Wii Camping

Somehow, I became one of those people. I camped out overnight to get the Nintendo Wii on launch day. That wasn't the plan but that's what happened.

The plan was to go to Wal-mart for the midnight release. I was going to get there somewhere between 8pm and 10pm. The internet led me to believe that Wal-Mart would have 50 units (no, I didn't go to the actual Wal-Mart page) so I didn't think there was going to be any problems getting one.

However at 6:30 we drove by the Wal-Mart and Ariel estimated that there were 30 people in line. So, we went home and had supper and I went back.

When I got there, a little after 7pm, I was the 24th person in line and it turned out that there were only 20 Wiis at the store. I wasn't sure what to do so I sat there for about a half an hour. The people behind me did a full count of the line (the original count was correct) and then went in and asked the store manager how many they had (that number was also correct). Faced with the reality that I wouldn't be getting one from this store, I left.

I drove to a neighboring town's Wal-Mart and their line was full also.

Faced with defeat and feeling a little cheated, I decided to just stop by Target to find out how many they were going to have the next morning. I figured I could just come a little before open and find get one then. It turned out they had campers too. But they also had 24 units.

I went over to the line and asked them if they had slots left. They said yes and it was to tempting.

I called Ariel and told her I was spending the night. She wearily said that was fine (she is pretty supportive of me).

So, I grabbed the sleeping bag and the canvas chair (one of those bag chairs) that I brought for the Wal-Mart wait and got into line. That's how I wound up camping overnight for a Wii.

mwz