Black Friday and Holiday gaming stock preview

One of the good things about the ability to check inventory in real time is to see what your favourite retailer sees as “what’s hot, what’s not” for the coming 3 months that is generally a make/break season for retailers.

Up here in the slushy north, my go-to retailer (41 brick-and-mortar stores, as well as ordering online) has loaded up on the following:

WHAT’S HOT

  1. Asus ROG Ally - every store has between 2 and 8 in stock, ready to go. Even though it’s the most expensive item on this list, it’s clearly expected to be THE big seller; can play flight simulator, comes with 3 months of game pass ultimate;
  2. Sony PlayStation 5 - every store has at least 2 sitting on the shelf, ready to go.
  3. Nintendo Switch - same situation as the PlayStation - every store has multiple units in stock.
  4. AMD video cards - plenty of the high-end cards in stock.
  5. Laptops - LOTS of laptops.

WHAT’S NOT SO HOT:

  1. NVidia 4090 - it WAS hot last year, but not so much any more. Looks like anyone who wanted one already bought it.

WTAT’S DOA

  1. They have discontinued carrying the XBox. There’s one open box (returned) sitting in the warehouse, and one store has a single unit, and once they’re gone, that’s it. Looks like people are switching to mobile gaming for XBox titles, even though it costs more.

I’ve verified this with another popular online-only retailer - they also don’t have much xbox inventory actually in stock - what they DO have is 3rd party sellers offering xboxes, at inflated prices.

Please don’t shoot the messenger. Talk to the people who work at your local store, they’ll verify this.

2 Likes

Depends on ‘local’. You need more places to shop…

If I drive out in a one hour radius here: 24 home depots, 16 lowes stores, 17 costcos, 7 BJ’s, 6 Sam’s clubs, 24 walmarts, 11 Best Buys, 2 Lego stores/1 Lego experience store, not sure but would guess 25-30 gamestops, and the average mall ratio of Kohl’s and other boxes per ‘Home Depo/Walmart-centric’ neighborhoods(marshalls/homegoods etc about 1each per 2 walmarts…) etc.

I know each Costco/Walmart/BJ’s/Sam’s have multiple pallets of Xboxes and PS5’s. Not sure what a ROG is?

ASUS Republic Of Gamers?