Walmart Switch 2 release date stock may be too low to satisfy buyers with canceled pre-order sales

Since Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order opportunities began on April 24th, U.S. Walmart customers have struggled with canceled sales. Now that the retailer is preparing to fulfill orders, there has been a surge of additional cancellations. While frustrating, Walmart stores will also have inventory available on the Switch 2 release date. Unfortunately, stock levels seem surprisingly low in some major markets.

Many Walmart employees can check inventory status through internal apps. With the Switch 2 already arriving at stores, the system displays the number of handhelds at each location. Some of this information has surfaced on Reddit and various forums. In one case, a worker reveals that a store has 17 Mario Kart World Bundles and 10 base Switch 2 configurations waiting.

More concerning, another employee explains that a Philadelphia location will only have 22 consoles on the June 5th launch day. The store is in a metropolitan area that sees heavy foot traffic. Yet, the Walmart stock situation differs dramatically in other regions. Bentonville, Arkansas, has 125 Mario Kart World Bundles ready for the Switch 2 release date. Still, the city is home to Walmart headquarters and may not represent the inventory of a typical location.

Walmart is not supposed to include Switch 2 pre-order commitments in its inventory tracker. Even so, some gamers suspect that units will be used to fulfill these orders. The retailer may have overestimated its supply and is scrambling to find consoles to avoid more cancellations.

The low confidence buyers now have in Walmart is leading them to alternative stores. Best Buy and GameStop are hosting midnight launch events on June 5th and will offer freebies to customers. Reports indicate that GameStop will allot 50 to 100 handhelds to select storefronts. It seems that these retailers will at least have enough Switch 2 consoles to justify a celebration.