Won’t you come play with my Wii?
March 7th, 2007 by matt
This past Sunday I bought a Wii. There was a rumor going around that Target would have them in stock Sunday so Marci and I got there about 7:45AM, which is 15 minutes before they open. There was already a decent line of people and I was a little worried that all the Wiis were already claimed. But the security guard handed us a card with “52″ written on it and let us in the foyer to wait with everyone else. (Later I found out they had 64 Wiis on hand.)They let everyone back to the electronics department a little before the store opened and starting ringing people through. Since we were number 52, we had to wait about 20 minutes until we were up in line. By that point, all the accessories that we wanted (Wii Play, remotes, nunchucks) were gone. But we did get a Wii, so getting up early was worth it.
But since we didn’t get any of the accessories, I wanted to go to Best Buy when they opened and see what we could find there. Since we had about an hour and a half to kill, we first went to McDonalds for some breakfast so I could get one of the deliciously bad-for-you McGriddles. Then we went over to Whole Foods, which is a natural-foods grocery store that just opened a new location near us. I had never been in one before, so that was interesting. Their prices are really expensive, though they have excellent produce, meat, seafood, and prepared food. I predict they will make a small mint here in yuppie central.
After that we went to Best Buy. Turns out they don’t open until 11AM on a Sunday, and it was currently 10AM. So we went home to kill some time. I went on Best Buy’s web site and was shocked that they had the Wii Play in stock. Figuring that I might as well just order one and pay the $2 for shipping, I went ahead and placed an order. It was a good thing, too, because I couldn’t find it in stock anywhere locally.
So now I had the system and I had an extra remote on order (thanks to the Wii Play). At this point I figured I might as well go whole hog and get two more remotes, another nunchuck, and one classic controller (to play downloaded games from the virtual arcade).
I got back in the car and went back to Best Buy. I got there 10 minutes early and saw a bunch of people lined up outside (and it was cold Sunday morning, poor people). The thing is, I’m not so sure Best Buy even had any Wiis in stock. Regardless, I sat in my nice warm car until I saw them open the doors to let everyone in. I went back to the video games section and was shocked to find six or seven remotes just hanging on the hook in the Wii section. I grabbed two and looked around for the other accessories. Couldn’t find any anywhere, so I just got the two remotes.
Interesting thing about the 30 or so people who were waiting to get into the store: I didn’t see them anywhere inside. There was no line at customer service; there was no line in the video games section; there didn’t seem to a line anywhere. It was like those people disappeared once they walked inside. Best Buy probably made them work in the stockroom or something in order to get a Wii.
Next I went to my local CompUSA, which is actually closing along with 126 other CompUSA stores. They didn’t have much in the way of Wii accessories, but I did manage to get one classic controller. Plus it was 10% off. Score!
After that I went to Circuit City. They had nothing. Fie on you, Circuit City.
In desperation, I went to the mall on a weekend, which is usually a big mistake due to the throngs of shopping morons. I went to EBX, which apparently is the same thing as EB Games and Gamestop. I asked the guy if they had any nunchuks and they actually did! I got one and went back home, flush with accessories and a sense of triumph.
Then I played Wii Sports for the next 5 hours. Awesome.
So if you have a Wii, let me know if you want to be Wii Friends with me and we’ll exchange console numbers.