The street date is when a vendor is supposed to sell a given item.

It appears some stores have begun to sell early:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/31/storm … te-broken/

Since I'm heading there anyway I'll check and see if Wal-Mart is selling them early around here.

Aren't vendors bound by contract or something?  I hope Nintendo hasn't given only certain suppliers permission to sell early, in exchange for favors from the vendors.  The last thing Nintendo needs is another scandal.

"Another scandal"?

yes, back in the day when Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were on the market, if thats the one other person is referring to.

No luck in the greater Boston area just yet. I've called every Target/Walmart in a 10 mile radius around Melrose, MA, and I'm still panning out. Hopefully someone will have them...

I was referring to the price fixing scandal.

There's usually no actual contracts.  It's usually a good faith arrangement.  That said, companies will often punish retailers for breaking street dates by denying future product allocations of hot items.

And then there's Disney.  With Disney, there are per unit fines in addition to the above.  If anyone works in retail and is interested in losing their job really quickly, just sell a Disney title before street date and your ass is pretty much done.  :-)

That's what a contract would be for.  Oh well.  I don't think Nintendo would refuse to stock Walmart, given that it's one of the largest chains in the country.

Dang, no luck with our crappy Wal-Mart.
They do have regular DSes on sale for 119.99, though.