If you’re like me you desperately want to buy a Nintendo Wii, yet you are unwilling to camp for three days with a bunch of oily, unwashed 35-year-old geeks who still live in their mom’s basement and spend their spare time debating whether Yoda could beat Gandolf in a fight.
So the best chance a person who actually has sex occasionally has of getting a Wii is pure luck — a random mid-week shipment that no one knew was coming. But how do you find out if your local Target has gotten any in? You could ask an employee, and they will tell you, “No.” But I don’t trust the red-shirts on this issue for a very important reason:
They don’t care. Your average Target redshirt will not even check the computer before telling you that they are out. The paranoid in me fervently believes that if they would just check, they would discover that the warehouse guys are complaining because they can’t navigate past the stacks and stacks of Wii’s littering the aisles in the back room.
So here is the quasi-secret way to find out if your Target has any Wii’s and where those Wii’s are without having to talk to a single pimple-faced, disaffected teen.
Step 1. Locate a price scanner with functioning number buttons on the right side. (This is tougher than it sounds.) Many people are not even aware that these buttons exist, and yet at my local Target more than half of the scanners had broken or even missing buttons.
Step 2. Type in the Target DPCI (Department Class Item) number for the Wii. 207-25-0001 and press “enter.”
Step 3. Read the display to check how many Wii’s are in the stockroom. The numbers after “Aisle” tell you the location of the Wii on the sales floor and the number of facings it should have — not the number that they have in stock, so don’t get too excited when something pops up there. And if they were on the floor, they are probably already gone anyway.
A friend of mine was able to get a Wii this way by figuring out that Target had gotten a shipment of Wii’s, but hadn’t moved them to the sales floor, yet. He hung around the electronics department for an hour, and grabbed one off the pallet truck before they even put them in the case. Score!
Badmouth reader and Target employee Sarah C added this important tip:
If you want to see if a store has counts, go up to a team member that has a handheld scanner. Ask them “can you check this dpci in ‘item search’ to see if you have any?” While the scanners will tell you if they are located in the back, item search shows team members how many of the item is on-hand. If you can try to stand next to them and look over their shoulder, once they see what the item is they might not tell you how many are OH (on-hand). Hope this helps with the holiday shopping coming up.
So remember to thank both Jesus and Sarah if you actually manage to score a Wii this Christmas.
I just found out every major city store has 60 in stock, give or take. Get in line this morning, tickets go out at 7 am. Good luck guys.
Hi AES93,
I got the Wii this morning. Thanks to the pricescanner trick that I learned here, we knew the Target on Broad in Richmond would have them. 12th in line and they had 69 in stock. Now I can finally enjoy the Holidays. Thanks for all the help and thank you Target!
Congrats, Momof3! I heard it was pretty hard-core shopping out there this morning. I’m glad you were successful!!
Enjoy your holidays-
(By the way, my sister lives in the West End and she opted to come out here to the Commonwealth Target in the hopes of scoring one, even though I warned her that she likely wouldn’t get lucky. She missed it. Don’t think I’ll tell her that she might have done better staying close to home!)
Just got a Wii this morning from a mid-sized Target in Minneapolis. Got there around 7:20 and there were about 20 people ahead of me. Everyone seemed super excited and optimistic. The store manager came to hand out the cards around 7:35. They did a second around hand-out 15 minutes later. I was pretty sure the store I went to had more than 60. Anyway, thank you for putting up this website for we Wii lovers! Happy Holidays everyone!
This tactic has LONG been known. At least at my store and surrounding areas. This method is only possible IF the store decides to scan the item into a location in the backroom. To counter this, a lot of stores wont scan them into the system and will just placing them off to the side or in the security office. So you can’t locate them via scanner or pda. Now, here’s the NEWEST method. If you frequent a particular Target, build a relationship with the Electronic’s team members. A little convo or a joke or two will usually do the trick. Then, just ask. We find out via message board like 2-3 weeks before a shipment comes in when they’ll be there. If we don’t know you, we’ll shoot you down like “we’re out of wii’s” knowing there’s 30 in the back. Or we’ll know when a shipment is coming in and will you we don’t know. Or just don’t be a dick when you come in and we’ll usually tell you when to come back. I’ve helped about 30-40 people get Wii’s in my day. All cool…those who give me problems, I tell em “we won’t receive any more for another 2-3 months” when they’ll be coming in that sunday, lol. Good luck!!!
So 2 days ago I went to the mall (Tiny podunk Flagstaff AZ mall) and passed Gamestop. On a whim fearing the pity and scorn comming my way I walked up to the counter and said (with my head hung in shame) “Do you have any Wii’s”? he whispered back “yes” kinda sketchy like, my eyes got huge and I whispered back “RING IT UP!” and it was the last one. As soon as he was took my credit card we both loosened up and he shared in my victory, the kid was grinning ear to ear that he could sell me this wii. The Thing is I had no idea when they got them in, it was indeed pure luck with no rhyme or reason..
Days later i’m still beside myself. I keep on looking at it under the tree and I can’t wait to use it next tuesday!
The moral of the story is, JUST ASK! you never know who may have one for you. After all is Christmas..
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Does anyone from Target know when the next shipment will be in?
This Google map says it tracks Target wii shipments/inventory
http://wii.findnearby.net/
I am a bit confused here. I know where anyone can get Nintendo Wii without waiting in any line. You can buy one or more. If you need more information, just contact me.
To Aaron….we at target are directed if we get more wii’s to put them out..i recieved 12 yesterday and sold them in the matter of minutes..basically you need to be at the right place at the right time now till x-mas…good luck
anthony, I wish to differ with you….my best friend works at Target and he said that on the shipment that came in for the December 16th sale of Wii’s they got a chance to buy it before that date, and now he tells me that they got a shipment in but will not put it out on shelves until this coming sunday December 23rd…maybe each Target works differently.
To any of you Target employees on here:
Do you think the Wii will be advertised in any upcoming Sunday Target ads within the next few weeks? I mean I would think it would have to be sometime in January. That’s the best chance to get one in my opinion. It’s too hard to keep checking daily or to happen to be at the store when they arrive. It seems best to see it advertised and know it will be there Sunday morning at opening. All you have to do is get there early and wait.
do you know when another shipment of Wii’s are coming in after Christmas?
eddie…that may be true but target is very very strict on certin things like this theres a whole lot of planing that goes into these releases so i’m not to sure about selling before relaese dates cause you can be terminated…i’m the team lead of electronics in laymans terms i’m the department manager and we get inter company mail which basically gives us instructions on what to do…
aaron…as far as your question target stores recieved shipment on monday as well as today and it seems we will probley be getting regular shipments for the next week or so…put it this way for the dec 16th release target aquired 250,000 wiis yes 250,000 so not just tooting our own horn cause i work there but it seems outside nintendo of america stores target has a sweet deal with nintendo…so any other questions just post them and i will be happy to answer
Anthony, So can we expect Target to distribute these Wii’s this weekend? Sunday again maybe?
I’d like to know when to go really early…
I missed out 2 weekends ago, when my local target gave out 163 Wiis… on Sunday morning.
I’d like to know the same thing as Louie from Anthony if you get a chance. I’ve spoken to some of the Target employees by me and they’ve given me very unhelpful information. One thought they wouldn’t get anything in until “later in January” and nobody has any information regarding another Sunday morning bulk sale.
Any information would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!
they are not in this weeks upcoming add but today i did recieve a huge load of ds lights i mean like 300 pcs as well as a whole bunch of wii remotes nunchucks and points…like i said the last shipment i recieved was dec 26 but if and when i do recieve any word when a deff shipment will come in i will post it…ok so again any questions just let me know be more then happy to help
Thanks Anthony! I actually just found one today…my Target got 30 consoles in! They also got a ton of other Wii hardware just like you said.
Anyone still looking – I would check your Targets tonight! Maybe you’ll get lucky like I did
Good luck!
Thank you so much! So, I just type in the number and show it to a member of the Target staff and they will get me one? I will check the Target store early tomorrow. Please respond soon. I really want a wii.