For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit of a NCAA Football aficionado. In this sense, I’m talking about the video game series and not the actual sport itself. Right on schedule, NCAA Football 09 came out this past Tuesday and as always, I wanted it. Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten about it coming out this Tuesday and was reminded of it’s release by my friend Bryan after he called me and wondered if I had started playing it yet. Quickly, I grab my phone and call up the closest Gamestop. “Nah, we’re sold out. Should be getting a shipment in tomorrow though.” Okay, no biggie. I can go to the EB Games (same franchise) that is just around the corner. “Sold out.” Well shit. So I call one that is pretty far away. “All we have is copies that were pre-ordered.” Is this some kind of joke?

Reluctantly, I decide to drive to Target and check there. I had wanted to go to an EB Games or a Gamestop solely for the fact that I could trade in last year’s release of NCAA Football towards the new copy. Kind of miffed, I wander down the aisles of Target towards their electronics section. As I turn the corner of the XBox 360 aisle, I saw a most beautiful sight: copies of NCAA Football 09. I’m very excited until I realize something that annoyed me: there were at least twenty copies there. Basically a whole shelf of them sat there, untouched. There were copies of the game that had fallen off the shelf into the bottom of the cabinet. Here lay over twenty copies of this game at a department store that is less than a mile away from Gamestop and EB Games. Their sole business is video games and they sold out of one of the most popular games? What in the hell is wrong with the people running these stores? Do they not understand the concept of supply and demand? I know it’s most difficult, but here’s the gist: if people want it, you stock your freaking shelves with it. That’s it. Their sole commodity is video games and gaming systems and they only order like four copies (besides the pre-orders) for the store. Is this a freaking joke? Unfortunately, no… no it is not.