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Can't speak for EB, but I manage a Gamestop.
You do not "get fired" for failing to meet quotas. You get talked to, possibly sternly. But every video game retailer in the country knows that the holiday shopping season means quotas don't get met for shit. Little Billy's grandma is going to walk in and say "I need a pokey-man game" and she's not going to reserve anything or subscribe to the magazine. So that's bullshit, right off the top.
Most of the time, manufacturers set the bundles. Nintendo packages Double Dash with the Gamecube, and that's your bundle. Gamestop/EB can say "If you buy the system and you buy this other game with it, we'll give you Accessory X as a bundle." They cannot say "This Nintendo DS can only be sold as part of a bundle" if the DS is packaged in retail-ready packaging (and all DSes are). You got served.
Your best recourse is to go to a different EB and return the stuff you don't want. If the manager says that you can't return the starter kit without returning the DS, you call Nintendo and alert them that your local EB is practicing unethical business using their products in a bait-and-switch.
In all honesty, the other 9 DSes you saw were most likely reserved. Sometimes we keep our reservation product locked in an opaque drawer, sometimes (especially with hot product) we leave it in a more accessible place so we don't have to climb mount everest 90 times a day as people pick up their reserves. Even if the DSes you saw weren't reserved, they're just going to tell you that they are. Pick your battles, you won't win this one.
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