Wii harder to find than PS3 or Elmo

iTrackr keeps track of hard-to-find products in stores near your ZIP code. If you’re a member, you get alerts through email. It’s a nice service if you want to know which retailers have what (and that’s a good thing to know before you camp out).

Let’s look at the iTrackr data for the three hardest-to-find toys:

• The PS3’s national availability is 7%. There are 1036 users tracking the PS3.
• Elmo’s national availability is 4%. There are 32 users tracking Elmo.
• The Wii’s national availability is 2%. There are 922 users tracking the Wii.
• The data is for 8,578 retail stores across the U.S. There are 15,578 iTrackr members.

How is it possible that the Wii, which ships in huge quantities, is less available than the PS3, which ships in very limited quantities? We’re going to have to follow this up (probably when we’re not so distracted by all the Christmas left-overs), but already this seems to indicate that the Wii is getting sold out as well as the PS3 (or better), and/or the Wii ships in bigger numbers but to less locations (so it’s less available to people out in the boonies), and/or the Wii has a more spread-out market.

I also tested iTrackr. I found out that there are 13 iTrackr members near my zip code (a 10-mile radius). As for product searches, iTrackr says 0 out of 2 retailers in my area have the PS3 in stock, while 0 out of 2 have the Wii, and the single retailer that should have Tickle Me Elmo “x-treme” (TMX) doesn’t have it in stock. (I don’t care – there are plenty of cakes and pies from Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee, and that’s what matters because Christmas is all about gluttony.)

iTrackr keeps track of hard-to-find products in stores near your ZIP code. If you’re a member, you get alerts through email. It’s a nice service if you want to know which retailers have what (and that’s a good thing to know before you camp out).

Let’s look at the iTrackr data for the three hardest-to-find toys:

• The PS3’s national availability is 7%. There are 1036 users tracking the PS3.
• Elmo’s national availability is 4%. There are 32 users tracking Elmo.
• The Wii’s national availability is 2%. There are 922 users tracking the Wii.
• The data is for 8,578 retail stores across the U.S. There are 15,578 iTrackr members.

How is it possible that the Wii, which ships in huge quantities, is less available than the PS3, which ships in very limited quantities? We’re going to have to follow this up (probably when we’re not so distracted by all the Christmas left-overs), but already this seems to indicate that the Wii is getting sold out as well as the PS3 (or better), and/or the Wii ships in bigger numbers but to less locations (so it’s less available to people out in the boonies), and/or the Wii has a more spread-out market.

I also tested iTrackr. I found out that there are 13 iTrackr members near my zip code (a 10-mile radius). As for product searches, iTrackr says 0 out of 2 retailers in my area have the PS3 in stock, while 0 out of 2 have the Wii, and the single retailer that should have Tickle Me Elmo “x-treme” (TMX) doesn’t have it in stock. (I don’t care – there are plenty of cakes and pies from Wal-Mart and Hy-Vee, and that’s what matters because Christmas is all about gluttony.)