I remember staying up all night long with a group of friends of mine. We took turns driving by Target where one guy worked and he knew they were getting a shipment of PS2s in.
We formed battle plans based on who wanted the PS2 the most , down to me, who would buy one if there were enough, but didn’t overly care if I had to wait a few months to get one. Since I cared less, and am over 6ft I was dubbed crowd control. The guy that worked there drew the floorplan and showed us where the display was going. Our caffeine fueled plans had us developing different formations and routes to ensure as many PS2s for the group as possible and delay other people as long as possible. And contingency plans if a different customer took an alternate route around the crowd to get there first.
Once we saw the line starting to form at around 2am we all drove down and got in line and camped out till 6am when the store opened.
Our plans were dashed, but held in reserve just in case things went south when we learned the store manager was a levelheaded individual. He passed out numbers for each of us based on our position in line.
I was #12.
The line never got longer than the number of PS2s they had in stock, so our plans were doubly dashed as there was absolutly zero confrontation.
It was a fun fantasy for a while though. These were the same kids that had baseball bats and ski masks at the ready when Y2K happened. They patrolled the town at midnight looking for signs that everything crashed and were going to join in if they saw anyone looting. They wouldn’t start the looting, but were ready with a wishlist from various stores. Best Buy was high in their priorities.
That also never happened. But boy were they ready.
I had some friends that worked at a major retailer. When the first shipment of PS2s arrived, a few somehow ended up in a dumpster. They were taken in from the cold and found loving homes.
I remember staying up all night long with a group of friends of mine. We took turns driving by Target where one guy worked and he knew they were getting a shipment of PS2s in.
We formed battle plans based on who wanted the PS2 the most , down to me, who would buy one if there were enough, but didn’t overly care if I had to wait a few months to get one. Since I cared less, and am over 6ft I was dubbed crowd control. The guy that worked there drew the floorplan and showed us where the display was going. Our caffeine fueled plans had us developing different formations and routes to ensure as many PS2s for the group as possible and delay other people as long as possible. And contingency plans if a different customer took an alternate route around the crowd to get there first.
Once we saw the line starting to form at around 2am we all drove down and got in line and camped out till 6am when the store opened.
Our plans were dashed, but held in reserve just in case things went south when we learned the store manager was a levelheaded individual. He passed out numbers for each of us based on our position in line.
I was #12.
The line never got longer than the number of PS2s they had in stock, so our plans were doubly dashed as there was absolutly zero confrontation.
It was a fun fantasy for a while though. These were the same kids that had baseball bats and ski masks at the ready when Y2K happened. They patrolled the town at midnight looking for signs that everything crashed and were going to join in if they saw anyone looting. They wouldn’t start the looting, but were ready with a wishlist from various stores. Best Buy was high in their priorities.
That also never happened. But boy were they ready.
I had some friends that worked at a major retailer. When the first shipment of PS2s arrived, a few somehow ended up in a dumpster. They were taken in from the cold and found loving homes.