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Nintendo Wii: Wal-Mart Lost Money On Every Wii They Sold On Black Friday

We already know that the Wii was phenomenally successful during Black Friday but what we didn’t know is Wal-Mart lost money on every console they sold. According to Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime Wal-Mart lost money on every limited edition Blue Wii it sold for less than $100 while Nintendo didn’t lose a cent.

“Wal-Mart lost money on every Wii they sold. We did not lose money on it”

100 thoughts on “Nintendo Wii: Wal-Mart Lost Money On Every Wii They Sold On Black Friday”

    1. Deserves what? They may have lost money off each Wii, but they made a ton of money just be getting that many people inside their store.

      1. thats right, those people would have bought other stuff which had a mark up that well exceeded the lose %. basic marketing 101.

      1. How could they have lost money? Did they sell them under the price they bought them? Oh well, if the Wal-Mart owner can’t tell if a dime is worth more than nickel, they shouldn’t be complaining.

        1. It is because they lost money. Wiis cost X for Walmart to stock, Wiis cost Y to the consumer. Now when black Friday hits, Wiis cost Y*% off (or – $), so Y-X = -profit. Wal Mart charged less then they should, they take the hit. That’s what happens when you are the “middle man”. That’s why there is a sale price, clearance price, and just the normal price.

          With items like this, you hope that the consumer buys games, controllers, accessories, so you get that money back (or more back). That’s why computers go on sale, they want you to buy a wireless mouse, or a printer, or software, or a replacement plan, etc.

          Best Buy had discounted iPads, they took the hit on that, I’m sure Apple didn’t charge them any less. I heard those sold out too (at least by me).

    1. Except Wal-Mart doesn’t suffer, they make big bucks on all the people who bought other things after buying the wii such as additional video games to go along with it. There are also a bunch of other bonuses for Wal-Mart by selling cheap like this.

  1. Quite common for places like that to offer loss leaders. You go in and get the cheap hardware and then stay and buy other stuff. By the time you’re done the store is in profit on your transaction.

  2. So that explains the high sales figures, it was ridiculously cheap…
    I don’t see the logic in this, they can’t guarantee that they’ll get substantial software sales from these people as they may go elsewhere, so how do they benefit?

    1. I think it means that every time someone buys a Wii at Walmart, Then Walmart has to pay a specific amount to Nintendo. Now if they decide to do a discount or sale special that prices the Wii below the suggested retail price, then they lose money because they’d be paying Nintendo more than they recieved for the console. Or atleast that’s how I think it works.

    1. Agreed, what’s with the Walmart hate lol? I buy my games there all the time. So my favorite companies get money, and Walmart gets money to supply me with more awesome games. I don’t see the issues with Walmart here lol.

      1. Lol, You Sir are the best troll I’ve ever seen my hole live. Always glad to see your bear-faced avatar postig this huge amount of divers comments. Investing some big ammount of time..^^ [anonymous aka …]

  3. That basically just kept repeating what the title said, I personally wanna know why, and how nintendo didn’t loose a dime. :D

  4. Uh HURR DURR. They also lose money on PCs. It all gets made up and then some with software and services. I used to work at circuit city (when they were around) and I would try to sell as much stuff with the pc and/or system as I could. Usually would get a system, and 2-3 games, extra controllers, warranty, etc. with PCs I’d sell security programs, installation services, etc. On the over/under we still made money. Too bad not enough money lol.

  5. Very few people here understand that it made perfect business sense. By making a great sale on the Wii for less than $100, they got consumers to come in to walmart and check out other stuff. I guarantee you the majority of sales of Wii’s were accompanied with other, substantially more inflated products. Take games, for example. A game disc/case costs a publisher literally less than a cent. They make tons of profit from that.

    1. On average, most companies try to sell a product at 200% what they bought it for, so if a wii at 100$ is a loss, what price is Nintendo selling them for?

      I mean Sony takes a loss on every ps3 sold, but make up for it in software sales. Apparently nintendo doesn’t Want to just have software sale gains, but hardware as well. (as seen with the 3DS)

      1. I don’t know if that applies to Video games (200%). I know Nintendo sets a “recommended” selling price, such as 149.99 (currently). Perhaps Nintendo only sells them for $125 or something. The retailer has to make money on the item sold as well, so I think the money gained is much less than you think. If Walmart buys Wiis for 149.99 and sells them for 149.99, there is no money made on it. So the retailer probably gets a discounted price and sells for the suggested retail price, and can “discount” it to whatever they want since they already purchased them.

  6. Well I was at Walmart there wasn’t to many people waiting in line for the blue Wii. They should of came out with a clear one. That might of sold better.

  7. People dont be ignorant its simple business. Wal-mart sells wii’s for less loses money. They do this to draw in more costumers because guess what now you gotta buy games, tvs, acc, etc. Simple business plus they sold other things that people tend to buy on black friday’s

    1. I should have too. I haven’t played my Wii since finishing Super Mario Galaxy 2 then I played SSBB this week and it took like 2 minutes longer to load.

  8. I do understaind, that Wal-Mart sold WII cheaper, and even lost money with each one sold,
    but you need to know that there is nowone who does something to loos.

    so, Wal-mart lost with WII but I am sure the won with other, like games, so
    it does not matter if they lost 100,000 with the Wii but they won 200,000 with the Wii games.

    so they just has sold a lot of console, maybe more than a lot of stores.
    the good thing here is, there is a lot of kids playing with a Wii.

  9. Out of all the thing I considerd nintendo, I never though of them as trolls.

    “Wal-Mart lost money on every Wii they sold. We did not lose money on it”

    U MAD WAL-MART? :Trollface:

  10. Well, walmart decided to sell them at a loss; they even had those gift cards. The thing is, with every system, people bought games, accessories, etc, for their new system, and since there are a ton of Wii games that are cheap now, then they are able to turn that into a profit.

    Btw, these retailers don’t really buy any system/game from publishers until they sell them to customers. In other words, once a system/game is sold, a certain portion goes to the retailer, and the rest is for the publisher. What goes to the retailer is what allows them to sell those for a cheaper price. If something is not really selling, then the retailer is going to talk to the publisher so that they can sell it for less in order to clear their stock. I’m guessing Nintendo did the price drop for the 3DS because retailers pressured them with clearing their product.

  11. What happened to the law that companies could not sell things at a loss? This kept stores from dropping their prices, destroying small businesses, then raising their prices again(Which Wal-mart tried, and still tries, to do).

  12. I seriously doubt they lost a lot of money (if any) considering the MSRP is $150. They probably bought the Wiis for about $100 each meaning that they either made little, lost little, or broke even. Regardless, this strategy brought in A LOT of customers resulting in unplanned games, controllers, accessories, and any other game/non-game related items that were at Wal-Mart that day. At the end of the day, Wal-Mart made money; so don’t be shocked because it was for a reason

  13. Pingback: Wal-mart as the new head of state | Musings of Captain Justice

  14. Pingback: Walmart Lost Kuddos, Nintendo Gains Points | LevelSave

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