How to get your hands on a Wii before Christmas

By Eric Sueszwii xmas girl

It’s a year after the Wii’s release, and it’s still nearly impossible to find one of these consoles on a brick-and-mortar store shelf. I’ve read stories portraying certain retail employees working the store aisles like popcorn vendors at a baseball game, hawking the “last Wii in stock” — only to somehow find another unit or two in the stockroom twenty minutes later for another round of sales. It makes you wonder if Nintendo is milking some insanely smart marketing campaign. Or, is it genuinely hard to find a Wii, a year after its initial release?

By all accounts: yeah. It’s still that hard to find. But I have to believe that it’s not impossible. I am in the market for one for my son (and, ahem, myself). Here’s my Wii Strategy Guide — which I hope you can add to! Together, Wii shall overcome:

Pounding the Pavement
This was my first move, and it isn’t working. Showing up first thing on Sunday morning at the big-box retail stores is a very hit-or-miss proposition. Ditto for trying to corral the UPS man on a Friday afternoon, or Tuesday morning, or whenever you think a particular store gets its delivery of Wii consoles. If you know someone at the store or if you can weasel your way into making friends with the floor manager or a stock boy — great. Then pursue this strategy. But, if you don’t have inside information, you’ll waste time and money carting yourself around town.

Internet Searches
You should first and foremost harness the power of the Internet. Then, hit the streets if you absolutely have to. There are a number of sites that can help locate the nearest Wii retailer or online seller. I’ve put together a batch of them. Here are the sites that I’m using, and many of them seem quite useful. I’m ranking these based on the probability that each one will help you in your search.

Wii Tracking Sites

Read on



Around The Net:


  • http://shanoboy.com shanoboy

    I wish I had a chick that looked like that to play Wii with! MY God!

  • http://WiiNintendo.net FlamingSquirrel

    I remember that pic, last christmas it was a whole gallery on the front page. who is that anyway?

  • snowwoman

    My solution? Befriend someone who works at NOA. :-)

  • http://bloeimedia.nl eepee [nl]

    @shanoboy: would you just play wii with a chick like that? ;)

  • http://www.kgbo.de Alex

    just get a pal one.

    In Germany we have like 50 in every store.

    Why do you have so much problems in America?

  • David

    Your best bet is small retail stores (Ebgames,Gamestop,Gamecrazy) i used to work at Gamestop and we usually got our system shipments on Tues/Wed. Granted they only get between 4-6 units a week.

    The thing to do is show up at 10:30, the UPS driver gets there at about 11 everyday…The store will immediately be able to tell you if they have Wii units once the boxes arrive based on what the boxes look like. (Nintendo ships in funky distinguishable boxes.)

    You may look crazy standing around a Gamestop at 10:30 in the morning for a half hour…but you’ll most likely get a Wii.(FYI you will also annoy the hell out of the kid working)

    ps.I got my Wii from Wiitracker.com about a two weeks ago, linked me right to amazon..free shipping/no tax…guess i got lucky.

  • Casey

    David’s right, but try Wal-mart as well. I work in the electronics department at my local store, and we get our shipments via UPS around 10:30-11 in the morning (mon-fri, never weekends). We get anywhere from 20-30 Wiis in at a time, and they don’t last more than an hour or two. Absolute best way to get one is to call the store, ask for the electronics department, and the associate should be able to answer similarly to my above. Then if they have them, rush right over.