Forest and I decided that this Sunday, we were going to camp out to each buy
a Nintendo Wii. Since Tony had camped out for a Wii on launch day starting at 4am and gotten one, 4am
seemed as good enough a time as any. I showed up at Best Buy at about 3:45am. There I found 26 people waiting in line for 24 Wiis.
At least, that's how many Best Buy said they had. There were plenty of other sources that said they should have at least 40.
I called Forest and let him know what the situation was and then went to Target to check the scene there. Target had 16 people waiting for 12 Wiis. Gamespot
had 10 people waiting for 8 Wiis (and didn't open till noon). Meijer didn't plan to have any.
So I went back to Best Buy to get a feel of things. I became #27. #25 told me that he knew a guy that worked inventory that said checked
the balance the previous day and said they were supposed to have upwards of 50. #28 knew someone in management. If anyone was going to have a surplus, it was Best Buy. I was already
out and about, so I figured I'd give it a try. Forest, in the warmth of his home and with plenty of work to do, opted to sleep.
Above you can see the view I had for the hours until Best Buy opened at 8.
Talking to people, I found out that numbers 1-4 had arrived at 7:30pm. Number 24--the last person in line guaranteed to get a Wii--got to Best Buy at 11:30pm.
They handed out tickets at 7am. I didn't get one and they reiterated they were only going to have 24. Still, given that I was already out there, and considering since
we had someone who'd checked inventory that said otherwise, we waited.
The sad thing was the people that started showing up around 7 hoping to get a Wii: pairs of parents, younger kids geting rides, and
a girl who'd prepared for an hour-long camp out by bringing two bottles of Diet Coke. Yet it seemed only the 24 people in front of me were going to get one.
In the end, there were only 24. Myself and the rest of 25-28 waited around hoping maybe something amazing would happen, but it didn't. The
closest I got to walking out of Best Buy with a Wii on the day of their last shipment before Christmas was taking this photo of someone else doing it.
So I went home, went to church, and then took a nap.