Wii Quest (cont'd...)

Thursday, 1/8 … Gamestop is listing them as available in the stores. The closest store to me is in Shelby, NC. So I call… “Gamestop Shelby.” “Hi, I was calling to find out if you have any Wii consoles in stock.” “No, we don’t. We’re not even open yet.” “Oh, well, when are you opening?” “Well, if the installers get here today, we hope to open tomorrow.” “Well, do you have any Wii consoles for opening tomorrow?” “No… I don’t know why the website says we do.” “Oh, OK. Thank you.”

Walmart is listing some at local stores… I call the only one listed in Charlotte… No, she doesn’t know why the website is listing them. She doesn’t have any.
Bummer.

Friday, 1/9… more online searching… nothing.

Saturday, 1/10 … more online searching… nothing. So, I’m guessing my best bet is the Circuit City. I do an online search for the closest CC’s to my home. And I call each of them… “Do you have any Wii consoles? And what time do you open tomorrow?” Store A: Yes, 11:00… vouchers will be handed out at 9:00. Store B: I don’t know. Store C: We only have the Wii Fits. We open at 11:00. We’ll give out vouchers at 9:00. Store D: We don’t have the Wii’s but we’ll be able to hand out vouchers for pre-order. We open at 11:00.

I make my decision to go to Store A in the morning. Set my alarm and head off to bed.
Sunday, 1/11 … I wake up before the alarm clock. I get up and head downstairs to take care of Denali and let the cats out. Doug and I leave the house by 8:00 am. We drive to Circuit City, Store A and get there just after 8:30. There are a bunch of cars in the parking lot and I’m feeling defeated. There are three guys standing outside the store (each smoking a cigarette) and they acknowledge me as I walk up to the group. “You here for a Wii? I’ll be another 30 minutes before they hand out vouchers.” I nodded my head that I understood. 10 minutes later, the three guys headed inside. I had incorrectly assumed that they were also waiting for a voucher, but they were just on a smoke-break! WOOHOO! I’m FIRST in line!!! Doug tried calling his sister and Ian to make sure they didn’t also want a Wii. It looked like we were in a very good position to get mine and maybe one more. Over the course of the next 75 minutes, four more women and two men showed up to wait. The original 3 guys came out for another smoke break about 45 minutes later. We all turned and looked to them for news of the vouchers. “The managers are still in a meeting. They know you’re here and they’ll be out as soon as they’re out of the meeting.” It was about 9:30 before the manager came out to tell us about the availability of the Wii’s (and Wii-Fit’s) “We have no Wii consoles in stock. They didn’t send us any. But they did give us the go-ahead to allow pre-orders for three of them. The Wii Fits, we have six here and in stock. My assistant manager, here, will hand out vouchers as soon as he gets them printed up. Then you can go and have breakfast, or whatever and come back when the store opens. Just make sure you’re back before 12 noon to make your purchase." At this point, we determined that our little group, the Sunday Morning Circuit City Gang, were going to snatch up all the vouchers that would be available. Everyone would be able to get what they came for. Another guy drove up and, with newspaper in hand, headed for our group and we had to tell him that all the vouchers were spoken for. Around 9:45, the assistant manager came back out with all the vouchers and distributed them. I was thoroughly chilled as it was about 48 degrees outside while we waited.

Doug and I went over to the Target (in the same shopping center) to just look to see if they had any Wii’s in stock… Nope. So we browsed their other Wii items. Three of the women from our SMCCG also were found in the Wii aisle of the Target.

Then Doug and I headed across the street to have breakfast at the Golden Corral. Around 11:15, we headed back to the Circuit City, where we browsed the flat panel TV’s (maybe a 26” for our bedroom?) and the Wii games and accessories. I took my voucher to the customer service desk and paid for my Wii. I’d already begun hearing of Circuit City’s financial difficulties, so I made sure my purchase was put on a credit card for protection… Just in case there ended up being a problem. “We’ll call you when it comes in. Thanks for shopping Circuit City.”