I gotta Wii! I gotta Wii!
I know what you’re thinking: Calm down. The bathroom is down the hall.
But that’s not what I’m saying.
I got in line at 6:30 a.m. on Black Friday and acquired a Wii, the video gaming system that Nintendo hasn’t been able to keep on store shelves since rolling it out a year ago.
The air was dark and thick with a bone-chilling fog. My car thermometer read 23 degrees. I threw on a ski jacket and approached a short line outside a closed GameStop, next to a dental practice in Aurora.
“Are you here for a Wii?” I asked the last guy in line.
“No, we’re all in line to get our teeth cleaned,” he smirked.
The woman ahead of him told me her husband was stationed outside another store. They weren’t taking any chances. They were getting a Wii. One way or the other. They were getting a Wii.
The Wii was “nearly impossible” to get last Christmas. This Christmas, it’s been upgraded to “hard- to-find.”
I was 10th in a line that grew to about 30 by the time the store opened at 7 a.m. I did not know whether this would guarantee me a Wii. Nintendo officials had already warned they would not be able to meet demand this holiday season. And the Internet was filled with stories about how difficult it was to find a Wii.
“Here’s a fun game,” read a headline in Friday’s Houston Chronicle, “Try to buy a Wii.”
Turns out, the GameStop where I waited had fewer than 20 Wiis, a store clerk told me, so not everybody dumb enough to stand in line got one.
The Grapevine, Texas-based retailer reported record financial results earlier this month, including a 46.3 percent spike in comparable store sales. Listed among the risk factors to its continued growth was “the inability to obtain sufficient quantities of product to meet consumer demand, including Nintendo’s Wii.”
My wife had been trying to get a Wii for more than a week. She could only find them online, usually for twice the retail price of about $250.
A website called listed every store from Toys “R” Us to BestBuy as sold out of Wiis on Friday morning. Amazon listed new and used versions “from $535.” How badly do you really need a Wii?
Earlier this month, “Wii” ranked among the top three product searches on the Internet, beside “iPod” and those ugly boots known as “Uggs,” according to market intelligence firm Hitwise.
At Park Meadows mall, there’s a Wii kiosk where you can play with Wiis, learn about Wiis, get accessories for Wiis but you can’t actually buy Wiis.
A week ago, my wife found a guy there wearing a Wii T-shirt and answering Wii questions. She asked him if she could place an order with her credit card, just in case, by some odd twist of fate, a Wii actually became available in the future.
The man smiled and said it was a great idea and that he would pass it on to the marketing department. But no, she could not place an order here. What did she think this was? A store or something?
Nintendo has reportedly ramped up its production of the Wii several times since its debut last year, and it has sold more than 5.5 million of them in the past year. But some people hint that the company is manufacturing shortages just to take advantage of video game junkies.
Sony chief executive Howard Stringer, for instance, recently called the Wii shortages “a little fortuitous.”
Remember Apple’s launch of the iPhone earlier this year? That seemed a little fortuitous too.
I hate lines. I hate Black Friday. I regard people who line up at 6 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving as idiots. Some years, I’ve had to get up early to interview them for stories. They are consumers so conspicuous, they can’t even find time to sleep in on a rare four-day weekend.
This year, though, I swiftly cast aside my judgment and stood with them in the dark, cold morning just for a Wii.
I don’t really know what a Wii is, beyond its generic description. I just know that my wife wants my son to have one, and that by getting one, I avert grave, holiday disappointment, and even danger.
I guess I’m an idiot consumer too, but what else can I do this year?
Buy lead-painted toys from Mattel?
Al Lewis’ column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Respond to Lewis at , 303-954-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com.
