Be sure you're sitting down when you head over to Walmart's online storefront and search for a PlayStation 5, because the consoles are somehow selling for more than twice their retail price tag.
To be clear, this isn't Walmart itself peddling these ludicrous listings - the company has introduced a feature which lets users sell their own products through its website, much like Amazon. I'm sure that those without a PlayStation 5 would have been over the moon to see that the product was back in stock in Walmart as the projections for restocks were gloomy. Indeed, the fact that hardly anyone is able to get their mitts on the console is stunning seeing as over 4.5 million of them were sold at the end of last year. However, the issue actually originates at the point where Asian countries were struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus. There is a massive manufacturing base in that part of the world, and so when people fell ill and couldn't enter their place of work, production of semiconductors (required for the function of cars to consoles) slowed to a snail's pace. If that.
Near, far, wherever you are: scalpers will always be there to snap up stocks of the most in-demand products. This group based in the UK has even gone as far as to boast of their spoils and retailer GAME issued a statement on how it had been affected by their actions. Check it out below.
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On Walmart's online storefront, Nationwide Distributor is selling a disc edition of the PlayStation 5 for $1,099. The bonus is that it is a two day wait til it is delivered to your door and postage won't cost you a cent. Of course, I'm being sarcastic here. Alternatively, there's a "PlayStation 5 C0NS0LE" on offer for $1,299, and that's sold by Profit Inc., which sounds like the name of the very obvious villain in a Pixar movie. It's surprising that these listings have not been addressed by Walmart as it was transparent on its stance on scalpers late last year.
"Bot scripts are constantly evolving and being re-written, so we've built, deployed and are continuously updating our own bot detection tools allowing us to successfully block the vast majority of bots we see," explained chief information security officer Jerry Geisler. "As an additional step, we also audit and quickly cancel any orders confirmed to be purchased by bots that may have slipped through... As a result, the vast majority of our next-gen consoles have been purchased by legitimate customers, which is exactly what we want."
"We have more next-gen consoles coming online soon, and we're continuing to work hard to get them into the hands of as many customers as possible. We hope others across the retail industry will join us by asking lawmakers to do more to prevent these unwanted bots on retail sites, so customers have equal access to the products they want," he concluded.
Featured Image Credit: Federico Orlandi via Pexels, SonyTopics: News, PlayStation