Major retailer dumps Nintendo

Bard

Harvey Norman, who are opening their 4th store in Ireland next month, have stopped stocking all Nintendo (GBA, NDS, etc.) products. One upshot of this is that all their remaining stock of GBA and NDS games are being sold off at half price (which is below cost) in their Dundalk store. Whether their dropping of the Nintendo brand is a good business idea or not remains to be seen. It's not known yet whether they will stock the Nintento Revolution console when it is released, but it appears unlikely.

For my sins, I work for Harvey Norman, and I can't figure out their reasoning behind this decision, which was, apparently, made at head office level. Has anyone got any opinion on why they would do this? (and please... no pointless derogatory remarks against the company)

Noobsaibot21

Quite simple really.

Nintendo are notorious for their margins - ever notice that many stores are STILL sitting on copies of old Pokemon and Mario games? Why most stores (that even stock their stuff) only get a handfull of First party games?
Basically Nintendo NEVER fund any of their titles for SALE prices as they know full well that most retailers would simply flog off the stock and reduce their shelf space.
Why you may ask?
Well, put simply Nintendo stuff doesn't sell as well as Xbox & Playstation stuff. The only thing that confuses me is why they dropped Nintendo DS as the DS currently outsells every other console on the market (yes, even the PSP)

Nintendo:

Are absolutely terrible with Retailer relations (remember the shortages of Resident Evil 4 last march?)

Are absolutely terrible with Point Of Sale.

Marketing.... Mario Strikers/Baseball/Dancing Stage anyone? Enough said

Extremely difficult with Margins as outlined above.

And, Last but not least, their customer base in Europe is a SHAMBLES!

I know it's easy to say that PS2/PSP/Xbox sell thanks to the "casual gamer" not knowing about all those great games on GBA/Cube and buying the same old tripe but, as sad as it is, It's true! And retailers know that.

And all of this info is not a dig at Nintendo. It's ALL true.

Regards,
Noobsaibot21 (SEGA whore )

aidan_walsh

[irritating]They didn't see that one coming, Mr. Harvey![/irritating]

Rew

Hmmm, where are the Harvy Normans in Dub?

Bard

Harvey Norman in Dublin is in the Airside Retail park in Swords. I'm told they'll be opening in Dublin city and south Dublin some time next year. Their other stores are in Dundalk, Cork, and from next month - Tralee.

saado

Can't say I'm all that surprised, nintendo have never really been a big sell for many game stores (somehow i get the feeling that i'm the ony person buying any nintendo games in the local gamestop :P). A lot of them won't even take in gamecube games as trade-ins now, it's something of a vicious cycle - Nintendo games don't sell as well, so stores won't stock them (or stock very few of them, happened me with both Final Fantasy: Crystal chronicles and Soul Calibur 2, would have ended up waiting months were it not for the internet :P), so that means that people who would generally buy them go elsewhere/online for their games, so that means that what stores stock won't sell, , s o they get in even less games, and so on.
Any idea are Harvey Norman's doing this in cork too? May be worth my while to go pick up a few cut price games

Bard

Harvey Norman in Cork are just opened a month or so. I doubt they got any Nintendo products into stock at all.

1huge1

id understand if they got rid of gamecube but ds and gba it makes no sense
and i think there coming to limerick very soon and all

Bard

As far as I'm aware, they'll be open in Limerick by April, and they're eyeing up a few other towns and cities too. They're expanding fast!

To the best of my knowledge, they never stocked Gamecube, concentrating instead on the Playstation, XBox and, for a while, the GBA and NDS.

Kristok

Do you know if sales where big on gba and ds it might just be a case of they dont sell that much so clear the shelf space. Most kids wouldnt go near harvey norman to buy games and adults wouldnt buy the gba games only really xbox and ps2.

RE*AC*TOR

For my sins, i've never been inside the doors of a harvey norman store. Is it any great loss to society? There are plenty of other places selling nintendo stuff - its not like they have a monopoly...

Bard

Sales were fairly big on GBA stuff last Christmas alright but, as with most Nintendo stuff, the margins were way too small. I guess that's why they dumped them.

I never said Harvey Norman had a monopoly, I just said that they're a major retailer and they're growing fast;- 2 stores in Ireland this time last year, 4 stores by the end of this year, probably twice as many again or more at the end of next year, with new stores due to open in Tralee (next month), Limerick (April) and up to three more in Dublin, plus other locations around the country.

Most kids wouldnt go near harvey norman to buy games

Not true, really.

honru

Noobsaibot21 is on the ball though really, Nintendo of Europe are just awful with retail relations and marketing. I went into HMV the other day and noticed the Game Boy Micro on a lower shelf, didn't even know they were released over here. Oh, and Mario Smash Football is out too, if you haven't heard.

They really need to get their act together for the next generation. The situation has improved slightly over the days when THE Games handled their stuff atrociously, but it's just not good enough.

Noobsaibot21

I'm not at all surprised that they dropped GBA as the GBA IS on it's last legs, despite what Nintendo will let on. Repackaging the same item in a new case will only work for a small while. Sure the odd gem gets released (mainly first party again) but the only games coming out for it these days are ports (driv3r) or double packs of spongebob, sonic, incredibles ect.....

Think hard. When was the last, worth buying a GBA for, game released that WASN'T 1st party? With the exception of Gunstar Super Heroes (which cruelly wont sell), I cant really think of any off hand. I'd imagine I would have to look back a year or two.....

honru

But even Nintendo's output for the GBA is slowing down. At the moment Final Fantasy IV, Dr. Mario Puzzle League and Drill Dozer are the only games they have in the pipeline.

Oh, and of course there's Wario Ware Twisted! which still hasn't been released here.

rainbow kirby

Noobsaibot21 wrote:

Think hard. When was the last, worth buying a GBA for, game released that WASN'T 1st party? With the exception of Gunstar Super Heroes (which cruelly wont sell), I cant really think of any off hand. I'd imagine I would have to look back a year or two.....

It would have REALLY helped if GAME had actually stocked Gunstar Super Heroes...

Kristok

Bard wrote:

Sales were fairly big on GBA stuff last Christmas alright but, as with most Nintendo stuff, the margins were way too small. I guess that's why they dumped them.

I never said Harvey Norman had a monopoly, I just said that they're a major retailer and they're growing fast;- 2 stores in Ireland this time last year, 4 stores by the end of this year, probably twice as many again or more at the end of next year, with new stores due to open in Tralee (next month), Limerick (April) and up to three more in Dublin, plus other locations around the country.



Not true, really.

Fair enough you work there im sure you know first hand but id imagine not allot of kids would be shopping there as the shops are not really in walking distance or in areas serviced by bus links like say a game or gamestop shop might be cause they usually are in big shopping districts. I dont think the gba is on its last legs but its defo slowing down a good bit.

As a foot note game in blanch moved their nintendo ds and gba stuff right up the front of the shop into the windowd area they used to keep it all down the back in a tiny little area.