Easiest job ever: dentist hires 60 temps to wait in PS3 lines

If we weren't sure before, then we're definitely positive now: the impending PlayStation 3 release has officially driven people to madness. As if folks quitting their jobs, ditching their fiancés, and perpetrating drive-by shootings weren't enough, we've just gotten word that a dentist in Columbus, Ohio leveraged some of those cavity-filling profits to hire an unbelievable 60 temp workers to stand in line at four area Wal-Marts. Although not a videogame fan himself, Dr. Murry Newlin wanted to spread the Christmas cheer to his grandchildren, nieces, and nephews by picking up 15 of the next-gen consoles -- a feat that would be impossible for one man to accomplish alone, but that would seem rather trivial for an army of temporary employees. Newlin rotated the line-goers every eight hours, and if sour grapes complaints to store managers and the temps' employment agencies hadn't caused him abandon the plan yesterday afternoon, our rough estimate is that the whole deal would have set him back about $23,400 when all was said and done -- or about the cost of two PS3s on eBay. So what did we learn from this whole ordeal? Simple: if you're one of Dr. Newlin's grandkids, we hate to break it to you, but scuttling his plan because of a few whiny fanboys means grandpa just doesn't love you very much.

Update: Whoops, it turns out that this all went down in Columbus, Georgia and not Columbus, Ohio. Oh Christopher Columbus, why did you have to inspire almost as many city names as Jebediah Springfield?

[Via Blogging Ohio]

[Matt @ Nov 16th 2006 7:48PM]

wtf is up with the picture looks more like old people waiting inline for bingo than for a ps3

[Farris @ Nov 16th 2006 8:02PM]

I think that is on purpose... in the story it talks about a grandfather hiring people to stay in line, the picture just kind of melded the bits of that sentence. Now they're old people standing line.

[patrick @ Nov 16th 2006 8:05PM]

The weird thing is this was in my local paper and it said it was in Columbus GA not Columbus Ohio. I know it was Columbus GA because he was my dentist and I don't go to Ohio to get my teeth cleaned (not that there is anything wrong with Ohio). It doesn't matter to me let Ohio take the credit for this stupid man and his waste of money.

[Rod @ Nov 16th 2006 8:05PM]

Stories like these make a premed want to switch career direction... but then again, money is not the most important thing in life I suppose. But seriously, I don't think doctors will be able to pull off things like this, unless they were one of those Beverly Hills plastic surgeons.

[Sam @ Nov 16th 2006 8:31PM]

20 x $600 PS3 + 60 temp workers x $100 for an 8-hour day = $23,400?

Please, I must be missing something!

[Jeff Foster @ Nov 16th 2006 8:32PM]

whiny bitches. i see absolutely nothing wrong with what he was doing. more power to him.

[strider_mt2k @ Nov 16th 2006 9:02PM]

Well hey look what happened over that whole Wonka thing.

That one guy had his whole factory shelling Wonka bars!
Talk about a bad egg, er, nut, er... I don't even know any more.

[Ron Larson @ Nov 16th 2006 9:23PM]

So what happens when one of his temps actually advances to the point of buying a PS3? If I were the temp, I would buy it with my own money then sell it back to the dentist for a premium.

[ed @ Nov 16th 2006 9:41PM]

This wasn't in Ohio and we don't want to take credit for this, go ahead Columbus, GA for once you can be in the spotlight (not like we ever are either unless if OSU is playing). Although I agree that no one should really be complaining, if other people are allowed to rotate in line, then more power to him for being crafty.

And Ron Larson - I assume they were contractually obligated to give up the PS3 so they would be in breach of contract and would be liable to get him a PS3 and due to the scarcity of the product he could claim specific relief, instead of the value of the PS3.

[Echo_ @ Nov 16th 2006 9:47PM]

Those eBay auctions are imo fake. The same guy outbids himself 5x for an increase of 3 thousand dollars. Its BS

[Paul @ Nov 16th 2006 10:47PM]

What you are seeing is when someone else tried to outbid that guy ebay auto raises his bid until it reaches his max.... You need to realize how ebay works before you start calling fake...

[Jeramy @ Nov 16th 2006 10:08PM]

grandchildren? i don't ever remember my grandparents shelling out that much money for me. regardless, i'll let it slide for conversation's sake.

but nieces and nephews????? someone's just trying to be the cool uncle too hard. the kids probably cry during their appointments with uncle murry the dentist and he's trying to overcompensate for the trauma. either that or he's just way to involved with his extended family. whichever's worse...

[rraaAAAWWWWWWRRRRrrrrrr @ Nov 17th 2006 1:08AM]

You see these letters by the city? That's called a state. What else you got, Wonder Boy?

[Aaron @ Nov 17th 2006 2:02AM]

The guy's name is Newlin, but you said Newell at the bottom. Were you referring to someone else?

This is insane, by the way. What a waste of money... Get the kids a bunch of GameCubes! Easy to find, 99 bucks a pop, and they can have all the licensed Spongebob/Naruto/[latest CGI movie] crap they could ever want. And a couple of kickass games too, but if the kids cared about those then we wouldn't still have all the garbage coming out.

*sigh*

[Jeff @ Nov 17th 2006 3:36AM]

That makes me sad. The man had the resources, balls, and creativity to pull it off. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't have been allowed to do it.

[Jake Carpenter @ Nov 17th 2006 6:05AM]

So did anybody find "grandfather's ps3" on ebay yet? That's gotta be worth more because it comes with a story.

[Nate @ Nov 17th 2006 8:59AM]

Thats funny.. I thought everybody was saying that nobody would buy the PS3 becuase of its high pricetag?! Hmmm... interesting

[James @ Nov 17th 2006 3:40PM]

Gyah! WTF? Was the guy doing something illegal, or even immoral? At least he had the decency to hire people at a legal wage, who even have a shot at benefits (thru their agency), instead of that guy who went out bribing homeless guys, and at least he had them work reasonable shifts, etc. What was the problem with it? It did an excellent job of showing how badly broken the current system is.

[Gary LaPointe @ Nov 19th 2006 3:05PM]

He probably could have just spent the money bribing someone at the store or just offering it to the first people in line...