Why did Best Buy Canada hide their Wiis?

Okay, this one’s north of the border, but since Best Buy Canada Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Best Buy Co., maybe the stuff here could also relate to those Black Friday rumors. The Toronto-based The Globe and Mail has confirmed that best Buy Canada Ltd. employees in the Greater Toronto area had received instructions to “retain” their remaining (few, if any) stocks of Wiis and keep them hidden until the end of the week.

Brushing all conspiracy theories aside, a spokeswoman for the company explained that they’re doing this “to fulfill the advertisement in our flyer” that presumably says something like “Wiis available this end-of-week” or something. When asked, Nintendo of Canada’s marketing director replied that he wasn’t aware that there were units being held back in retail, but as for Ninty’s warehouse, stocks are flat-out “zero.”

Well, the end of the week’s coming up, so it wouldn’t do at all to make a scene (supplies will also be refreshed with additional shipments coming in), but this has got to make people wonder WTF is going on. At the very least, it’s a kinda twisted “truth in advertising” thing (More Wiis on Friday! Even if we have a few more right now!) that just happens to fall on Black Friday.

Oh, and by the way, everything you’ve seen here is so far confirmed for Best Buy Canada, Greater Toronto Area. Nothing reported for elsewhere in Canada, or Best Buy USA yet.

Okay, this one’s north of the border, but since Best Buy Canada Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US-based Best Buy Co., maybe the stuff here could also relate to those Black Friday rumors. The Toronto-based The Globe and Mail has confirmed that best Buy Canada Ltd. employees in the Greater Toronto area had received instructions to “retain” their remaining (few, if any) stocks of Wiis and keep them hidden until the end of the week.

Brushing all conspiracy theories aside, a spokeswoman for the company explained that they’re doing this “to fulfill the advertisement in our flyer” that presumably says something like “Wiis available this end-of-week” or something. When asked, Nintendo of Canada’s marketing director replied that he wasn’t aware that there were units being held back in retail, but as for Ninty’s warehouse, stocks are flat-out “zero.”

Well, the end of the week’s coming up, so it wouldn’t do at all to make a scene (supplies will also be refreshed with additional shipments coming in), but this has got to make people wonder WTF is going on. At the very least, it’s a kinda twisted “truth in advertising” thing (More Wiis on Friday! Even if we have a few more right now!) that just happens to fall on Black Friday.

Oh, and by the way, everything you’ve seen here is so far confirmed for Best Buy Canada, Greater Toronto Area. Nothing reported for elsewhere in Canada, or Best Buy USA yet.