The quest for a Wii: Part one

After a far-too-late-in-deh-game revelation about the Wii, the virtual console, and the rebirth of Mario Kart 64 4-player action in my life, it occurred to me that a Wii would be a much more leet xmas/bday present than a wide screen lcd monitor. And since then, I have begun my search.

This is somewhat difficult, as the typical Wii shipment arrives on a weekday between 9 and 11 am, prime time for me to be at work. In the mean time, I’ve had two agents in the field, my dear mother and my dear grandfather. Neither had been able to find one, so I had to take matters in to my own hands.

Last week on Digg, there were rumors swirling that Circuit City and Best Buy were both holding back shipments and that both stores would have a minimum of 15 at every location nationwide on January 21st, which was yesterday. Best Buy opens at 11am on Sunday, and Circuit City at 10am, with CC passing out vouchers at 9am.

So then the mind game begins. The city of Buford, while not entirely huge on its own, services quite a few communities of consumers with its massive Mall of Georgia, the location of the local Best Buy and Circuit City. So there’s potentially a large pool of Wii-seeking competitors. The question is: how early do I need to go stand around in 35 degree, cloudy/rainy weather and still be guaranteed a Wii?

Since Best Buy opens later (11am) and doesn’t pass out vouchers (lame), it was nixed from the competition in my mind almost immediately. So if Circuit City passes out vouchers at 9:00, when do I get there?

My estimates were between the night before (cuckoo cuckoo!) to right at 9 (seems risky). I had resolved to arrive at 7am, figuring that would be a safe bet. When I shared this news with my dear wife, here was her reply: [face scrunches up when she doesn't like something, such as Thai food or YouTube]… “pleeease don’t get there at 7. I don’t even have to get up that early. You’re gonna be that crazy guy that got there at 7.”

Deflated, I adjusted my proposed time back to 8:45, and we went to sleep. Well, we laid down, I had trouble sleeping cause I had doubts that 8:45 was early enough. Even worse, I know my wife wouldn’t be too happy if I had taken her advice and been greeted with a line of 30 people at 8:45. Nevertheless, I was awake at around 7:45 the next morning, not because I set an alarm for then; I just woke up. I quickly got dressed, grabbed a porta-chair and a book, and flew out the do’. I arrived around 8:10/8:15. What did I get to see? Well, you’ll just have to find out tomorrow, won’t you.

FL: Bad news – two snowflakes may be alike, at least occasionally – I guess this shoots a hole in that build-a-child’s-self-esteem cliche’d phrase of, “you are a unique snowflake!”