and the wii is still practically impossible to find. :(

go to your nearest small town. find the walmart/target/best buy/etc. there will be SEVERAL there. nintendo has figured out that by sending only a handful to EVERY STORE once ever couple of mons or so, they'll increase demand for it. it's a business thing. but smart consumers know that if you REALLY want something, sometimes you've got to drive out to the boonies to get it.

Do you really think that Nintendo has created this generally profitable system and they want LESS people to own it? The myth-mongering about the Wii really needs to end. Tell me, does your local Gamestop push five Playstation 3's and five XBOX 360's out the door every week - you know, five brand new systems? No? Then why would "only" being able to push five Wii's every week somehow be less than it should be? Nintendo is manufacturing the damned things as fast as they can and sending them to pretty much every retailer everywhere in the world, and doing it on a weekly basis rather than saving up for large truckloads.  Calm the conspiracy.

Watch for department stores to put up their flyers on Saturday.  If Best Buy has an ad in the paper on Saturday that mentions that the Wii will be on sale the next week, then get to the store two hours before it opens on Sunday.

I appreciate the replies. I don't think they're artificially inflating demand. As I understand it they lose money on selling the console and make it back on selling games (which can't happen if people can't buy the console. I have read, however, that the weak dollar may be partly to blame for the low supply (as in they're satisfying Europe's demand first and getting paid in real money like Euros and not monopoly money like US$).

I have looked at many many stores out in the boonies but they're all out all the time. I'm hoping demand will subside as the Brawl hubbub declines.

Many in the industry speculate that Nintendo is not losing money on each console, and in fact might be making money on them. So the traditional "razor/razor blade" model often used for video games may not be as applicable.