Where have all the Nintendo Hot Zones gone???

Nintendo has opened the floodgates to rare items that only were available previously in Japan but at the same time, all the Hot Zones that once existed appear to be no more.  I made a rather shameful visit to the local McDonald's in order to obtain a rare item from Nintendo only to find there were NO access points.  I went then to Starbuck's with my daughter only to discover the same sad reality.  At least she bought me a delicious frozen drink they call a frappuccino.  Really lovely but hideously overpriced.

I strongly suggest that Nintendo make these items available instead at our local post offices within our games because fewer and fewer players are playing New Leaf and it is terribly depressing to be offered a rare item one then cannot obtain either for love nor money.  Nintendo always has had my utmost respect for the sturdy game consoles and handheld systems they make as well as the games they produce.  Back in the day, they even made systems that always were 'backwards-compatible' which was even better, because it showed that they knew that their old games were as worthwhile to keep playing as the new ones and moreover, that they weren't using cheap tricks simply to force people to buy a new system.

At the same time that Nintendo is inundating players within the game with announcements of special items available at Hot Zones, ALL of the Hot Zones are gone.  Even Best Buy no longer operates as a Nintendo Hot Spot.  I contacted every single local business that was listed on the official Nintendo site only to discover that this option is DEFUNCT.

How foolish and counterproductive is that???  On the plus side, the announcement that StreetPass would be available for players throughout the world for a week did appear to be true as I received hits from players in the Netherlands and France.  Why limit this to a week though?

Now, however, with the popularity of the 'smart phone' and the 'tablet' and a proliferation of online games, Nintendo is hurting financially.   It is pointless to make rare items available theoretically if you cannot renew your contracts with the places that once offered Hot Zones.  Please do reconsider this strategy one way or another.