How to Find Inventory of Any Item at Target
Hi - you seem to be new here. Please subscribe to my RSS feed to get the latest social news and information!
Please follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or FriendFeed to see what I'm up to. Thanks for visiting!
I discovered a new site recently. I have to admit, among others, I have been one of the ones obsessed with finding the well-sought after Nintendo Wii. Well, there’s a new site out there called iTrackr.com. You pay them $2 for various products (per alert), and they go out and search various stores and send alerts to your cellphone and e-mail when they come available.
I have been obsessed with finding out how they do this, and I have noticed in several forums that others have as well. Well, I present to you the answer. I want you to look at the list of stores they offer notices for: CompUSA, Target, EB Games, GameSpot, and Circuit City. Now, go to those stores’ websites. Search for something on their site. Notice the little “check store availability” link? Bingo. Figure out how to get that link and you can check for store availability yourself on any item in their store.
So I spent some time tonight fishing around Target.com. If you notice, for most of the stores that list store availability, they cleverly don’t offer that option for the Nintendo Wii. You can, however figure out how to read that number by looking at the link for other items that offer the option. I was able to come up with the following URL that will tell you in the source code which stores in your area have the Nintendo Wii in their inventory:
http://www.target.com/gp/store-info/search-results.html/602-9935177-2156646?ie=UTF8&asin=B0009VXBAQ&zipcode=84118&fresh=1
All you need to do now is replace the 84118 with your zipcode, and the asin code with any asin code on the site, and you can get store availability for any item in the store. The above asin code just happens to be for the Nintendo Wii.
To find the availabilities, view the source, and look for the following:
tempData["storeName"] = trim("Sandy South Towne");
tempData["itemAvailability"] = trim("Out Of Stock");
There should be several of them - with any luck, one will say “Available”! As a side-note, you can also do this in the stores by entering the Wii sku for that target on the little red scanners. The above trick, and the scanners are usually right - even if it says they’re in stock and the employees say they aren’t, keep checking back and you will most likely see them on the shelves soon.
Now, I’ve helped you. This means it’s going to be harder for me to find a Wii. I ask in return if you happen to find one using this method that perhaps you could hold one for me so I can buy it for retail price! Donations of found Nintendo Wiis are also graciously accepted (hint, hint).
Stay tuned - I think I’m going to find the URLs for the other stores listed…
January 8th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Digg me up!:
http://www.digg.com/mods/Find_Out_When_the_Nintendo_Wii_Becomes_Available_in_Your_Area
January 15th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I’m sure this is how they are doing it, but some places are now doing other measures. I just tried CompUSA, and it didn’t work. And by didn’t work, the zip code page doesn’t come up. I’m guessing they are checking the referrer, something iTrackr is probably faking. I think I’ll just pay my $2…
January 15th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I know Target currently works - I’ve since found several reliable sources confirming this method. You won’t see any stores having it, whether that page says they do or not though until the 21st. Target and several other stores are doing a very large launch of Wiis then and are holding them all for that date.
January 20th, 2007 at 11:20 am
I agree with parker. plus, the two bux is to receive text messages, not to view the status of all the stores (which is free).
this method doesn’t provide the advantage of receiving the text messages, or give you the free listings of all the stores in one easy place.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:25 am
You guys are a bunch of whinners…. it works perfectly, as described. Why pay $2 or any fee to someone for free info….for that matter write your own script that does it for you and notifies you. Do you need someone to wipe your ass for you too?
April 9th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Sorry slickdeals guys (yes, I know you’re watching
) - I forgot to fix the <code> section in the link above when I switched bloggin platforms. It should be a little easier to copy and paste now. Just slide the slider over to see the entire link. Let me know if you still have problems.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Haha I love how you dived into that with so much energy. I tend to do that too. When I’m done I feel like I’ve taken over the world with my ingeniousness (is that a word)?
January 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
As far as iTrackr is concerned, how do you pay the $2 fee for the alert?
I’ve been signed up on the site for a few hours now, and there is no mention of a fee except in the Privacy Policy. How do they plan on getting this money from me??? I’m worried that they’re going to do something weird with my cell phone and in a month’s time I’m going to get an outrageous bill.
Thanks a bunch.