My Wii Launch Adventure
I guess I underestimated the Wii launch. No no, I got my system, but it was a battle. Let me take you through my Wii launch adventure.
You may remember I had expected to waltz into Walmart at midnight of the 19th, purchase a Wii, and walk out with no problem. I guess I was judging by the DS launch, which was abysmal here. Not a single store knew what I was talking about when I asked if they were getting Nintendo DS’s in. I figured this is a small town, Walmart will be getting plenty of units in, and really, nobody even likes Nintendo anymore, right? To confirm, I asked a relatively informed Walmart employee on Friday night about the availability of Wii units on the 19th and he told me to call on Saturday to see how the launch was really going to go down. I had seriously completely forgotten that the PS3 had launched about 20 hours beforehand, and he told me a little bit about how the PS3 launch worked, and that I could expect the same process (musical chairs, more or less). But I didn’t think the demand for Wii’s would be as great as for the PS3, especially since everybody I knew that got a PS3 got it specifically to scalp online. Nobody really wants to play the damn things; they’re worth their weight in gold. Now, I love Nintendo like a father, but I laughed at the idea of lines for Nintendo Wii in Casper, Wyoming. This was gonna be cake.
It’s sort of complicated, but I was unable to request the day off work (the schedule caught me off guard), but Amanda was going to run to Walmart shortly before midnight to claim my system for me. Well, it wasn’t that simple. I started receiving texts from friends explaining how Walmart was handling the launch, and I called to confirm. Both Walmarts (yes, my tiny town of about 50,000 people has TWO fucking Walmarts…) got twenty units in each. They were placing twenty chairs out, and whoever was sitting in those chairs at 10 o’clock received claim tickets. They were then free to leave, returning at midnight to pick up their systems. I called at a little after 5 o’clock and the chairs at both stores were almost already filled up. Were I off work, I would have no problem sitting in a chair playing DS for 4 hours to get my hands on a Wii, but I was stuck in the middle of a nearly 12 hour shift; I wouldn’t even be off work til nearly 3 in the morning. I called just about every person in my phone to try and secure a Wii claim ticket for myself, but no luck. Everybody was either working or not willing to sit in a chair for several hours for me. One friend went to both Walmarts for me, but by the time he arrived, all seats were full. I called Target and Kmart to ask if they were getting systems in, and I was told “NO”. Absolutely heartbroken, I had no choice but to sit at work and pout about not getting a Wii, a system launch to which I’ve been counting down the days for over a year.
I was devastated, but as ten o’clock, then finally midnight, passed, I slowly grew to accept the fact that I just wasn’t going to get to play Wii for a while. I didn’t mind my worknight; I made a hundred dollars in tips, and I planned on purchasing a couple games to try and pacify myself, but before I got off, Chuck proposed we get up at 7 in the morning and try Kmart. Although I was told they weren’t getting any systems in (gotta love clueless employees), the buzz among local Wii fanboys was that Kmart had 6 units. Kmart has pulled through for me before; they were the only store in town that got the DS on launch, and they sold all 5 systems to the only 5 people in town that cared (me and like 4 friends). Now, I would have given up organs, possibly even digits for a Wii on launch. There’s a good chance, given the opportunity, I would have taken it in the ass, the mouth, nay, the ass THEN the mouth, to play Wii on launch, but under no circumstances do I get up at 7 in the morning. Ever. No exceptions.
Just as we did nearly two years ago for the launch of the DS, Chuck and I opted to skip sleeping altogether to be at Kmart when they opened the doors.
After work I stopped by Walmart, and you couldn’t even tell there had been a launch. What was left of Wii peripherals and games were stashed in a small box under the counter, and I had to ask to see them (of course, they have a big elaborate PS3 display including display unit, all for a system you won’t be able to get your hands on for probably 3 months, but I digress…). They had two copies of Zelda left, a couple copies of Excite Truck, a zillion copies of Madden, a zillion copies of Spongebob, a couple remotes, and a couple nunchuks. Now, one of those games is a must-buy and two of those games were not even a consideration. I snatched up one of the precious copies of Zelda and threw in a copy of Excite Truck for good measure. I knew I was going to be playing two-player Wii, so I also grabbed a spare remote ($40!!!) and a nunchuk ($20!!!!!). I then headed to Chuck’s where a bunch of non-Wii friends were hanging out just to join us for the adventure. A few beers and a couple heated games of RBI Baseball later, we left for the east side of town at about 6 in the morning, fully prepared to grab a liesurely breakfast then walk into Kmart and get our Wiis. Cameron and I took my car, Chuck and Leslie followed behind in his.
When we hit Flying J (our breakfast destination), it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t feel like learning the same lesson twice in one night, so I decided to swing by Kmart in the off-chance that there was a line. In the Kmart parking lot. In Casper Wyoming. At 6 in the morning. In the middle of November. Unfortunately, there was. A small group of 4 people patiently stood by the doors, huddled in the cold. I drove up and asked what they were standing around for, hoping they weren’t going to tell me Wii, so I could go get something to eat. Nah, they were there for the Wii.
Word was there were 6 systems, and there were already 4 people at the door. I had no choice but to park and get out to stand in the cold. I called Chuck, told him I was saving him a spot in line (as if that would fly when the 6th person showed up…) and began my wait. Everybody was very nice, and talking about nothing in particular with them helped to pass the hour we had to kill. About 20 minutes later, Chuck and Leslie showed up with our breakfasts in to-go boxes, without silverware, and the four of us enjoyed scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, and black coffee with our hands. Well, the coffee came in cups. Everything else was consumed caveman style. Another guy showed up to wait in line, followed by another friend of mine, Ben, along with his girlfriend, Constance. It became clear that not everybody out here was going to get a system, but Chuck received a text from another friend that was camping out in front of Target. Word was that Target had a whopping 24 units, and they were going to give out claim tickets shortly after 7am. Chuck, Ben, and Constance jumped out of line to head to Target for claim tickets just as Kmart’s doors opened. This is where the real trouble began. Everybody was guaranteed a Wii, but I wasn’t aware of Kmart’s stupid policy concerning the launch, and you were REQUIRED to purchase both a game AND one peripheral with the system. Not only did I NOT have the money for that (since I just purchased two games and a controller elsewhere), I was polite and let everybody else go ahead of me. The only items left were a zillion copies of Madden, a zillion copies of Happy Feet, and one nunchuk. After several minutes of deliberation, I decided this was my only chance to get a system (who knows when they would become available again?), and I bit the bullet, buying a nunchuk (useless without a remote) and Cameron chipped in to cover for a copy of Happy Feet (a game I would probably never have opened). I asked if it was possible to return the game and nunchuk at a later date, but the manager spearheading the launch was bitchy and quite adamant about it: this is a “bundle”, and you cannot return single items. I complained about being forced to spend an additional 70 dollars on something I didn’t even want, but I had my Wii. Just then Ben, Chuck, and Constance returned with their claim tickets. Being a couple, Ben and Constance only needed one ticket, but she received one for standing in line anyway. She told me she would just give me hers, and I could get a system at Target without having to jump through any hoops. I owned that Wii, that useless peripheral, and a copy of Happy Feet for about 45 seconds. I walked directly from electronics to customer service to get my money back, and we then had an additional hour to kill before Target opened.
I wasn’t sure, but had dealt with this sort of thing before. I was scared to try to run my card again, since the transaction, the refund, or both could be in credit card limbo, and I had no idea. Ben and Constance dashed home to get more money to cover for my Wii. Chuck and Cameron killed time by riding a semi truck ride for children, followed by an out of order merry-go-round, and we were off to Target.
Lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with me, and I don’t clearly remember, but somewhere around this time, Chuck’s car ran out of gas. Leaving his car in a parking lot, we piled into my vehicle and headed to Target, where a line of nearly thirty claim-ticket holders had already formed. When they let us in, they had arranged the electronics section in such a way that you had to stand in line, behind a certain point, and only two people were allowed to claim their system and games at once. I don’t know, to avoid any trampling deaths or something.
About 15 minutes later, my Wii was (again) in my hands, and we left the store. It was then that we realized that when I got my system (the Kmart one) refunded to my card, we did NOT receive the refund for the game (since it was on Cameron’s card), but they had taken the merchandise back. Note that this also made it blatantly obvious that the manager had lied to us about not being able to return single components of my “bundle”. We had to drive back to Kmart to attempt to prove that they had a game that we had paid for, returned, and not received a refund for. Somehow, it went very smoothly. The lady just took our word for it that we had returned the game. For all she knew, it could have been back at my house (as if I REALLY wanted to cheat Kmart out of a copy of Happy Feet, anyway). I was really jonesin’ to play some Wii, but we also had to run by Leslie’s parents’, get a gas can, go fill it, and return to Chuck’s car so he could go home too. Fiasco behind us, I arrived back home at about 9:30am, about 17 full hours after I had discovered the original lines at Walmart.
I wanted to just pass out in bed, but there was no way I was going to sleep with a shiny new Wii in my possession, and I managed to tinker with the system for several hours before my body just quit. I only managed a couple hours’ worth of nap before I woke up to play more Wii, then had to head to work. More about the system itself later, once I get my sleep caught up, and I get more time in with the games…
November 20th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Lucky. Although I didn’t even try to acquire one. I’ve spent the past 4 days wading through 300+ pages of pharmacy law, which is waaaaaay more fun. Maybe I’ll check out the stores today on the off-chance that I can find one. Hopefully the video game playing community here blew all their money on the PS3.
November 20th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Nice. You may be the only person to have bought Happy Feet on launch day, too. I got my Wii. Number sixty-six of sixty-nine at Wal-Mart. They had more than one Twilight Princess per console, so I was glad to get that, too.
P.S. My Wii number is 0403 1016 1897 8788 if you care.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:28 am
Told you so?
Perhaps. My roommate got one and it’s awesome. Really, really awesome.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:11 pm
You should have called here, we all bought one at once so we have 6 of them just laying around on the floor.