PS3... 14 hours Later...
So I ended up learning a valuable lesson, don't wait 12 hours early, go a full 24 hours early to ensure your unit of PS3! Mitch and I get to Janesville and start looking at places like Target and Shopko and can't believe what we are seeing!!! People that look like they've already been there over night! We left at around 11am so we could get there by noon, plenty of time right? Wrong!!! I'm just speechless at that point seeing so many sleeping bags and tents next to the doors of these places. So I head over to the Super Walmart that just opened the day before thinking that there won't be a line there... WRONG again!! The 6 consoles they have instock are already spoken for by the people already in line, but the shinning glimmer of hope rests on the open seats just on the other side of them, these are the reserve seats for the desperate and we at this point are 100% desperate. (Well actually we first went to Walmart to see if we could get in line there, but no luck, so we left there insearch of other open lines, but that wasn't too be. SOO back to Walmart we go to calm the seats for Rain Checks. But the way i was typing sounds much better..) So we take the #2 and #3 seats for the Rain Checks thinking this isn't SO bad, i mean we get to wait inside with access to plenty of food and all the magazines we could read. AND we would only have to wait till midnight cause most of the other places in town aren't gonna open at midnight just for the PS3. But god did those 12 hours to freakishly slow. It wasn't so bad while we had the freedom to leave our seats one at time and walk around a bit, but when other people starting taking the remaining seats, our freedom ended. This how it all went down once we sat down at around 12pm.
12pm - plant our asses in the raincheck seats to reserve a PS3 for the next shippment. I mean as long as we get them before Xmas we should still be sitting pretty.
1:30 or so - Two guys come by and sit in seats #4 & #5, they looked about 17 or so. We didn't talk to them much.
2:10 or so - So this guy who looks like he works at Walmart comes by and says to us that it looks like there are 2 places available at Shopko to get a PS3 at 8am the next day. Mitch and I pass no willing to freeze our asses off for that length of time, so the other two dudes go.
2:30 - a guy comes by and askes us how there can still be open seats, we explain, and he leaves to do the samething we did, look for spaces in other lines.
2:45 or so - A woman and her daughter sit down. At first i thought she was just using the seats to sit while she talked on her cellphone, but nope, she was there for the long haul.
3pm - the guy that stopped before returns and takes the last remaining seat #6. He is real friendly guy and can be spotted as a hardcore gamer since he caring around a PSP and a Gameboy advanced. He tells us that he first went all around Madison looking for spots to wait with no luck! (FYI-I KNEW madison would be a lost cause, which why i went to Janesville instead.) And he started searching at like 9am!
3:30 - the manager comes by to check who is waiting and to chat with us a little. He gives a brochure for the launch of the PS3.
4:40 or so - It starts getting ruff... some punk walks buy wanting the little girls seat, but didn't have the balls to ask the manager about it so we didn't think much of him or the situation.
5pm - A different kid and his dad come by and talk to the manager (Note that this is a different manager who stopped by before) and take the little girls seat. The woman claims that it is her husband seat, but that doesn't fly and the seat is lost. She isn't happy and neither is the husband when he arrives. *My feelings on the situation are... inconclusive at the moment. 1. I can see where the kid and his father are coming from, you can't use a little freaking kid to hold a seat, that's just not right and if I was in there place I would have done the same damn thing. 2. How can you take a seat away from a little girl no older than 8! That's just mean. And thus, the father and son are ignored from the group. And since the son and father just got there, they fall to seat #6 and the Gamer Guy goes up to seat #5.
6 - From there on it gets fairly boring and due to the desperation exibited by the father and son, everyone's butt is firmly planted in their seats (our seats were essentially our tickets, each seat was numbered). At around this time we are also asked to move our seats to the Xmas area seeing as how that is the least used area and has the most amount of open space. The move was welcomed because I was getting might sick of getting my elbow bumped every 5 seconds. We were seated in the main alley across from the Electronics department. Atleat our group was (The Rain Check Group), the other group, the 6 that were actually getting a PS3 at Midnight were actually in the Electronics down an ilse that had a register.
10:30 - We find out that the shipment that Walmart got only has four 60 gig units and two 20 gig units. The max rain checks they have are 6 for 60 gig units. As I'm sure you know, the 20 gigs are useless. So the two people at the end of the Midnight group each take a rain check for a 60 gig unit, thus that takes 2 away from our group. The two 20 gigs also come down to our group, but chair #1 doesn't want it, neither do I (chair #2) and of course Mitch doesn't want it. So seats #4 and #6 take them. Seat #5, the Gamer Guy and his buddy who decides to help him wait by taking his seat for him while he hits the bathroom and gets food, pass on the 20 gig console. It was sad to see them go with out a console since they were probably the ones that deserved it the most out of both groups.
11pm - The last hour was the worst. Zack calls up and tells me that other places have already seen riots and violence! The system setup (even with its flaws...) was fairly organized so there wasn't ever any worry of people getting pushy since where you sat determined your order. I'd just hate to be the poor bastards still sleeping on the cold cold ground outside of Target.
12:10am - The cops arrive to escort the luckies with their brand new consoles out to their cars. We get filed to the customer service desk in the back and get our rain checks.
12:20am - I hit the bathroom and get the hell up outta there!!! You'd think 12 hours of waiting in a Walmart would be fun, but NO. We walk to my car and we decide to pay a visit to all the losers sleeping in their tents and sleeping bags in front of Shopko, Target, and Best Buy. Mitch yelled out of the moon roof "Waiting for the Nintendo Wii Right??!!! WHOOO Nintendo!" and I blare the horn and speed off. HAHAHAHA!!! Ooh man that was fun!
1am - We arrive home hungry, worn out, but confident that our PS3s are secure and that we'll be able to turn a profit before Xmas.
12pm - plant our asses in the raincheck seats to reserve a PS3 for the next shippment. I mean as long as we get them before Xmas we should still be sitting pretty.
1:30 or so - Two guys come by and sit in seats #4 & #5, they looked about 17 or so. We didn't talk to them much.
2:10 or so - So this guy who looks like he works at Walmart comes by and says to us that it looks like there are 2 places available at Shopko to get a PS3 at 8am the next day. Mitch and I pass no willing to freeze our asses off for that length of time, so the other two dudes go.
2:30 - a guy comes by and askes us how there can still be open seats, we explain, and he leaves to do the samething we did, look for spaces in other lines.
2:45 or so - A woman and her daughter sit down. At first i thought she was just using the seats to sit while she talked on her cellphone, but nope, she was there for the long haul.
3pm - the guy that stopped before returns and takes the last remaining seat #6. He is real friendly guy and can be spotted as a hardcore gamer since he caring around a PSP and a Gameboy advanced. He tells us that he first went all around Madison looking for spots to wait with no luck! (FYI-I KNEW madison would be a lost cause, which why i went to Janesville instead.) And he started searching at like 9am!
3:30 - the manager comes by to check who is waiting and to chat with us a little. He gives a brochure for the launch of the PS3.
4:40 or so - It starts getting ruff... some punk walks buy wanting the little girls seat, but didn't have the balls to ask the manager about it so we didn't think much of him or the situation.
5pm - A different kid and his dad come by and talk to the manager (Note that this is a different manager who stopped by before) and take the little girls seat. The woman claims that it is her husband seat, but that doesn't fly and the seat is lost. She isn't happy and neither is the husband when he arrives. *My feelings on the situation are... inconclusive at the moment. 1. I can see where the kid and his father are coming from, you can't use a little freaking kid to hold a seat, that's just not right and if I was in there place I would have done the same damn thing. 2. How can you take a seat away from a little girl no older than 8! That's just mean. And thus, the father and son are ignored from the group. And since the son and father just got there, they fall to seat #6 and the Gamer Guy goes up to seat #5.
6 - From there on it gets fairly boring and due to the desperation exibited by the father and son, everyone's butt is firmly planted in their seats (our seats were essentially our tickets, each seat was numbered). At around this time we are also asked to move our seats to the Xmas area seeing as how that is the least used area and has the most amount of open space. The move was welcomed because I was getting might sick of getting my elbow bumped every 5 seconds. We were seated in the main alley across from the Electronics department. Atleat our group was (The Rain Check Group), the other group, the 6 that were actually getting a PS3 at Midnight were actually in the Electronics down an ilse that had a register.
10:30 - We find out that the shipment that Walmart got only has four 60 gig units and two 20 gig units. The max rain checks they have are 6 for 60 gig units. As I'm sure you know, the 20 gigs are useless. So the two people at the end of the Midnight group each take a rain check for a 60 gig unit, thus that takes 2 away from our group. The two 20 gigs also come down to our group, but chair #1 doesn't want it, neither do I (chair #2) and of course Mitch doesn't want it. So seats #4 and #6 take them. Seat #5, the Gamer Guy and his buddy who decides to help him wait by taking his seat for him while he hits the bathroom and gets food, pass on the 20 gig console. It was sad to see them go with out a console since they were probably the ones that deserved it the most out of both groups.
11pm - The last hour was the worst. Zack calls up and tells me that other places have already seen riots and violence! The system setup (even with its flaws...) was fairly organized so there wasn't ever any worry of people getting pushy since where you sat determined your order. I'd just hate to be the poor bastards still sleeping on the cold cold ground outside of Target.
12:10am - The cops arrive to escort the luckies with their brand new consoles out to their cars. We get filed to the customer service desk in the back and get our rain checks.
12:20am - I hit the bathroom and get the hell up outta there!!! You'd think 12 hours of waiting in a Walmart would be fun, but NO. We walk to my car and we decide to pay a visit to all the losers sleeping in their tents and sleeping bags in front of Shopko, Target, and Best Buy. Mitch yelled out of the moon roof "Waiting for the Nintendo Wii Right??!!! WHOOO Nintendo!" and I blare the horn and speed off. HAHAHAHA!!! Ooh man that was fun!
1am - We arrive home hungry, worn out, but confident that our PS3s are secure and that we'll be able to turn a profit before Xmas.