Ok so last week I tried and failed to get my Wii because I didn’t anticipate the crowds quite well. Well last night I just happened upon the amazon.com website forums for the Wii and found a lot of people talking that Best Buy was supposed to have more units today. At the time it was pure speculation but there was enough people to confirm it (either through working there or by calling their Best Buy that I believed it). So I planned on getting up early this morning and going out to Best Buy to try to get a Wii.
I got up at 4:30am but not because I wanted to, I had a hard time sleeping last night. I got all ready and was out the door by 7am, no Best Buy was scheduled to open until 10am but they said that the tickets would be given out at 9am and I wanted to be in line an hour before that. So with that I went to the local Best Buy with no intention of actually going to that one.
You see the previous night I had gone on the Best Buy website and the Madison ones had not gotten their Wiis in stock yet. I called and the guy said that he wasn’t sure but they thought that they were going to get Wiis today. So I thought it was possible that they’d get them but they didn’t know when the shipments would arrive. Janesville on the other hand already had theirs in stock, plus Janesville is a smaller town so I thought I might have an easier time getting one there than I might have here in town due to the lower population (I realize this also meant fewer Wiis at the store but I thought it was a worthy chance.)
So I drove half hour to Janesville and got there at about 10 to 8am. I brought some school work to read so that I’d have something to do while I was waiting and sat down patiently. Not long after I got there someone who worked there but was off duty and with friends came by and handed everyone in the line a pen. We were to write our numbers on our hands just in case the Best Buy didn’t have tickets to hand out so that we could keep ourselves sorted out. I was number 26. I worried greatly about this because on amazon.com someone said that the stores would recieve between 24 and 60 wiis, and being a smaller store I worried that it’d be closer to 24.
But I decided that this was better than the 40 to 50 people who were already sitting in line when I drove by the Madison Best Buy at 7:10am so I decided it was worth a shot. I also hoped that maybe someone would leave or something (fat chance but hey why not).
9am rolls around and the Best Buy staff comes out and says that they have 27 units in this shipment. I don’t know if I sighed but I sure felt like it because I felt so much relief that this strategy paid off and I would return home with Wii in hand. They commenced handing out the tickets and I was #25 (I guess someone left after all). We were then told that we could leave if we wanted to as long as we were back by 10am when the doors opened.
So I went to the local McDonald’s and not wanting to take a chance, went through the drive-thru and returned to the best buy where I ate my breakfast in the car and warming up a little. I then returned to the line at about 9:30am just to try to get a chance at getting Zelda or a remote if any were there. (We weren’t lining up back in order so I actually was closer to the middle of the pack when I went back in.
I must say it was a relief to actually get my Wii in hand. Even though I had a ticket I was awefully nervous that someone would find a way to take mine, or that they miscounted or something would go wrong and I wouldn’t get one. But I got it, and I came home and opened it with my roommate. I am so happy and relieved to finally have it over. This afternoon I went to Target because they had a ton of Zeldas earlier in the week, and they had 2 left so I bought one. It turned out that the Best Buy only had a few Zeldas and didn’t get any controllers so I still can only play one player. But at least I got my Wii and the game I want, that is all I really could ask for.