kotaku.com — Blue Shirt: There were twenty people. They had been here for four days.Us: Wow. Last time I heard, there were only three or four people in line.Yellow Shirt: Yeah, they had a rude awakening this morning. The employees told them to leave. Our manager. Our regional manager came over. They wouldn't leave. So they called the cops.
Nov 11, 2006 View in Crawl 4
bonkedNov 11, 2006
daRoach - Ok, let's put your theory to the test vs. the employee you respond too.If I buy a Wii or a PS3 today - what are the odds I'm going to be spending much, much more over the next few years buying games for said console? Pretty high.So, if I take the short-sighted view that I don't have to be nice to you die-hard, willing to camp in the cold to be one of the first to get your hands on the console fans because, hell, it's gonna sell out anyway - and I run you off after 4 days in line already, the chances are extremely high that my brand is going to suffer from you taking your business elsewhere in the future. So, I get the advantage of no one being on my "front porch" but I most likely lose a hardcore gamer as a customer while being in a business that thrives on lots of hardcore gamers buying my product.If on the other hand, I do "crazy" things like get the local media to cover the story, provide free electricity to the campers, use their hardcore interest as a PR tool, I not only will sell out (because it would have happened anyway) but I also generate more buzz for my retail outlet, and cultivate customer loyalty for hardcore fans of a product I sell.Which one of these is a win-win? It isn't begging for business, it is simply cultivating a relationship and generating brand loyalty in a marketplace so I don't have to compete solely on price.Can you see past the tip of your nose? Or, are you that short-sighted?
macbookpromatNov 11, 2006
Don't waste your short life!
uptownNov 11, 2006
NYC is where it's at if you wanna line up. There's no way they can tell you not to because you're on the public sidewalks of NY, and not loitering. It's public property.
raindog469Nov 11, 2006
Back in college, they would have general admission concerts in the hockey arena and no one was allowed to line up until 7AM the day of the show.Rather than prevent lines, what this caused was dozens of dweebs (myself included, a couple times) hanging out in the bushes at the edge of the parking lot avoiding the rentacops all night. Then, as soon as someone's watch hit 7:00, everyone would make a mad dash from all around the parking lot and fight over who was actually first in line. So the entire first couple rows at these concerts would be smelly guys in camo or all back, falling down from exhaustion.I don't know if I'd suggest that strategy in Bergen County what with the actual cops getting involved, but I'm guessing that's what's gonna happen.
methodiusNov 12, 2006
24 hours/day x 11 days = 264 hours$900 profit / 264 hours = $3.41/hour (rounded up)Speaking purely in terms of an hourly wage, that is extremely s**tty. This is, of course, assuming that they do in fact get that $900 dollars profit. They'd make much more money working at McDonalds or something.
cpc197cNov 12, 2006
I'm sorry, but if you have the time to waste a week waiting in line for a game system you should probably worry less about getting a gaming system and more about how meaningless and pitiful your existence is.
brookrtm07Nov 12, 2006
Definitely one way to look at it...and seeing prices on EBay at 1500 to 2000 per console....not a bad business move. Good luck.