This fucking thing

I don't know why I allowed myself to compromise my highly-principled "I'm not going to camp out for a Wii" stance. Probably, I suppose, because before Christmas I was always leaving it in someone else's hands as to whether or not I got a Wii, whilst now the burden has fallen to me. I did not camp out, I'm proud to say; on the other hand, I did get up early yesterday (7:30AM, which is still defenceable (it's a word, look it up) and I think quite reasonable) and invested the better part of the morning trying to track one down. Alas, now I'm in it this deep, and I am a much poorer person for it, as I am incredibly frustrated about making no progress.

Here, chronologically, are the most frustrating moments of my Wii hunt so far.

1. Believing there to be none available, and also expecting the next availability to be on the 29th when Best Buy and Future Shop received shipments, on the 27th I made no efforts to track down a Wii. Only at 3:30PM did I see a post on the Wii/PS3 availability forum I've been tracking saying that Toys 'R' Us, Walmart, and Zellers had all received shipments that day. By this time, of course, it was too late. This missed opportunity gave me the taste for blood, so to speak, and I doubled and redoubled my Wii efforts.



2. Believing that Zellers, Walmart, and Toys 'R' Us were not going to get any in for at least a week, and knowing that Future Shop and Best Buy were going to have them on the 29th, I aimed to get there first thing in the morning. On the evening of the 28th, I saw two people camping outside Best Buy, so I decided to try my luck with one of the seemingly random shipments that Future Shop might receive. I got there at 9AM, only to be told that there were none. I moseyed over to EB, having also heard rumours of shipments coming in that day, and was 4th in line, waited for the better part of an hour before they opened, before we were all told -- by a very close childhood friend who manages the store, no less -- that they didn't have any. He also explained to me that post-Christmas, Nintendo was doing their own shipping rather than delivering them via courier, and that shipments could go to any vendor at any time. As a result, availability is completely random. I decided that it wasn't worth waiting around all day for that kind of thing, so I made one last look at Superstore and went home.



3. Later, Divyesh told me that while I was waiting in the mall, Toys 'R' Us got a shipment. This meant that Toys 'R' Us got two shipments in three days while EB got zero. I realized then that they weren't kidding when they said "completely random".



4. Realizing that this was no more than folly, I did something else for a couple of hours. When I came back to check my e-mail, I found out that about 5 minutes after I started doing that something else, 100 Wiis became available on futureshop.ca. (They were gone.)



5. Then, Jowen's friend, who doesn't want it as much as I do, managed to track one down in Vancouver, in the middle of the morning. I was nonplussed.



6. Then, today I found out that the Future Shop that I got to before it opened at 9AM got a shipment of 30 Wiis at 2PM.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that I'm frustrated. I promised myself that I was above this, and that no piece of consumer electronics was worth this kind of hassle. In my defence, I had heard that Wiis wouldn't be readily in stock until late January, by which time I'd be in school, and I would really have liked to have one for the next two weeks of my holiday. Now, though, it seems like there will be many more available next week, making this whole search even stupider.

I wonder if the reason they aren't more available by now is because too many people were throwing their controllers and breaking the wrist strap (along with furniture), so Nintendo had to halt the production until all the old wrist straps were replaced with the newer ones which are built to withstand being thrown by idiots.

I need to stop thinking about this for a few days. Also, if you see me, please do not say "Future Shop", "Best Buy", "Toys 'R' Us", or "Wii", thanks in advance.

(Thanks too to Galen and Vince for the tips. Despite the futility of my search, your help is appreciated.)

Current Music: Steely Dan - Do It Again