From what I understand, the corporate entity known as Toys R Us (or EB or KB or Best Buy, etc.) orders a certain amount from THQ. The corporate entity (meaning the whole company, itself) then distributes its lot of games among its individual stores. When an EB store is getting 12 more WCW each week, they are most likely ordering more from their parent company, which had previously ordered a huge lot, perhaps 50,000 units, from THQ. When the stockpile at EB headquarters (or Toys R Us, Software Etc, etc.) is getting low, EB orders more from THQ. They are aware of the lead time necessary to receive games from THQ, so EB estimates, by the number of remaining units at their main warehouse/inventory, when it is a good time to reorder from THQ. For instance, when their inventory has dropped to 10,000 units, they'll order more. With longer lead times, such as the cartridge games, a buyer (such as EB) needs to buy early and often (and buy a lot) to make sure it has enough to keep the shelves stocked at all times.
Remember also that THQ keeps a lot of units sitting around, waiting for reorders from customers. Because of THQ's excellent inventory management, it doesn't tell Nintendo to make a million units of WCW, just so they can sit around Calabasas all day, gathering dust. But on the other side of the coin, THQ doesn't wait for Toys R Us to call them before THQ orders more from Nintendo. There is a middle ground. If THQ did wait for a reorder before having more cartridges manufactured, there would be empty shelves in stores, much like Toy Story last Christmas. That wouldn't be good.
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The WSJ article was interesting. It wasn't great, but it wasn't very negative either. I wrote to the author and suggested that he buy the hint/clue book from Prima Publishing. That would solve his personal problem with the skimpy manual, as well as help him avoid getting his transport ships destroyed. I saw the manual sitting next to the Pax games today in EB. There's a manual for WCW also.
Todd |
