I've pretty much found Best Buy to be garbage all around.

I dunno, my local store has a pretty well taken care of DS section. But I do feel like there's an air of finality with the DS. Occasionally we get a new Layton game, but I feel like all first party support has shifted to the 3DS.  
 
Not that I don't love those "Video Game Girls: Dream Career: Rail Road Technician" bullcrap they put out.

I don't even know where the DS games are at my local best Buy.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU, PICROSS 3D.

If you're talking about the Marin City Best Buy I'm not at all surprised. :/

my local best buy is a little better in there care than that thats sounds more like their pc game section

Come to think of it, my Best Buy doesn't have a lot of DS games and the ones that they do look like they have just been thrown on a wall in the back of the game section....

At my retailers it's always a bunch of dog shit shoveled into a corner. Not that I usually look at handheld games.

I remember our Best Buy here in Santa Rosa used to have a flat out table with about 50 games just lying on top of it with a sign that might have well said "please steal these."

I haven't owned a handheld since the first Gameboy, so I don't care one way or the other. My brother has a DS and plays pretty much every day, but I don't think he'll buy another DS game any time soon.

Can't find it in Canada either. Grrr

In Gamestops in New York and Boston, I usually find the DS software lined up right by or somewhere near the entrance, with another section for the $19.99 Touch series of games (e.g. Picross 3D) a slight ways away (which makes no sense to me). 
 
In the Best Buys in Manhattan, New York City, there's equal parts shovel ware and "core" in-demand games everywhere. I haven't checked for Ghost Trick but they were proudly promoting Professor Layton's newest game and DQIX holiday deals right in front of the pack.

I would look at other retailers, if Gamestop/EB Games does that then it is a sign.

I had that problem before with Best Buy.  When I was trying to get the second viva pinata game, I would ask people at various best buys and none of them seemed to acknowledge it even ever existing, nor did their computer records.  I had to go all the way to Kansas City to track down a copy of that at game stop lol.

I dunno if the rampant piracy on the DS is a reason the software doesn't seem to get much precedence in stores but I know in my local Gamestop the shelf of DS games looks the same every time I go there. Like nothing changes on that shelf and it's mostly full of crappy kid's games.

I remember having nightmare trips trying to find new DS games (Off the top of my head I remember not being able to find TWEWY or Rhythm Heaven anywhere). So I went to mainly buying DS games off Amazon or from Gamefly. 
 
Recently I went to try and get 999. That was a pain in the ass as well, but that was expected.

In the UK I'd say DS is still represented pretty well. I mean shit, it gets 2x the wall space in GAME stores when compared to the PC section. It's actually disgraceful now, what once used to be a 4 panel section for PC games is now 1 panel, half of new releases and the rest 2 for £15 or 3 for £25 offers, and maybe if you're lucky a bit of the £2 really old games section. That's more of a concern than DS to me.

I remember like two years ago, the PSP and DS sections of my local Best Buy (in Savannah, GA) looked the exact same way. A ransacked mess just scattered on the shelves. I think it improved since then, but it was really weird. Pretty sure whatever game I was looking for at the time was missing as well.
 
I also stopped by a store recently and looked for 999. I had to sort through a mountain of haphazardly arranged shovelware and year-old games to determine that, no, no they did not have it.

This is what happens when Nintendo supports third-party publishers, I guess. They should have controlled shovelware from the start, and hard.

I work in the electronics department at WalMart and we got 2 copies of the game. Two. So maybe Capcom doesn't have much hope for it. 

Our Best Buy isn't far off from what Jeff describes. Honestly, most of its game sections are like that. Major new console releases are typically represented by dangling cards, entitling one to a copy found in a secure remote location. 
 
Our local Zellers (a Canadian superstore franchise) fairs a bit better, though they tend to overprice their merchandise. New released are kept up to date but secured inside a glass case. They also have bargain bins as far as the eye can see, filled with all manner of shovelware. It's not uncommon to find DS cases in these bins to have been opened and emptied. Wal-Mart is the same story. 
  
Of course, the local EB Games/Gamestop has a fairly robust DS section, both with new releases and used titles. All display cases are empty, natch.

Uh, here around these parts the Wii+DS section(especially DS) take up the majority of the shelves. I've never really encountered what's described in the newspost.

The EBGames and HMV I typically check for games keep things nice and tidy, and the selection of DS games has been fairly wide and up to date. Your situation does not sound familiar to me.

I think Ghost Trick and Super Scribblenauts are going to be hte last couple games I get for the DS.  Unless something amazing comes out, I don't think the DS will see much more love.

" Did you ever think that, just maybe, it's none of your business? "

Eh, there's a small chance I'll care about the DS once the 3DS comes out. Hell, people cared about the PS2 for a few years after the PS3 was released, so maybe the DS will get the same treatment.

My best buy is pretty good about that, I started going there because I can't stand gamestops for their slow, crappy service, their rude employees, terrible corporate management, and because I used to work there. 
The best buy rewards system is actually really good.

I generally only go to Best Buy if I forgot to get something on Amazon and don't feel like paying shipping or waiting a week for super saver, but in my experience they've got the big, new releases, though I don't count on them to have anything that could be viewed as niche or slightly old, especially for something not on the big three consoles.   They generally have a table of new releases in the front, and then the actually game section is whatever collection of crap they've accumulated or games that didn't sell. 
 
I really think for Ghost Trick they probably looked at it, thought it would sell 4 copies, and didn't order it. 
 
Though comparatively Gamestop is a fucking nightmare-scape when it comes to buying games.  By far the last resort to shop at and have to check online to make sure they have anything.   Amazon rules all.

I try to avoid the DS section whenever I'm in a local video game store establishment. I know that if I do over to it, it will be stacked high with the "finest" shovelware. Even the Wii section is more appealling than the DS section since it has even less shovelware and other crap. My avoiding of any DS-related game store aisles is probably why I have bought one DS game in the last three years (that game was Picross 3D so... win-win).

The internet is my local store.

I live on a Military Base and the PX's (Post eXchange) electronics section is very well kept.  Along with a well kept and clearly displayed video game section there is a GameStop right outside the PX.  The Army takes video games and their retail very seriously because it's good money and soldiers love their vidg'ya games.

GiantBomb should go undercover and go to the bottom of this.

Since I don't own a DS I don't look at the section when I go to the Best Buy I normally get my games from.  I do wonder how long the DS will be around since they have announced the 3DS but if people still buy games for it, Nintendo will keep making games for it. 

I just finished all 369 puzzles in Picross 3D, it came out of the DS for the first time in a long time for Ghost Trick to go in.  I only buy games from Amazon so have not seen the sales isles in quite some time.  I'm sure there will be some more Square/Enix remakes that will still come out for it but not sure anything else in 2011 has my interest at this point.

Working in Electronics at my local Target, I always make sure our games are organized and as up-to-date as possible. The difficult part is that if it's not a "AAA" game or some piece of licensed garbage, Target couldn't give a shit. We often receive 1 or 2 copies of most lesser known games, and then never see them again. We got 1 copy of Kingdom Hearts: ReCoded, and none of Ghost Trick whatsoever. You look over 1 shelf, and there's 20 copies of Penguins of Madagascar. I think most retail stores just don't care about the games they carry, as long as they sell. And unfortunately, I can tell you from experience that those garbage licensed games DO sell, regardless of quality. If it's $20 and is based on a Disney Channel show, Mom WILL buy it.

"Can't find it in Canada either. Grrr "

Well, I know so far that my local retails have pretty much given up on the Nintendo DS. All except Gamestop. I think half their stores are filled with used and new DS games. Every time I step into one that's the first thing that slaps me in the face, DS games. 
 
So now that I do realize that DS games are slowly disappearing, I think it's time for me to pick them up cheap and used like I am GBA games.

Hi, Curious Jeff, I'm Constipated Bob. 
Nintendo has a whithering platform there.  Why would I carry 2 handhelds around - a DS and an Iphone (or android or whatever)? The one that is also my phone also plays a lot of those same games plus I don't have to go to Best Buy or (shudder) GameStop to get them.   BestBuy probably already knows this.
 And yeah, I know - Nintendo will probably get a bump of maybe 6 months to a year out of the 3DS and everyone will say how cool it is to play but then it'll die again.   
Sidenote: I kind of feel the same about dedicated ebook readers.  Why would I carry that around and an Iphone or Ipad?  I read stuff all day long on those screens and it's fine.  I can read my books on them too.

I don't think its just a Best Buy thing.  If you check Gamestop's DS selection you'll see either evergreen Nintendo titles or shovelware, almost to say "if you didn't get this game six months after it was released, you're out of luck". 
 
That said, I specifically went looking at DS games yesterday, checking Gamestop, Target, and Best Buy and they all suffered from the same problem.  
 
Amazon is probably the way to go with DS in the future.

well it is rare that a DS game with actually peak my interest enough to check it out more, so I feel like DS has petered out and as soon as the 3DS comes out it will be come somewhat of an afterthought.

From my personal experience shopping for games in stores here in the UK, the DS is usually given quite a lot of shelf space. In Colchester we have two GAME stores, a GameStation and an HMV, and all four of those stores have sizable DS display sections covering a chart of brand new titles, general first-hand games, and preowned stock. I'd say that in all of those stores, the shelf space that the DS earns is a little less than the 360 or PS3, but still about on par with the Wii and much larger than the PSP or PC sections. It also seems to be pretty easy to pick up newer releases, too, as the stores seem to keep their stock updated. Even in non-gaming stores, I've seen the DS and Wii get a lot of shelf space, although I suspect that's mostly due to the fact that those systems have a larger userbase than the 360 or PS3. In my local Tesco, for example,, their video games stand consisted of nothing but Wii and DS games for over a year - no 360 or PS3 software whatsoever.

Don't give two shits about the DS....
 
...but more random articles from the GB staff please. I can only take so many 2 day old news stories reposted by Nicholson. (No offense Brad N.)

I had exactly the same type of experience with the Best Buy near me. The DS section might very well be part of the candy at the check-out and the selection was almost exclusively shovelware but for Mario Kart DS.

At most of the non-game specific retailers I walk into in Washington DC (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.), the DS games are usually not organized very well and contain titles that came out two months ago...unless the game is first party Nintendo product (Pokemon/Mario/Zelda-related). If it doesn't get its own display case, the DS hardware and games are given a smaller amount of space than PSP games. Nothing is ever sold out and for the most part, the stock of games doesn't really seem to be going anywhere.
 
As far as DS is concerned, the last big promotional push I remember well was Dragon Quest IX. DS is not a brand I even think about when I think of Nintendo anymore and I think that's sad, especially with the legacy of the Game Boy.

I bought ghost trick the day after it came out cause I couldn't find it anywhere on the 11th, and I only found it at one place the 12th (one of the two Wal-marts I checked). There were hella ponyz games everywhere though and bakugan stuff as well.

" Eh, there's a small chance I'll care about the DS once the 3DS comes out. Hell, people cared about the PS2 for a few years after the PS3 was released, so maybe the DS will get the same treatment. "

I live in a random small country with no Gamestops and Best Buys, and the #1 place I use to buy my games doesn't even have a DS section.
 
It has a fully functioning PS2 section though, for example.
 
And if you go to this country's equivalent of Ebay and type in "Nintendo DS", you'll get 3 pages of people selling their DS's, and 2 pages of absolute crap (Literally, not a single decent game in the list, it's all that PetzBabiez: Kittenz! type of stuff.