I got a Wii

[shmokes]

My brother works at Target.  They got another shipment of 30 Wiis today but they can't sell them until Sunday, cos there's going to be an ad in the paper and they want to have as much stock as possible to satisfy people who come in based on the ad.  Funny thing, though:

A lady came in to buy one this morning and they told her they wouldn't have any to sell until Sunday.  She flipped out, cussing and yelling and demanding they sell her one, that she knew they had them because her husband is a UPS delivery guy and he looked in the box and saw them.  Regardless of her tantrum, which apparently consisted of about 15 minutes of screaming and cussing, first at my brother, than at the manager over electronics, then at the store manager, Target still refused to sell her a system.  They are, however, reporting her husband to UPS and requesting that disciplinary action be taken for opening their delivery boxes.

LMAO.  I wonder if that's going to cause any marital stress at home.

[Howard_Casto]

Well target's in the wrong on that one though.  All the people working at our local target are jerks.  They won't even have the decency to tell you when a shipment is expected.  And I realize that many times they don't know, but then again a day or so before they get a tracking number sent to them just like anyone else who orders via ups.  I called them the day before yesterday and they said they didn't have any shipments coming in.  Kinda funny how the next day they did get a very small shipment in isn't it?  Your telling me they didn't get a tracking number the day before and that the ups guy just shows up without warning.  Nah I don't think so.

Also it's rather ridiculous to refuse to sell someone a product you have in stock.  They technically only need 1 wii for their ad to be legal so the proper thing for them to do would have been to give the poor lady a break and sell her a wii.   

I completely understand them holding em back for black friday, but holding them back at this point just increases the false hype and encourages more jerks to get in line the night before and buy them all to sell on ebay.  Because of these types of policies, it makes it darn near impossible for the average adult to get one for their child, for instance when you often have to be in line at 9am on a weekday to get one or they get 30 in and put a ad in the paper and thus 350 people get in line the night before.


I'm sorry about the complaining, it's just I wish these store employees would treat everybody better.  I've been checking everyone from best buy to toyrus and the only people that are nice when you ask them are the folks at walmart.  On top of that nearly none of them are honest about their shipment times.  I think the workers are buying them themselves and selling them on ebay.  My wiitracker has like 40 wiis shown on ebay from my area, with more being added daily. This seems a little odd to me considering I live in a small town and they have been sold out everywhere since the 19th. 

[shmokes]

While I don't doubt any of what you say, the people at the Target near me have been very good.  My brother works there, but he had to camp in front of the store for 56 hours just like everyone else to get his hands on a PS3.  Additionally, if you call the store they will tell you that they will have more in stock starting Sunday morning.  I don't think they're concerned about their ad being legal.  I think they're concerned about running an ad that suggests they have Wii's in stock when they really already sold them all.

I wouldn't sell to this lady just because she gained inside info about their back room and then made an ass of herself.  My brother also knows that they have Wiis in the back room and they won't sell one to him either.  Plus, he works Sunday so unless they haven't sold out by the time he goes on break at noon he will still be without one.  They won't even let an employee walk up to the counter and purchase one if he's on duty.  In other words, aside from the discount, they treat employees just like every other customer.  And keep in mind that my brother works in electronics.  He is standing right there ringing up Wiis for other people and he can't just scan one for himself before other customers have a chance to snatch them all up.

So, I'd have to say that in contrast to the Target in your area, the one in my area seems to be handling themselves very well.

When it comes down to it, Target is going to sell the same as many Wiis between now and Christmas regardless of whether they hold back their stock for a few days -- which is to say, they will sell every Wii they can put on their shelves.  With that in mind, they can either sell what they have now and tell more people on Sunday that they're out of stock, or they can tell people they're out of stock today and sell more to people on Sunday.  The difference between today and Sunday, though, is that today they haven't told anybody that they have Wiis, whereas Sunday's newspaper will contain a Target ad saying that they do have Wiis.  It makes perfect sense to hold them until Sunday, IMO.

[ChadTower]

LMAO.  I wonder if that's going to cause any marital stress at home.

The screaming and yelling fit is probably already a regular occurrence at home anyway.  That behaviour is part of a pattern.

[odysseyroc]

I think it's lame that all of the major stores are stockpiling to run ads on sunday. Last week Bestbuy started the trend and lots of people lined up in the middle of the night just to go home empty handed. I've decided to wait till the hype dies down and just get one when they become readily available. I refuse to wait in a line in some sort of store manufactured Wii hysteria.

[versapak]

I think it's lame that all of the major stores are stockpiling to run ads on sunday. Last week Bestbuy started the trend and lots of people lined up in the middle of the night just to go home empty handed. I've decided to wait till the hype dies down and just get one when they become readily available. I refuse to wait in a line in some sort of store manufactured Wii hysteria.

They aren't trying to create some hysteria.

What, you think they shouldn't be able to advertise popular items? Those ads are created LOOOOOOOONG before you ever see them in print, and the whole point of ads is to get people into their store.

Of course they are going to stockpile items for availability when advertised.

Hey... Let's get people into our store by advertising this item, but then when they get here we can NOT HAVE ANY, because we decided to sneak em out the door to customers before the ad. It will be great. Then customers can get really pissed, and not buy anything.

[RecycledPast]

I guess I'll be going to Target as soon as they open on sunday.  I've got my 10% off card so hopefully they'll have the Wii, another controller, & Zelda. 

So the "system" will only cost 224.99 (10% off) and I'll hit a Target 10 miles north so I'll pay no sales tax in NH.

The good thing about the Target 10% coupon is that it's valid for everything in the store including sale items (except milk).

<edit to clarify the 10% off>

[ChadTower]

The Wii itself would cost that at 10% off... certainly not the others things included.

[odysseyroc]

They aren't trying to create some hysteria.

What, you think they shouldn't be able to advertise popular items? Those ads are created LOOOOOOOONG before you ever see them in print, and the whole point of ads is to get people into their store.

Of course they are going to stockpile items for availability when advertised.

Hey... Let's get people into our store by advertising this item, but then when they get here we can NOT HAVE ANY, because we decided to sneak em out the door to customers before the ad. It will be great. Then customers can get really pissed, and not buy anything.

I'm not saying they are doing this to try to create a hysteria, but the fact is it IS creating one. When the PS3s come in they are just putting them on the shelves and selling them. They also know that they will have less Wii's than people who want to buy one. I understand that they want bodies in the stores, but I think it's a crappy way of doing it.

[ChadTower]

Standard inventory control practice in retail.  It's no different than anything else.  If it's advertised for a certain date you don't put it out until then.  There is no "hysteria".  No one is crying in the aisles and no one is suffering because of this practice.

[odysseyroc]

I just think that bad things can happen when you have that many people waiting all night for something, especially if they go  home empty handed. I know the Wii launch was without incident, but the more you have large groups of people camping out all night the more chance you have for muggings, fights, etc. Target, Walmart, Toys R Us and Circuit City are all doing launch v 2.0. If you don't think Wii is starting to reach Cabage Patch Kids level of hysteria, then maybe it's just in my area of the country.

[ChadTower]

Legal obligations are what they are.  The stores don't define the law.

If the item is advertised to be in the store on a certain date they need to ensure that it will be there on that date.  If that means reserving their stock until that date, so be it.  It's not like they make more money for selling them a week later than now.  In fact, since in retail shelf space directly equals money, they actually make less money by having to store them for a week.

[RecycledPast]

It looks like Retrozone is creating Wii NES/SNES controller adapters for $19 each in January.  They let you use the original NES/SNES controllers.

http://www.retrousb.com/wii.html

It seems a little pricey but might be worth it if you want the authentic feel.  

[odysseyroc]

Oh and not all the stores are holding their stock of them. Some of the recieved shipments and put them out the day that they came. The whole things a mess. Some stores aren't even going to have consoles to sell on that day. Somebody in corporate decided to print that add and I think it was a bad idea.

[AtomSmasher]

And this is pretty much why pc games are limited to crappy f-p-s and strategdy games.  The wii mote allows a person enough control to play said games with the accuracy of a mouse (which is why gamepads never caught on) and the ease of use of a traditional controller.  Personally I HATE using a keyboard when playing pc games, but I seldom have a choice as aiming always works better with the mouse. 

Umm, ok.  I'm going to have to disagree with your statement that fps and strategy games are "crappy".  Those are actually my two favorite genres (fps easily being my favorite genre), so most of my favorite games of all time are those "crappy" fps and strategy games.  Like you, I'm hoping the wiimote works well for fps games (I haven't had a chance to try it yet), but I still doubt it will replace the mouse/keyboard.  I'm guessing the precision of using your fingertips to aim will be far greater then using your wrist.

Also, you may want to try picking up a keyboard replacement (like the nostromo speedpad n52 or something similar) to play your pc games on.  I haven't used the keyboard for games in many years.

I'm sure you'll want to respond with an unnecessarily long reply, but lets just agree to disagree on this topic and let it go.  All we're talking about is speculation and personal preferences anyways.

[Howard_Casto]

And this is pretty much why pc games are limited to crappy f-p-s and strategdy games.  The wii mote allows a person enough control to play said games with the accuracy of a mouse (which is why gamepads never caught on) and the ease of use of a traditional controller.  Personally I HATE using a keyboard when playing pc games, but I seldom have a choice as aiming always works better with the mouse. 

Umm, ok.  I'm going to have to disagree with your statement that fps and strategy games are "crappy".  Those are actually my two favorite genres (fps easily being my favorite genre), so most of my favorite games of all time are those "crappy" fps and strategy games.  Like you, I'm hoping the wiimote works well for fps games (I haven't had a chance to try it yet), but I still doubt it will replace the mouse/keyboard.  I'm guessing the precision of using your fingertips to aim will be far greater then using your wrist.

Also, you may want to try picking up a keyboard replacement (like the nostromo speedpad n52 or something similar) to play your pc games on.  I haven't used the keyboard for games in many years.

I'm sure you'll want to respond with an unnecessarily long reply, but lets just agree to disagree on this topic and let it go.  All we're talking about is speculation and personal preferences anyways.

You know if you wanted to let it go then you shouldn't have replied.  I mean no offense but I love how people try to get the last word in and then say "now don't you reply, just let it go". 

I never said fps or strat games are crap, but when 90% of the game available are those two genres only then it automatically becomes crap.  It's like fighters in the mid 90's  you got sick of them not because they are bad games, but because you don't want to play nothing but fighters everyday and all of the fighters, while really good, all play and look essentially the same.  And I think that everyone would agree that mainly because of this, a ton of the games on the pc end up being "ehh it's ok" at best because they never try anything new. 

I don't care for the keybaord replacements myself, mostly because they are pretty much still keyboards.  Movement needs to be analog as well, but on the pc it's always digital.  The only way to fix this is to have a pointing device in one hand and a analog device in the other.  Gee wonder where I could find one of those? 

[AtomSmasher]

You know if you wanted to let it go then you shouldn't have replied.  I mean no offense but I love how people try to get the last word in and then say "now don't you reply, just let it go". 

I never said fps or strat games are crap, but when 90% of the game available are those two genres only then it automatically becomes crap.  It's like fighters in the mid 90's  you got sick of them not because they are bad games, but because you don't want to play nothing but fighters everyday and all of the fighters, while really good, all play and look essentially the same.  And I think that everyone would agree that mainly because of this, a ton of the games on the pc end up being "ehh it's ok" at best because they never try anything new. 

I don't care for the keybaord replacements myself, mostly because they are pretty much still keyboards.  Movement needs to be analog as well, but on the pc it's always digital.  The only way to fix this is to have a pointing device in one hand and a analog device in the other.  Gee wonder where I could find one of those? 

Actually my comment was more of an inside joke to myself because I don't think I've ever seen a debate you were in without you getting the last word in.  I've been around here long enough to know that you will never let something go, even if proven wrong.  (no, I'm not saying I proved you wrong here since its all just speculation and personal preferences being discussed).

I thought about making a point by point reply to you, but I'll just say I disagree with everything you just said.  The wii is a great console with a lot of potential and I can't wait to get one.  Now, make sure to get the last word in 

[tommy]

Got mine today. 

I found a guy selling a Wii on eBay the other day, he lives about 10 miles away from me and just picked it up now.  I had to spend $100.00 more but i just could not wait any longer.  Wii Hoo. 

And by buying a wii with a hiked up price you are supporting this horrible price gouging that is going on.  Nobody would run to the stores and snatch up every single console available to hock on ebay if guys like you weren't willing to pay considerably more for a device that has a set price. 

How much is a wii?  249.95 + tax/shipping.  How much should you pay for a wii? 249.95 + tax/shipping

End of story, period. 

You really can't compare paying an extra hundred on a Wii to paying double price on a PS3.

I would have paid 350.00 for a Wii if Nintendo set that price.

[RTSDaddy2]

Not to derail this post, but I've got to agree with Howard on the cost issue. If manufacturer sets it at $249 (or in the case of PS3 $499 and $599), that's what you should have to pay.

It's Christmas - and it brings out the worst in a lot of people, myself included, at times.  I know people want more money - but dadgum, leave the consoles on the shelves for the people who want to play the thing and STOP purchasing it so you can make a profit.   I understand this is how America works, but there's just something - well, "slimy" - about this whole buy it and sell them at 2 to 3 times the cost bit.

[ChadTower]

Not to derail this post, but I've got to agree with Howard on the cost issue. If manufacturer sets it at $249 (or in the case of PS3 $499 and $599), that's what you should have to pay.

To a retailer.  Not to a private party.

Notice there have been exactly zero retail stores jacking up the price.  Don't you think they would if they could get away with it?

[Zero_Hour]

Not to derail this post, but I've got to agree with Howard on the cost issue. If manufacturer sets it at $249 (or in the case of PS3 $499 and $599), that's what you should have to pay.

To a retailer.  Not to a private party.

Notice there have been exactly zero retail stores jacking up the price.  Don't you think they would if they could get away with it?

That's why they invented bundling. 

I can't help but wonder how many people have bit the bullet buying additional games they have no interest in just to get their hands on the console. I'll just hold out till I can get it with the software of my choosing. If that happens to be after Christmas, so be it. 

[AlanS17]

If you wanted to buy a PS3 at Fry's, you had to buy it with 8 additional games. Screw that!

[More Cowbell]

We picked up our Wii Sunday morning at Target. My wife and I stood in line starting at 6am for the 8a opening. They came out and gave tickets to everyone at 7a so at least you knew where you stood. It was 9 degrees by the way so my toes are still in the process of recovering even with 2 pairs of socks (Chicago). We couldn't wait so we sprung it on the kids last night and started playing some Wii sports. I need to work on getting the internet connection going. It recognizes our household internet but couldn't connect for some reason. I didn't really look into it at all so I just need to spend some time with it. So far my kids are digging it and the jury is still out in my mind. I guess I need to be convinced that the controllers are really accurate and that it isn't just kind of estimating where you are. Or maybe I'm mad that my kids are better than me at some of the stuff.   

[MustardTent]

When you get online -- post your wii code in the thread here. 

[Mr. Greenjeans]

I was #28 at Target on Sunday....only problem was they only had 26  !!!!!!!

[More Cowbell]

Our Target must have had at least 40. People were walking up right before 8a and getting tickets. Made us idiots who waited 2 hours feel like crap (but not too much since we got what we were after).

[RecycledPast]

I got to target at 8am and saw the line was pretty short....
Then I notice that it wraped around the entire electronics section.  A security guard said they already handed out tickets 
I drove a few miles North to another Target but they were also sold out

So I decided to stop searching for a Wii and wait until next year.  I then bought GTA: San Andreas (xbox) and Shadow of the Colossus(ps2).

[odysseyroc]

My sister managed to walk up to Target at 8am on sunday and get one. They had something like 120 in stock and up to that point only handed out 80 tickets.

I'm waiting till next year whenever it is that you can just walk up and buy one without the crazy lines.

[Mr. Greenjeans]

I'm gonna try Wal-Mart tomorrow......WIIsh me luck!

[RTSDaddy2]

Chad, I got your point, but I think you missed mine...I don't really care if it's retail or private party.

Let me say it again - I do not like the fact that a bunch of people snatched PS3s, and some Wiis, away from kids / families who REALLY wanted it so that they could sell them at 3 times the price...especially here at Christmas.  I don't  that this is how America works - it's nasty and slimy, bottom line. That was my point, perhaps I did not say it well. 

Anyway, back to the thread....

[Samstag]

I'm not supposed to know my wife found me a Wii, but what I do know is that she went out Sunday afternoon and came back an hour later very pleased with herself and for the first time ever more excited about my gifts than hers.

For those in the DFW area she would most likely have found it at the Target on South Cooper in Arlington, just west of the Parks Mall.  That's about the only place she shops, unless it was in Kohl's.

[shmokes]

While I hope for your sake that you are right, I can't imagine it is the case.  Target had an ad in the morning paper that day saying they would have Wiis.  They also made it known well in advance when people inquired that systems would be in on Sunday.  Even if every single system wasn't spoken for before the store even opened by the people who got there early and stood in line, it strikes me as virtually impossible that there would still be systems available by the afternoon (or even half an hour after the store opened for that matter).

[markrvp]

I got one today after waiting 4-5 hours a day at Gamestop for 3 days.  My routine was to get there about 2 hours before they opened so I was first in the door and had to wait until UPS made their delivery.  First two days they were supposed to get a shipment, but they never showed up.  Today was the charm, as I got the first one off the truck (of 3).

[shmokes]

Wow . . . that would simply not be an option for me.  Don't you have a job?

[AlanS17]

Wow . . . that would simply not be an option for me.  Don't you have a job?

My thoughts exactly.

[ChadTower]

While I hope for your sake that you are right, I can't imagine it is the case.  Target had an ad in the morning paper that day saying they would have Wiis.  They also made it known well in advance when people inquired that systems would be in on Sunday.  Even if every single system wasn't spoken for before the store even opened by the people who got there early and stood in line, it strikes me as virtually impossible that there would still be systems available by the afternoon (or even half an hour after the store opened for that matter).

Not if she knows an employee.  I know a couple of people who got their Wiis from our local Target because they know one of the guys who manages their electronics stock.

Mark... damn, that's a lot of effort.

[More Cowbell]

Mark, with all that time waiting in line drinking coffee, you should start a thread entitled, I Gotta Wee. 
It's all I got. 

[ChadTower]

Wii do not approve of that joke.

[markrvp]

Wow . . . that would simply not be an option for me.  Don't you have a job?

I work in my family business.  I have flexible hours.

[More Cowbell]

Wow . . . that would simply not be an option for me.  Don't you have a job?

I work in my family business.  I have flexible hours.

It's a Sopranos type of business. If you don't hear from me ever again, I regret nothing.