The quest for a Wii: Part two
[last time in our story, I had flown out the do' at around 8:00, heading to Circuit City to wait in line for a Wii.]
As you may recall (or not, whatevs), Sunday morning was cloudy, kinda rainy, and around 35 degrees. I hopped in my car, flew out the driveway, and begin breaking at least several traffic laws in an attempt to arrive at CC as soon as possible. I pull in to the parking lot at 8:11am, quickly noticing the small mass of humanity standing at the doors already.
I jump up to the line, and the most pivotal moment of the day occurs: where I count how many people are slightly more crazy than myself, and determine whether that number is smaller or larger than 15.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, wait that one’s a kid, he’s probably with his dad, 5, 6, 7, 8… WOOT 9TH, WAY LESS THAN 15. Well, not way less (just 6), but statistically, its enough.
Interestingly enough, a community existed, and continued to form. Whereas usually people standing in a line don’t have enough time to meet one another, there was plenty of time for that on this day. We talked about how many Wii’s this store would get, how crazy people at Best Buy were (since they opened later and didn’t have vouchers), etc.
The star of this event, neigh even the celebrity, was the guy at the front of the line. The man had arrived at 4:30am. I christened him the “crazy four-thirty guy”, which he really had no choice but to accept as his title.
People slowly trickled in, one every 5 minutes for the next 30 minutes, bringing our total to 15/16. There was some confusion about the running total as there were 3 parents who had one of their children standing in line w/ them, as the two of them were only purchasing one Wii.
One girl, which attracted the confusion/sympathy of the crowd, was wearing flip-flops with no socks. Her feet started getting this pink/whitish color. About 30 minutes after arriving, she noticed she had two mismatched socks in her purse. Confusing, but she slipped them on, which was a good thing.
At around 8:45, the manager came and posted a sign that said “Wii line starts here. This store has 16 Wii’s.” This is somewhat entertaining, as the line actually started there over three hours previously. But if he wants to feel like an authority and make it official, more power to him.
Up until this point, we only had a rumor/hearsay guess that this store would have 16 units. This solidified it. What this really means is that we could safely started informing newcomers at the end of the line about their sad state of affairs, that is, their Wii-less state of affairs. We informed them that they should goto Best Buy. While this was not the best advice (it’s quite possible the BB people sent them to us first), it was better than not saying anything. The only bigger bummer than showing up and finding out you won’t get a Wii… is showing up, waiting in line expecting to get a Wii, and then finding out you won’t get one.
At around 9:30, some Circuit City chick came out and passed out little coupon vouchers, guaranteeing its holder a Wii within the first two hours the store was opened. The line mostly dispersed at this point, people going to get some coffee or just warm up.
I stayed in line, wasn’t worth leaving at this point. The crazy four-thirty guy stayed too, noting that, “I’ve been here since 4:30, what’s another 30 minutes.” Great point.
At promptly 10:00:00 AM EST, the manager unlocked the doors and directed us to Customer Service, where we traded in our vouchers and monies for a Wii. I was second in line after crazy 430 guy, and as I walked by my former comrades, I held the Wii in the air and cheered. They cheered in response. A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow, in an explosion of geekiness, I’m going to graph the arrival time of the Wii-waiters. You don’t wanna miss that junk.
FL: (courtesy Britt) You wish you had a home theater like this, trekkies.
