Wii Story

Last Sunday, Tamara and I embarked on an adventure to get a Nintendo Wii. We had tried this before Christmas, but were painfully denied. There were only six available, and we showed up 15 minutes before the store opened. There were 20 people in line, and the third person bought 3. We were pretty angry, mostly because we got up early on a Sunday, but also because we felt like a couple of losers trying to buy a rare videogame system. People in their 30's aren't supposed to do this, right? Well, you're only a loser if you don't walk away with one. I resigned myself to waiting until mid January, when supplies were supposed to get better, and buy from Amazon. Mid-january came and went and no sign of increasing supplies. Then I heard about our local Target selling a minimum of 30 last Sunday. I thought I'd give it another try. So I set my alarm for 6am, and snoozed for 10 minutes. "There'll be no-one there two hours before hand" I thought. Then I looked out my window, and saw the line in front of the store stretching to a sickening length and disappear behind a parking garage. I panicked. I burst into the bedroom and started babbling at Tamara. "There's already people in line! We have to go". She thought I was having a case of the night terrors, and thought it had progressed to me walking and waving hands. The groggyness passed as the message sunk in and we were in a panic to get out the door. 20 seconds later, I was dressed and out the door, telling Tamara that I would secure a place in line. This early in the morning I could jaywalk across the busy street in front of my house, which allowed me to cut precious seconds off my 2 minute trek to the store's front. I cut an additional 15 seconds by speeding up my pace to a hurried walk, while being careful not to go so fast for it to become a desperate nerd power stumble. When I finally got to the line, my heart sank. I counted 36 people in line, and the store was guaranteeing 30. I caught myself almost turning around, but I pushed on. Was I going to be a two time loser, or a one time loser with a Wii? The line grew quickly as all sorts of people showed up. Some were hardcore, choosing to wear their Nintendo branded clothing with ironic sayings that were wearing off due to too much use. I felt a bit better. Others were bundled up in what looked like North Sea oil rig survival suits. The temperatures were close to 5°C, and that's something people here aren't used to. Time passed slowly, but people were trading stories about living in the area, and other failed attempts to buy game consoles. I was in good company. One fellow was a construction contractor who told us about working on Steve Wozniak's house. Uber wealth tends to exaggerate any eccentric tendancies, and if there's one thing the computer industry has plenty of, it's eccentric people. Tamara arrived a bit later with coffee for both of us. Another fellow showed up with a big box of donut holes. We joked about him drugging them and scooting to the front of the line. The mood was friendly, but that comment reminded us of the competitive nature of this line. People had died trying to get a Wii. What else were they prepared to do? (there was no real paranoia, but it would have been damn funny if there was) At 7am, the tickets were handed out. A security guard read the rules of sale out loud to the line of people line a prison guard talking to a group of repeat offenders. We would get a ticket. It was not a raincheck, it was a pass to go inside and wait in another line to buy. If your credit card is declined or you cannot pay, you must forfeit. If you left the line to come back later, you would forfeit. Really, all the ticket was was a bit of hope that the journey would pay off. We were handed a ticket that said 138, but we were actually 32nd out of 54. The ticket was the back of a Target manager's business card with a number on the back printed with green marker and highlighted with black pen. It was quite nice. Someone at Target had taken artistic liberties with numbering the cards, and it helped make us feel special. Unfortunately, we had to wait another hour until the doors opened. Finally, the doors opened, and we were escorted to the electronics department. The final wait, was the longest. Each person in line would be escorted to the accessory shelf where they were allowed to purchase an additional controller and games. They would then go to the checkout and part with their money. There was only one register open, and it took forever. By 9am, we had a Wii and a couple of games. The controllers were long gone, being more rare than the consoles these days. We tried Fry's for additional controllers, but no luck. Apparently, this Target wasn't the only store doing this. There was Best Buy, Circuit City, and other Targets in the area doing the same thing, producing a glut of new Wii owners looking for accessories. I'll wait until mid February until the supply of controllers gets up there again. Maybe I'll have to stand in line again. Maybe I'll wait until March...