If you haven’t put your Fire TV Stick order in yet or don’t want to wait until next year for Amazon to ship out new orders, then you’re in luck. Best Buy will begin selling the Fire TV Stick at their physical stores starting tomorrow, November 20th. A Best Buy sales associate showed me an internal memo instructing employees not to sell the device until the specified date. He also showed me inventory figures for the Los Angeles, CA area. Most stores in the Los Angeles area will be receiving around 80 units each. Some stores already have them in stock waiting for the 20th to arrive, while the majority are expecting their supply to arrive in the next few days. Of course, availability and quantity will vary from region to region, so be sure to call your local store before heading over. Staples is also expected to sell the Fire TV Stick in-store, but employees at the stores I visited were unable to tell me when their inventory would be available.
My local Best Buy has them in stock to pickup today. Why is my preorder at the reduced price, not going to ship until 1/16/2015?
If Amazon shipped all of its Amazon.com orders out before giving any to retailers like Best Buy and Staples, it would make retailers pretty unhappy. Amazon needs to keep a good relationship with retailers to keep their products on retail shelves. It’s about finding a balance.