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Reggie Fils-Aime says Walmart is their biggest customer photo

Nintendo of America front man Reggie Fils-Aime was recently on CNBC pimping many of his company's wares, including the newly price-dropped Wii and their portable, the DSi. In the interview on Nintendo's holiday lineup, Reggie was asked who his biggest retail customer is, and he pointed to Bentonville, Arkansas based retailer Walmart.

"On a retail basis, certainly from my region, which is Canada, U.S, Latin America, Walmart is my biggest customer," Fils-Aime said.

That's surprising. I know Walmart is the world's largest retailer, but as for Nintendo wares, I would have picked Best Buy or GameStop over Walmart. Over 2.2 million units have been sold, and apparently Walmart played a big part in that. 

Speaking of Walmart, although not games related, I caught CNBC's "The New Age of Walmart" documentary last night. This is their second doc on the company, and this one's not as negative as the last. Very interesting. The best one is still Penn & Teller's Bullsh*t! episode on the company -- they go after the people that hate the company for no reason.

[via Joystiq]


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19 comments | showing # 1 to 19

artha14's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:05
artha14
Interesting......
worm jerky's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:14
worm jerky
...and here in all their glory are these shining beacons of consumerism.
Michael Miroku Fraser's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:14
Michael Miroku Fraser
Well its kinda tru but wow wat happen toys r us
Dale North's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:15
Dale North
worm jerky - i was waiting for that
worm jerky's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:22
worm jerky
I aim to please! :D
BattyAdroit's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:30
BattyAdroit
@Michael Miroku Fraser> Toys R Us can't compete with a loss-leader retailer like Wal-Mart. This has been pretty well covered on the net.

@Dale> "That's surprising. I know Walmart is the world's largest retailer, but as for Nintendo wares, I would have picked Best Buy or GameStop over Walmart. Over 2.2 million units have been sold, and apparently Walmart played a big part in that."

Considering that Wal-Mart has roughly four times the amount of Brick-and-Mortar locations that Best Buy does, it seems like Wal-Mart would be the most obvious choice - especially considering that as far as consoles go, the Wii would be considered a low-end electronics product, which is Wal-Mart's electronics bread-and-butter.

I was surprised to learn that there are over 5,000 GameStop locations though!
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:35
Holyetheline
I did purchase my Wii from them on launch day... And several games.
Everyday Legend's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:36
Everyday Legend
Nintendo as we knew them are dead and gone. They're like the geeky kid that grew up to be a Hollywood superstar, and snubbed everyone he knew to go hang out with his Hollywood friends.

Of course, it's always been that way between Nintendo and Wally World, I bet. Folks buy everything there.

Or, at least the folks who are too lazy to look elsewhere, don't know better or don't care.
Shadowiii's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:38
Shadowiii
Why does this not surprise me.
Also I hate Wal-Mart, and do everything I can to not step foot in there.
Arttemis's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:42
Arttemis
Not surprising whatsoever. Considering the Wii's massive influx of grandparents and all other forms of casual non-gamers, it makes perfect sense that Wal-Mart is responsible for selling it.
bazooie's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 17:51
bazooie
OK I'm now very disappointed with the dtoid community. Wal-Mart has been the biggest retailer for any publisher that sells boxed products for over 5 years. -10 cred.
Qraze's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 18:07
Qraze
that's wally world for ya. luckily mine has a gamestop across the parking lot so i don't buy games there, just a short walk and i'm at gamestop. gamestop here has the lock down.
Magnalon's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 18:29
Magnalon
Hearing someone that's so disconnected from the non-fad struck user base talk is fascinating.
Nerdy Suit's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 18:53
Nerdy Suit
I have been reviewing Walmart's 10-K financials (a.k.a. their yearly financial report) over the last few days (yes, boring to most of you, I know)...trust me when I say that Walmart is much bigger and more powerful than you could ever imagine.

Walmart's financial situation makes Target and Best Buy look like a struggling businesses. So yes, I totally believe that Walmart is more important to Reggie than Gamestop.
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 18:57
Dexter345
Is this really that surprising, Dale? Considering the mass amount of mainstream success the Wii has had, I wouldn't expect a niche store like GameStop to be the main seller of it. Wal-Mart would have been my first guess.
ejamer's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 19:18
ejamer
Does NPD cover Walmart yet, or do they still make assumptions about Walmart sales based on what numbers they get from other retailers?

For the record, got mine at Toys R Us back when it was still uncommon to see systems in the wild.
Secret Cow's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 19:33
Secret Cow
Walmart is far and away the biggest retailer of consumer goods in North America. That includes all game consoles and software, not just Nintendo products. Target actually sells more games than Best Buy or Gamestop as well. A lot of people who have game consoles but don't identify as gamers just buy games wherever they're handy, and big box retail is a lot more convenient for them than specialty retailers.

Walmart is also the biggest customer for all the big publishers - EA, Activision, and so on. No one particularly likes it. But as long as the overwhelming majority of consumer shop at big brick and mortar stores, that's the way it'll be.
atastysammich's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/06/2009 19:35
atastysammich
Eh, can't say the news flipped my lid--it's a pretty Wal-Mart system to me, know what I mean?
jean2317's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/14/2009 11:13
jean2317
Alas...Walmart can be quite the fucking frightning place.
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