Nintendo customer service rep blames retailers for amiibo shortages, explains how the supply chain works
One fan recently wrote in to Nintendo’s customer service team about the amiibo shortage situation. In response to this person’s email, the following response was delivered:
Thank you for writing. I apologize for the delay in our reply. I’m sorry to hear of your disappointment with the availability and distribution of amiibo, and would like you to know that we have documented and shared your concerns with the relevant departments here at Nintendo.
Additionally, I’d like to convey that we are aware of the popularity of amiibo and continually aim to always have a regular supply of amiibo in the marketplace. As stated previously, certain sold-out amiibo may return to your local retailer at a later stage. We apologize for any inconvenience you are experiencing now, and thank you in advance for your continued patience in this matter.
The same fan wrote back to Nintendo, and made some accusations about the company manipulating amiibo demand via the supply chain. That led the representative to explain how the supply chain actually works:
While this may not be the answer you were hoping for, all of the issues you’re describing are retailer related. Nintendo has no input on when or how retailers sell our products, if or when new products are stocked, or when and how the retailer takes pre-orders. These decisions are made by retailers at the administration level. If you have concerns about these kinds of issues, we can only recommend contacting your retailer.
It may interest you to learn that Nintendo doesn’t ship products directly to retail locations. We take orders from distributors (who sell our products and products from other companies), and ship our products to their distribution centers. The distributors then take orders from retailers and ship these orders to the retailers’ merchandise centers. Once there, the retailers make all decisions about how to best sell this merchandise. They divide this merchandise up into smaller units and send them to retailers based on sales data.
Please also note that no amiibo have been discontinued at this time. We plan to have different amiibo available throughout the year, and characters which seem to disappear at one time will suddenly reappear in the future. This means that amiibo which are hard to find now will be back in stores.
This rep obviously doesn’t seem for Nintendo’s PR team or the company as a whole, but there are some… interesting comments there. Sadly, they don’t really do much to improve the situation with amiibo shortages!
