The End of the Line
As mentioned earlier, I lined up this morning at Best Buy to get an XBOX. Brian and I got there at 5:30 am and found about sixty people already waiting. I won’t go into too much detail, because I don’t want to repeat what I’ve written before, but there’s two key points I have to bring up:
1) Once again, I did not get an XBOX.
2) This time, these people made me genuinely scared.
The hostility was palpable as we arrived. This was not a happy line. By the time Best Buy opened up and handed out tickets, all hell broke lose. Those of us in the back were taunted by people in the front for not being lucky enough to get a ticket. People actually stole tickets from others in the front. The fault lines of D.C. society were exposed — black and white, rich and poor. It was ugly. Rather than let the ticketholders in, Best Buy employees stood behind closed doors, looking on nervously at the furious mob waiting outside.
Brian and I left, and I have to say, we were a little thankful that we didn’t get an XBOX 360. What would these people have done to us had we been fortunate enough to get a ticket?
I got home at about 7:00 am and went back to bed. Forty-five mintues later, my friend Mike called to let me know that there were XBOX 360’s for sale on Best Buy.com. He just got one. So I went online and placed my order.
Two hours later, Mike called back. His order was switched to “Backorder” and he said I should check mine. So I did and found the same situation — just minutes earlier, my XBOX 360 was scheduled to ship on Monday, now it was “backordered.” A call to Best Buy revealed that they wouldn’t fill the order for at least twenty-five days. But no matter, they still billed the credit card, putting a hold on the money. Now I’m locked in.
And really, really sick of the whole thing.
