (I usually say $200, but our merch guy keeps telling me it'll be closer to $180) to people asking about the X-Box so they get a little bit about the Nintendo system in their minds.

We have gotten no signs (the little banners that are above the games in the video game section) from Nintendo about the GameBoy Advance yet, but I expect them to be arriving in May. I believe we have stuff about the X-Box, but we have not displayed them yet. As for Sony - I think the PS2 rush is over. We had about 50 of em on the shelf yesterday, and after a few hours only 2 were missing. I overheard one couple saying, "Ah, let's just get it at the end of the week." Also, our Dreamcast section is shrinking rapidly. The Dreamcast games had 5 section dividers. Now it's down to 2. In a way, it's sad to see Sega go.

I'll let you know if we get any new Nintendo stuff in.

-Popetastic

Our final retail reporter (for now) comes from "The Wiz Advance" someone from the Wiz who has a great report on happenings in his nook of the retail world.

The Wiz Advance says: I'm a person who works for a retailer. Not exactly a VIDEOGAME retailer but an electronics store that happens to stock a very large supply of videogames, namely, The Wiz. We also have a Gamecube poster but we never put it out. I think its laziness on the stock guys part. We do not have one X-Box promotional item in the store yet but we have several Nintendo ones...including a GIANT pikachu statue that I am god-awfully afraid of. We have been taking names for the GBA but not the NGC yet...

So far, a lot of people have asked me about the NGC or if I have a release date for it, ect. Barely anyone asks me about X-Box. Sony reps are just annoying but they aren't bothering us about Nintendo ads and what not. They're more concerned about why the Sony Discmans are in the same glass cases as the Panasonic ones. The Microsoft rep that comes in is so clueless on every account that its starting to piss me off.

If a Sony rep ever bothered to demand I take down ads or promote only their stuff, I'd tell them to get the hell out of my store. Besides, I always tell people to buy a Panasonic or Toshiba product. ^_^

Many of us feel that the X-Box will launch at no less than $349.99 and that the Gamecube will not be any more than $199.99. In fact, we're all hoping for $149.99.

Let me stop my rambling... I'm late for work.

-The Wiz ADVANCE

We've also had a couple readers respond with "field reports."

About FuncoLand:

Max,

I was in my local FuncoLand the other day and I was talking to the manager who I know and he told me that they are taking pre-orders for the GCN and that they have been informed it will retail for $150.

Anyway, for what it's worth... enjoy! :)

-death

And Software etc.

At my local Software etc., they have been taking pre-orders on the GBA and NGC since November, when I reserved mine. We can't pay anything down until they have the official price from Nintendo, so I just about have my GBA paid off, and F-Zero reserved and almost paid for, and I have paid for shipping to my house. I laugh at all those who are only now pre-ordering! Ha ha!

-TH