Toys R' Us nonsense [update 1]
I
ntrepid, daring reporter than I am, I decided to brave the intense, soul-freezing cold that is Central Florida in October. My destination? Toys R' Us ... which I had heretofore not even known existed in my tiny town of Gainesville, Florida ... to check out the line. Reports were coming in of many TRU stores giving raffle tickets to everyone there, and having a lottery to determine the winners ... poppycock! The most devoted should get the system, and devoted there were. The first couple folks were out there at 8:45 AM on Saturday morning, bravely camping out for ... wait, a PS3?
[update 1 -- fixed a small typo]
To their credit, they really wanted a Wii. The management, however, were not allowing customers to preorder two systems in one go, and these poor, hungry college students decided to make a little profit to put some food on their tables. Heartwarming, I know. In fact, there were only 4 PS3s for sale, and not unexpectedly, every buyer was following the eBay/profit routine. By contrast, the ten loyal Wii fans who were camping out wanted the system all to themselves ... it really served to highlight the difference between the Nintendo and Sony fanbases.
The system worked as follows: each potential buyer put there name down on a special list managed by a TRU employee. Every few hours, that employee would come outside and take "roll call", ensuring that everyone on the list was still steadfastly waiting out the clock. If anyone missed roll call, their name was to be removed and a spot freed; no one, of course, was dumb enough to allow this. Most of the campers had friends or family there for entertainment and culinary support, and the first couple of people in line pitched tents for the duration. According to many reports, however, the number of units available (4 and 10, for the forgetful) had been drastically reduced by greedy, spirit-sucking TRU employees. Like that damn giraffe.
In any case, I was off to a costume party afterward, and in the spirit of Halloween, here's me as a bitchin' pirate (with a red, pirate eye) and that ever-so-motley line crew.
