Episode 23 – Black Friday Adventure

At around 7:00PM I got a call from a friend Jim. He said “do you want wait in line for Wii’s tonight?” I have decided not to get a Wii just yet… (I cant get one until I get a real job.) but agreed to wait in line with him. I really wanted to do some line sitting and talk to people and see what they had to say. It’s currently 12:30AM. Jim is currently playing Mega Man 3, and there is a WOW card game being played. The four of us will venture into the abyss shortly…. And by abyss, I mean driving around to a few stores and scoping out the respective lines.

I’ll be updating as we go along… though I’ll probably just post it all at once later in the day

Well, we drove around for a little… right now we are parked in front of a Sears hoping to grab a Wii. We went to Best Buy first and saw a HUGE line, well over a hundred people. There was even an RV that was IN line. It was that ridiculous. We didn’t even stop. We kept driving. We went by a Toys R Us that had no one in front of it. We thought it was suspicious, and contemplated waiting. But we weren’t shore what the deal was. Our main objective was the Mall anyway so we decided to go there, and we knew some stores were opening at 5. At this point it is 2:30am

On the way to the mall we saw was a Circuit City. The line was shorter than Best Buy, maybe a 50 people. We rolled down the window and asked what people were waiting for. Some douche bag said “It’s Black Friday.” No shit. Thanks dick. We are well aware. Everyone was being really hush hush. And we didn’t think there would be any Wii.

We went across the parking lot to where the mall was. We circled the mall and saw there was no one was waiting outside. We knew there was an Electronic Boutique and a Game Stop inside, along with an FYE and a Sears. This seemed like the place to be… for Wii. There would most likely be a plethora in there.

We stood outside for half an hour before noticing a sign that said there were 10 dollar gift certs at another entence. We moved. We got inline for sears, there were 4 very nice people ahead of us. It was now just about 3. They weren’t opening until 5. We had a long time to go. Our game plan was this: two people get into sears and head up stairs to the electronics department. While the other two head into the mall and go to the EB and GS. A solid plan for sure.

After killing 2 hours they let us in the doors. We ran to our spots, no dice in the electronics dept. The gate was down at the entrance to the rest of the mall. We couldn’t get out. We waited… it was now 5 after 5. Still nothing. After asking two employees we discovered that nobody knew if / when they were opening the doors. We were not sure if the mall doors were opening… but once we saw people in there we ran out, then sprinted around the outside and ran in another entrance. Two people went to move the car and I went to the GS and got on line. Two people were moving the car, and the other guy went to EB. He was number 4 in line there. My two friends went directly to the EB and got spots 7 and 8 there. Not bad. There was a sign on the GS that said they were only getting 6. I was number 9. That wasn’t so good for me, but I heard some grumblings that two people were looking for PS3. They knew nothing about the Wii but seemed like they were going to settle once someone said there were none in the store. Settle… they don’t know what they’re getting into. They looked like frat guys, not like the rest of the line. They stuck out like sore thumbs. They would be better suited to an Xbox and a copy of Gears of War.

Even if they didn’t get one, I was still then number 7. Didn’t look good for me. At this point we had been on the hunt since 2AM, been standing since 3. It was maybe 5:15. The store didn’t open until 7. Disappointment started to set in and the people behind me started leaving.

I heard someone say the Toys R Us got a bunch of Wii’s in. I remembered the lack of line that was there hours earlier. The report coming in from a line passerby said by 2:30 there was a huge line outside of TRU. We had just missed it. Honestly, if there was even one person outside of TRU we probably would have just stayed there and never headed to the mall. Though there were more stores in the mall, the mall as a whole got less than TRU… probably… but who can be sure

I’m going to be honest. I have never been in a mall on black Friday. I was new to this whole thing. I was not prepared for the madness that ensued. I realize that if we had a little bit of patience and actually thought about what we were doing, everyone would have gotten what they were looking for. First at TRU, or at Game Stop. We had our choice and we totally blew it trying to play the probability game

There were also signs that hung in the front windows of some stores, (Circuit City, and FYE) which said “no Wii, no PS3.” That there were so many people in line really surprised me. Yes some stores were running ridiculous deals, but there was a great sense of disappointment from the people we talked to. They really wanted videogame systems. Having two consoles that launched within two days of one another, I’m sure helped bring out the gamer in everyone… especially the Wii. So many people wanted it. Everyone in line at Game Stop and EB wanted Wii. Even some people we spoke to in the Sears line were interested because it looked “fun.” Though it was not their goal for the day. That “hardcore” market now has two consoles to choose from, in the 360 and PS3. For those letdown by the lack of PS3, the 360 will be glad to scoop you up this holiday season. I am sure a lot of people wanting PS3’s will be receiving 360’s instead. They are well stocked on shelves and I’m sure will be continuing shipments throughout the season.