JC Penney Hops Aboard The NES Train
As Christmas approaches, the venerable team of Nintendo salespeople have been trying their hardest to convince more retailers to carry the NES and its games. The trial market in New York appears to be going well with more locations now stocking the system. The latest to hop on board is JC Penney, as can be seen in an ad that ran yesterday. The participating locations are along the bottom of the ad, all in New Jersey.
It appears that the retailer is selling the NES (2 controllers, Control Deck, Zapper, R.O.B. the Robot, Duck Hunt, and Gyromite) for $149.99, one of the lowest prices we’ve seen so far. While it doesn’t list the Game Paks it has in stock, they do vary in price from $24.95 to $34.99. Of special note is the clever marketing in the ad, no doubt straight from Nintendo. “Presenting the video system with so many firsts it’s second to none.” I especially like how everything is a first: “First of all, there’s R.O.B…” and then the next paragraph states, “And first of all, Nintendo introduces the Zapper.” and finally, “And first but not last…” It will be very interesting to see how they market on a national level, assuming sales targets are hit.
Craig has been covering the video game industry since 1995. His work has been published across a wide spectrum of media sites. He’s currently the Editor-In-Chief of Nintendo Times and contributes to Gaming Age.
