Update: Roku contacted us to say the Roku 4 is available online this week and starting at stories this weekend at Walmart. From there it will roll out to other stores like Best Buy by the end of October.
Planning to just walk into your local Target or Best Buy on October 21 to pick up a Roku 4? You will be sad to learn that for now the only way to get a Roku 4 is to buy it online.
We talked with a Best Buy employee who showed us their internal inventory system and pointed out that regional hubs have not yet even received a Roku 4. We looked at the Chicago Best Buy hub, which supplies about 200 stores around Chicago, and their system had not yet even been updated with the Roku 4; consequently, it had zero inventory for it.
The Best Buy employee stated that it takes at least a week from when inventory arrives at regional hubs until it hits the local stores. He added that it typically takes two to four weeks for most items to make it from the hub to the local stores.
We also talked to a Target employee, who checked their system, stated they do not have the Roku 4 in their inventory, and also told us they had just received a truck for their electronics department. According to the employee, the Roku 4 is not even in their system; however, this employee would not let us look at the store’s internal inventory system to confirm this.
The Target employee then looked online and pointed out that while all other current-generation Roku devices are for sale on Target.com but the Roku 4 was not.
If you want the Roku 4 as quickly as possible, Amazon.com is still (at the time we wrote this post) offering next-day delivery of the Roku 4 after it comes out on October 21, 2015. So for now the only way to get a Roku 4 is online. We have contacted Roku for comment but at time of posting we have not received any reply.
You can find the Roku 4 available for pre-order on Amazon.com here: