The other day I got lucky and purchased a Wii from a retail store. If you are looking for a Wii of your own but do not want to pay the $150+ markup by buying one from eBay than these tips may be of help to you.
1) Make a list of stores
Start with the stores closest to you and likely to carry the Wii. For me, my list consisted of:
Wal-Mart
Target
Toys 'R Us
Best Buy
Circuit City
GameStop
EB Games
(Yes, I know EB Games and GameStop are essentially the same thing but there are two of them in the local mall and another one right down the street from the mall!)
2) Get contact information for the stores
This can be as simple as making a list of phone numbers though I also recomend you visit the store and meet the employees who work in the electronics department which leads to...
3) Visit the store
You need to go to the store and find where the Wiis will be when they have them. This also allows you to see how good their accessory selection is. In some places Wii remotes are harder to find than Wiis!
4) Talk to the employees
When you talk to the employees you want to find out a few things:
a) When are new Wii shipments likely to arrive?
b) How quickly do they sell out?
c) How many arrive in a shipment?
By knowing when the Wiis are likely to arrive you can avoid calling the store on a daily basis to see if they have any Wiis. For example, the guy who works at my local Circuit City store told me all Wiis come in Friday morning.
5) Call in the morning about an hour after the store opens
Give the employees a little bit of time to start their day, they do not want to be hounded by "Got any Wiis?" phone calls all day long. Once you get a "yes, we have them" answer head to the store and buy one. Don't ask them to hold one for you because they can not do that.
That is pretty much it. It took me only one week to get my Wii after using this method.
