Get your game on at the airport

[Queasy]

Heh. Pretty nifty idea actually. I don't know if watching a Nintendo DS fall off the top shelf of a vending machine would thrill me very much but the idea of picking up a Brain Age or Mario Kart at retail prices (instead of inflated airport prices) while sitting around bored in an airport would be pretty appealing.

 

[Aikouka]

I saw those when I was at ORD in October... I thought it was kind of odd. I wonder how well they sell things with them?

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

I saw those in a couple of airports while travelling over the holidays. Considering that they were stocked with iPod and PSP hardware, my first thought was how pissed off the guy is going to be when this machine jams?

 

[StageLeft]

If travelling alone and hit a major delay, I'd buy a DS in this manner.

 

[SneakyStuff]

That's pretty cool they didn't jack up the prices, I bet they will sell very well just because the prices are the same as the stores, people will be bored on long flights, and people will be curious.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
That's pretty cool they didn't jack up the prices, I bet they will sell very well just because the prices are the same as the stores, people will be bored on long flights, and people will be curious.

If they're not jacking the prices, what is the point of these machines? I've worked at Best Buy, and I can tell you that they sell most games at cost. When a DS game is $40, that's what they paid for it. They only sell those to get you into the store where they can rape you with things like batteries and game accessories.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
That's pretty cool they didn't jack up the prices, I bet they will sell very well just because the prices are the same as the stores, people will be bored on long flights, and people will be curious.

If they're not jacking the prices, what is the point of these machines? I've worked at Best Buy, and I can tell you that they sell most games at cost. When a DS game is $40, that's what they paid for it. They only sell those to get you into the store where they can rape you with things like batteries and game accessories.

Well the machine did have other items other than Nintendo items. This is just a wild guess though as far as the DS and games go though... I don't see any Sony PSP products in there, maybe Nintendo provides a monetary bonus for them selling only Nintendo products in those machines. Nintendo in turn makes more money from people buying software titles for the DS they purchased.

 

[Baked]

I travel w/ my DSLite and Zune.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
That's pretty cool they didn't jack up the prices, I bet they will sell very well just because the prices are the same as the stores, people will be bored on long flights, and people will be curious.

If they're not jacking the prices, what is the point of these machines? I've worked at Best Buy, and I can tell you that they sell most games at cost. When a DS game is $40, that's what they paid for it. They only sell those to get you into the store where they can rape you with things like batteries and game accessories.

why do I find that hard to believe....so all games are basically same price at all retailers and there is no profit

when they go onsale..they are losing money

 

[nsafreak]

Originally posted by: nealh

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
That's pretty cool they didn't jack up the prices, I bet they will sell very well just because the prices are the same as the stores, people will be bored on long flights, and people will be curious.

If they're not jacking the prices, what is the point of these machines? I've worked at Best Buy, and I can tell you that they sell most games at cost. When a DS game is $40, that's what they paid for it. They only sell those to get you into the store where they can rape you with things like batteries and game accessories.

why do I find that hard to believe....so all games are basically same price at all retailers and there is no profit

when they go onsale..they are losing money

Not true. I used to work in retail and I managed the electronics department when I did. I saw what the actual store cost was for any given item I looked up in inventory. I will grant that stores do not make much on video games but they are not paying the same price that they sell them for.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Heh. Pretty nifty idea actually. I don't know if watching a Nintendo DS fall off the top shelf of a vending machine would thrill me very much but the idea of picking up a Brain Age or Mario Kart at retail prices (instead of inflated airport prices) while sitting around bored in an airport would be pretty appealing.

If they're anything like the ipod vending machines I've seen (and it looks like it) there's an arm type thing that grabs your item and brings it to the dispenser. Nothing falls like standard snack machines.

 

[Skel]

most of the ones I've seen have been full of IPODs and PSPs. I've always wondered who's buying the IPODs and if they come preloaded with anything. Would really suck if someone shelled out a price above retail sales only to find out they really can't do anything with it until they get back home....

 

[dougp]

Chances are the vending machine will prompt you to get an extended warranty 3x before checkout, and then ask you if you want a magazine subscription.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: dougp
Chances are the vending machine will prompt you to get an extended warranty 3x before checkout, and then ask you if you want a magazine subscription.

Don't forget the Monster Cables.

 

[dlock13]

They have these in a lot of airports now. I used one way back in early March of last year, and it helped me tenfold. They had an iPod charger in there, and I had another 3 hours where I was going to be awake doing absolutely nothing on the plane with a dead iPod. I bought one for about 20$, and it also came with extra cables for anything mini-usb and some other cable I can't recall, but I ended up sitting at one of those recharge stations and got enough juice to use my iPod the rest of the way home!

 

[Raduque]

Reminds me of a machine I saw years ago in a mall in Seattle. It sold shareware games on floppy, put in $5 and out popped the discs, preprinted labels and everything.