On the weekend before Christmas Day, many retailers across the country, including Best Buy, Circuit City, and Toy “R” Us, were lucky enough to receive a shipment of Nintendo Wiis to the delight of last-minute shoppers.
Depending on the store, some retailers reportedly received 40 to 60 Wiis on Christmas Eve. Others received a shipment over the weekend, but in both cases, the console sold quickly and almost as soon as it became available.
At a Best Buy store near Baltimore, General Manager Dave Wolf told the Baltimore Sun that they enforced a policy of not displaying any Wiis to the customers to avoid a mob scene. Instead, employees walked around the store telling people that they were available.
According to another Best Buy manager, when they receive a shipment of Wiis, it’s common for the store to practice this policy and not announce the availability of the Wii over the intercom for the safety of the customers and employees.
Most customers, however, lost all hope in finding a Wii in time for Christmas and thought that they were joking when told that they had them. When one Best Buy employee told a woman that the Wii was available, she reportedly began hugging him and offered to bring him crab cakes.
For those who walked out empty-handed and without a Wii this Christmas, the retailers don’t have a specific answer to when they’ll have more, other than, “Check back periodically.”
