Thursday, November 27, 2008

CPotW (update)

Purely as sport, I like to look at the ads for Black Friday that appear in the Thanksgiving Day newspaper.

Today, I noticed something interesting. The retailers advertising that they have Wii's in stock are bundling it with all kinds of crap to increase their profit margin. I didn't see a single ad for the Wii today that had a checkout price below $350.

Here's a quick breakdown of what was in the newspaper:
Sam's Club--
Wii "Family" Bundle (+ two controllers and Nunchuks, Mario Super Sluggers, King of Clubs Mini Golf) $425

Conn's--
Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle $199
Wii "Super" Bundle (+ Steering Wheel, Carnival Games, "3 additional games") $379

Circuit City--
Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle (+ Kung Fu Panda, Lego Indiana Jones) $299
Xbox 360 Arcade Holiday Bundle (+ Sega Superstars Tennis) $199
PS2 (+ "micro controller") $129
Wii accessories (all crap, 50% off)

Best Buy--
PS3 80GB system (+Ratchet & Clank: TOD and Casino Royale Blu-Ray) $399
Xbox 360 Pro (+Lego Indiana Jones, KF Panda, NBA 2k9, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground) $299

Sears--
Xbox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle (+Lego IJ and KF Panda) $299
PS3 80 GB $399

Based on the ads today, I think Microsoft is well-positioned for the holidays. They're featured in far more ads than either Sony or Nintendo, and their bundles aren't adding cost. The Wii bundles are utterly ridiculous, and Best Buy is the only retailer today who even had a PS3 bundle (the Sear's ad listed the PS3, but there was no bundle).

I'll do this again tomorrow morning and add what's new.

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