Okay. I've never been a huge Christmas guy. Decorating a tree, lights around the house, wreath on the front of my truck...these are not me. Yet once again one of God's ironies: I run 2 retail businesses that sell Christmas items... Yearly I am regularly accused of being a Scrooge. (btw, as I type this I'm watching "The Muppet Christmas Carol". Is there any better Scrooge on film than Michael Caine? Sorry, I just love this movie!)
Alright, getting back to the fact that I'm not a Christmas guy. One of my favorite traditions from the Christmas season is just totally spoil my wife. Yearly we will set a limit on money to spend. Yearly I'll make her think that I'm too busy running the store(s). Yearly I'll spend double whatever the limit is. Yearly she'll get upset at me. Wait 11 months and then have another go at it.
So here we are 2006 December. I've been looking for "the gift" for my wife. Where do I land? Nintendo Wii. Nintendo has a next-gen Video game system which just released in November. Demand was much greater than supply, and needless to say there are no Wii's anywhere in America. Now I hear what you're thinking: Amy doesn't want a Wii...you were buying it for you.
My wife is an AVID gamer. In college we all wasted many study hours playing our Nintendo 64 (Goldeneye, Mario Kart, etc). One year for Christmas I even bought her an Atari 2600 on eBay, since she loved playing it so much growing up. So before I get e-mails about buying gifts for myself, back off! Amy doesn't get into the games systems that I've bought recently. xBox, xBox360 are too technical/Graphic for her. She'd rather move cartoon Mario around the screen than battle realistic WWI Battle scenes, or blow up aliens or Lord of the Ring beasts.
That's the backstory, now let me give you "the rest of the story".
Brad Sutton, a friend and volunteer in the CF Studio tips me off that he knows when the Best Buy shipment of the Wii is coming in, and am I interested in going? Brad is getting the Wii for his son, and he wants company. I agree, and Brad and I meet head over to Best Buy at Dadeland Sunday at 4:30am. There's over 20 people already there. One of them says "talk to the guy in the gray shirt". Gray shirt guy has a list. I'm #28. Brad is #29. Oh, and I forgot to mention. Brad's son decided to stand in the rain at another Best Buy. He got to Best Buy Cutler Ridge at 1am. Mike got #3.
Needless to say, we were all excited about how many Wii's were coming. Rumor was 25 Wii. People were still coming. At 7am there were maybe a hundred people out there. We checked the list that we had, and three people in front of me mysteriously disappeared. I literally am the 25th person. If the rumor is true, I get Wii. Brad gets nothing. But that's okay b/c Mike is guaranteed Wii in Cutler Ridge. Everyone would be happy.
The moment comes, and the manager of Best Buy comes out with an entourage of body guards. The manager announces that in fact there are 24 Wii. Yes, 24. I am literally the first person NOT to get a Wii. I wake up at 3:30am and stand in the blowing rain for no Wii. Unbelievable.
Needless to say, I don't think Amy will be getting Wii this Christmas. It was such a great story that I went ahead and told her. eBay is selling Wii for 3x the retail cost. I think we'll save the Christmas money and buy one after demand dies down.
Comments