Big Apple shoppers were on the hunt yesterday for the trifecta of holiday presents – video-game players, iPods and flat-screen TVs – as stores said demand remained very strong three days into the Christmas selling season.
“Wii. We need a Wii and world peace, but I’ll take a Wii,” said Marguerite Farino, 43, of Staten Island as she and her two daughters scoured Times Square stores for the red-hot Nintendo video-game console.
“You have to hunt them down because stores only get three or four at a time.”
In fact, Wii’s were nowhere in sight at the Best Buy in Elmhurst’s Queens Center Mall, where manager Mike Rodriguez said the store sold out of its allotment of the consoles on Saturday.
“The whole store is hot,” said Rodriguez, who noted that copies of the EA video game “Rock Band” likewise had disappeared from shelves in the two days after Thanksgiving.
“The LCD high-definition televisions are a best-seller. The GPS navigation systems are also a hot commodity.”
Ron Wuaten, a 26-year-old IT systems technician for Yahoo!, satisfied his technology craving at the store by buying two accessories for his own Wii – a wireless sensor bar and a controller, for $20 apiece – in addition to a Vonage phone, a digital picture frame for his girlfriend and a “Shrek the Third” DVD for her daughter.
“It was a normal day of shopping for me. Less people than Black Friday,” Wuaten said. “I came on Black Friday looking for a TV, but [there were] too many people.”
Back in Manhattan, Sandy Moncton, 53, was headed to a Midtown store to look for an iPod before she returned to her native London.
“It’s 130 [British pounds] for the iPod 4G in London” – the equivalent of nearly $270, said Moncton. “As long as it’s cheaper here, I’m getting it.”
She was likely to succeed.
That iPod model is selling for just $149 in New York, which is seeing a horde of European shoppers drawn by relatively low prices and a weak dollar.
“The dollar is good – nice and cheap,” said Yvonne Peachy, a property manager from London, who said she bought three Ralph Lauren Polo shirts for $120, about $35 less than she would have paid for just one back home.
Laura, an employee at the Gap store in Times Square, said, “I’ve had a lot of people say it’s a lot cheaper here, especially the Europeans.”
“They just love the city. Right now, a lot of people are coming in just to buy holiday gifts and return home.”