Retail Laziness

A few days ago I succumbed to the undeniable appeal of the Wii and bought one. Well, scratch that, I tried to buy one. I went to Sam's Club one night for nothing more than an Icee (yes, I'm that cheap) and what, to my amazement, do my kids see? A whole bunch of tickets ready to be pulled and taken to the register to purchase the nearly impossible to find Wii!

Now admittedly, I haven't been looking for one. I did think to myself that if I ever did come across one, I might actually get it, but I wasn't in full search mode. After pondering the decision for a few moments, I thought, what the heck, it looks cool and sounds like a load of fun. For $249.00, how could I go wrong? (plus controller, SD card, batteries...)

Here's how it all goes wrong. How about right after you call your wife, ask her for the pre-requisite permission (I'm older and wiser now) and then inadvertently get my boys all excited (the girls were with me), I take it to the register and try to actually buy the dang thing. Imagine my surprise when I find out they don't have any. Yeah, it was wishful thinking and too good to be true to have nearly 10 untouched Wii's at the end of the day but who knew when they put the tickets out there. Well, I'll tell you when! Try weeks ago. They hadn't had Wii's in over two weeks.

How can they be so lazy? How can they tantalize their customers like this? How can they dash the hopes of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young ones and their fathers with tickets that imply they actually have them in stock? Uh, they are lazy.

When I inquire why these tickets are out there still, I'm told it is too much trouble to keep track of them. Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot that work involved, well, work!

So thanks Sam's Club for then sending me on a wild goose chase all over town to actually try and find a Wii. I mean, I just told the boys I was bringing one home. What kind of damage would this cause? What would they think?

Well, it turns out I have more understanding kids than maybe I give them credit for. Maybe, just maybe, it was more disappointing to me than them. It is a slim chance but a chance nevertheless. It was no big deal to kids.

Whew! I'm off the hook at least until next weekend. (oh...that's tomorrow isn't it? Yikes!)