"Oh...the humanity!!!"

So, Anthony's mother and I went to Walmart last night. After I posted the last post, I called Walmart to see how long the line was, or if there was one yet. Oh, yeah there was!!! The lady on the other end of the phone informed me that there was quite a line and continued by saying, "Oh, honey, there's been a line for a while...One lady has been here since 5 this morning." I got off the phone, threw on some shoes, and headed for Wally World. When we got there, I realized that what the lady had told me was true...the line was LONG. As soon as we got in line, a Walmart employee went through the line and gave out numbers. They only had 45 systems and we were number 47. We didn't even get a number. So, we stood in line for about a half an hour and then I called Anthony. He said that he didn't want me to stand in line just for the core system (when he wants the complete system). So, I left there, ran in Goody's for a few minutes to look at their sale items, and then went home.

I went online (for the millionth time) to check if there was any available...of course there wasn't any. I won't buy one of these off of eBay b/c there are too many scams right now since these are hot items. Not something that I will risk...and besides, they want $700+ for them on eBay.
When I spoke with my brother yesterday evening, he said that there was already a line outside of Target. This was at about 5 or 6 PM, when they don't even go on sale at Target until 8 AM today!!! There was a line at Circuit City, too.

I called Kmart and they already had a long line outside the store at 9 PM last night and they didn't go on sale there until 8 AM. SO...I was not going to camp out in the COLD for it.

I guess Anthony will have to wait until after Christmas. :(

I understand the idea behind having a limited number of copies, but as a consumer, it infuriates me that there are not enough to go around! Besides, since it is a hot item, they could sell more if there were more available. According to CNN earlier this week, there were allegations that Microsoft had an agreement with their component suppliers that they could only produce "x" number of components before a certain date. This would provide the support that Microsoft needed to only issue a limited supply of the components.

So, I am curious. If you know that you have an item that will sell like "hotcakes" and there is a lot of hype around it, wouldn't you want to provide more to sell more? Or, would you want to spread it out over a few months to drive the hype farther and to keep your sales up over a longer time period? Considering that the PS3 comes out in '06, I guess Microsoft chose the latter of the two choices...and for good reason. While it makes sense, it still angers me!!!! Oh, how I wish I could get an XBOX! :)

Here another picture from last night's adventure. (Keep in mind that the entire line can not be seen because the line wrapped around the eisle.)