Wiii!

How do you choose between two equally enticing options with different payoff schedules? That was the dilema I faced this morning as I woke to the irritating cacophony of my cellphone alarm clock. Before me lay two choices: the first, more immediately enticing option was to go back to sleep; the second, potentially more rewarding option was to get up and run quickly to the local Best Buy for a chance to purchase a Nintendo Wii system. Though I was still groggy, the thought of missing yet another Wii shipment was disconcerting enough to render the first option effectively unavailable.

I got up, got dressed, and walked briskly against the cold, unwelcoming wind of a January morning toward the Best Buy on Dundas street, where I presently find myself at the end of a long, snaking line creeping ever so slowly to a bank of cashiers, where a metal cage housed a small number of Wiis. By my rough estimate, there are roughly 15 people before me, and a similar number of Wiis in the cage. I realize there is little margin of error here, and I wait anxiously for the line to move.

The whole ordeal reminds me of the times when five year old me used to line up with my mom at the local outdoor market in Shanghai for eggs and other essentail food items that were always difficult to acquire. I suppose the fact that nearly two decades later I find myself waiting with equal anxiety for an entirely frivolous toy is either a testament to the progress that society has made, or an indication that the decadence of first world living is leading us to a dangerous precipice. But my mind is too preoccupied with the matter at hand to wax philosphical about such trivial matters as the consequences of unchecked consumerism. Instead, I am alarmed by the steady decrease of supplies in the cage.

At last, I arrive near the front of the line. Behind me is a river of agitated fathers, mothers, aunts, and uncles who are just as keen on getting a Wii as me. I see a Best Buy employee walk timidly towards us, with an expression that suggests bad news. "There are only three Wiis left," he says weakly, before quickly ducking behind a counter. I quickly do a count of the people in front of me and realize to my horror that there are exactly three people standing in front of me. As a let out a sigh of defeat and turn to leave with the rest of the disappointed crowd, one of the women in front of me excitedly tells me she's in line for a remote having secured a Wii earlier. In mere seconds, my system is flooded by a strong coctail of serotonin and adrenaline. Finally, at 9:35AM, after weeks of fruitless searching I get my hand on a Wii.

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