Wal-Mart Woes (Waiting for the Xbox 360)
by spidey008 on Comments
The morning of Monday, November 21, 2005 was just like any other morning. I got up, fed my baby, and hopped in the car with my wife for the 30+ minute drive to work. The Xbox 360 was going to be released at 12:00am on Tuesday morning (the following day). As I got to work, I began to call around to see how the new system would be distributed to shoppers at different stores. I began to worry when I called our local Wal-Mart and was informed that people were already starting to line up. Best Buy had gamers camping out since Sunday morning.
I had preordered a copy at EB Games, but they informed me that I would not receive the system until after Christmas. This was unacceptable due to the fact that I would have a few days off for Thanksgiving and they were all dedicated to gaming.
I’m really the only gamer in my family. I have a nephew that I planned to pass my old Xbox down to if I got the new system. To my surprise, my lovely wife was very supportive and exited about the new Xbox. I had only one comrade that wanted the system as bad as I, and his name was Donkey.
Donkey and I played phone tag and debated about what strategy we would take to get the system. After a few hours of worry and fret, Donkey made his move. He had his sweet old mommy go down to the local Wal-Mart and wait in line. Donkey’s mom waited for a few hours after being replaced by Donkey himself.
After work and making sure that I was still assured a copy of the 360, I made the trip to Wal-Mart to wait. I got to Wal-Mart about 5pm. I was tenth in line and Wal-Mart had 34 premium units. The next seven hours were spent between cheap shoes and the craft section waiting for the Xbox 360.
At 10pm we received tickets straight from Microsoft that assured us a copy of the hardware. By this time there were about 40-50 gamers waiting in line. Many did not get a card and were highly ticked off. A police officer was present to make sure that nothing got out of hand.
I had one nerd that offered me $525 for my ticket. I didn’t accept it because I had waited so long, and I really doubted that he would really give me $525 for a ticket with no system.
The next day many folks asked me if it was worth the wait. For all of the features and Next-Gen games that the Xbox 360 brings, I said yes. I guess you really have to be a true gaming geek to really understand.