You’re probably better off looking at a smaller store. I got my Wii (in February) by calling my local Gamestop every morning for about three weeks until they told me they had one.
I guess this is my point. What more of a cite do you need than the half dozen or so people in this thread pointing out the existance of these national promotions?
And I’m not entirely sure “promotion” is the correct word as these sales all end exactly the same:
[ul]
[li]A picture of a Wii is placed in the Sunday circular[/li][li]No other promotion is done[/li][li]All of the Wiis are sold 15 minutes after the stores opens[/li][li]No mention of it is made in the store again until the next Sunday sale[/li][/ul]
Obviously, my Target must not be doing a good job of sticking to this then. I just came back from there to buy some coffee and checked the shelves–they have five Wiis in stock as of about 2:00 p.m. CST. Once again, this is a Target in Chicago, not some place in the middle of nowhere.
I also see other people in this thread saying they haven’t seen these promotions, so I don’t think this is a universal fact. Also, remember that I am talking about the last two or three months.
My point is a rebuttal against the “fact” that these retailers hoard all these systems for these grand sales events, and average Joe has no chance of getting his hands on a Wii unless he is at the sales event on the Sunday, crack of dawn, when this is certainly not the case with how any of my friends or I came by Wiis–which is in the normal manner, finding it on the shelf.
Well what are you waiting for man! Buy one of those suckers and ship it to me, pronto!
Or buy them and put them on eBay. Your average Wii system is still selling for $350+.
But they’re not “promotions” and there’s nothing to “see” except a 2"x2" picture on the back page of a sunday flyer saying “Wii, $250, (minimum 10 units per store, no rainchecks)”. So it’s not really something you will “see” unless you look for it. They’ll only put the Wii in their flyer if Nintendo can guarantee them a shipment of X amount of units by a certain date. Then yes, they do have to sit on them in the back room if that scheduled shipment is set to coincide with the ad.
Not to say stores don’t get random shipments of units to sell when they get them. This happens all the time also. These are the ones your finding.
I got my Wii by watching the Sunday ads. It was Target, a national ad, for the week starting February 11th.
Seriously? If you PM me I’ll pick one up for you and ship it to you. Do you do PayPal?
edit: Alternately, I can give anyone the address and phone number of this Target if they want it.
Gotcha. What I don’t understand, though, is that the Targets around my house seem to get Wiis at random intervals. That is, my Target might get a shipment of Wiis today (as it apparently did), but another Target in the city won’t. For these promotions to work, wouldn’t they all have to coordinate shipping on a national level? Or is it just that my Target isn’t particularly popular and has more stock left to display on the shelves because it doesn’t go as fast? Or what?
Wow, that’s really nice of you, but I actually consider finding a Wii something of a ManQuest at this point and I was going to spend the weekend looking for one.
Plus, my PayPal account is dry and I was hoping to hold off on buying one until I got my tax return money. We’ll see if I have the will power for that.
Well, keep at it! They’re out there. I can’t believe they’re still going for $350 on eBay.
For the promotions yes they do have to coordinate a nationwide shipping and the stores get them all Thur, Fri, or Sat and they are actually shipped marked “AD HOLD”.
The ones you see popping up on random days at various Targets are the units they can just sell when they get them and are becoming more common as supplies increase and “promotional” ads become fewer and fewer.
We finally got ahold of a Wii a couple of weeks ago. We called around and discovered that the Toys R Us would be getting a grand total of 14 the next day (Sunday). We got there at 6:00am for a 11:00am opening and still weren’t first in line. We got ours but there was nearly a fight near the end of the line because a couple claimed two of then against the store’s policy of one per household.
I just got notified that I will be recieving a nifty little bonus and would love nothing more than to treat myself to Wii. Let the quest begin…
Well, I am getting one in about an hour. I stopped by the local Toys R Us yesterday and they had a sign saying they were getting some in today. So I showed up at 7:30, stood in line for about an hour, got to chat with an extrmely excited 10year old, got a slip guaranteeing me one if I got there by noon and now I am at home waiting with extreme anticipation.
I snagged a Wii at Toys R Us this morning too. I showed up at 9:40 and was 49th in line out of 51 available Wiis. The manager told us he had been letting people in to buy them since 7:00 because he didn’t want a mad rush in the video game section when the store opened at 10 (people were waiting in line for the new Pokemon too).
In the end, all of their available Wiis were sold before the store even opened. You can call that an artificial shortage if you want, but I think you’d be silly to do so. That is pure demand and Nintendo has to be laughing all the way to the bank. And that’s not even considering the 30 more people that were in line at the Best Buy down the street that didn’t open until 11.
I’ve owned a Wii for four hours and all I have to say is that Wii Sports is one of the greatest games ever created.
For something that’s basically just a demo to show you the potential of the controller, it’s damn addicting. I love how it incorporates your Miis.
Yeah, I found one at Target yesterday. 
I’ve bought Zelda, what should be next? Wario or Paper Mario. Decisions.
Paper Mario, no contest. Wario Ware is only fun when others are around, but even then, I’d rather play Wii Sports. But Paper Mario is an amazing game, with a ton of depth.
For yournext multiplayer fix, may I recommend Wii Play? It has 10 minigames, some of which are lame, but a few of them are awesome. Specifically, the “Tank” one is addictive as hell. Plus it comes with a Wii Remore for just $10 more than the standard price of a controller.
I grabbed Wii Play this morning too. I’ve been so enamored of Wii Sports I haven’t even opened it yet. But that extra controller and a game is nice. I also got Contra III off the Virtual Console. If you’re thinking of downloading it, the game is unplayable without a Classic Controller.
I played a bunch of Excite Truck on a demo unit a while back and I’m seriously considering making that my next purchase.
Good call there. ExciteTruck is one of my favorite Wii games. Easy to learn, tough to master
I called my local Best Buy at about 10:30 this morning, since I saw the Wii advertised in the circular. They had 12 in stock and were gone immediately. 
I’ve resigned myself to being patient until supply meets demand; I very much want a Wii, but it’s not worth waking up early on a Sunday for one.
FYI, just stopped by Target to pick up my copy of Pokemon for the DS, and they’re still sold out of Wiis…Ironically, one of the cashiers there commented how no one wasbuying the PS3s.