By Any Means Necessary: Buying a Wii

The holiday-season shortage of Nintendo’s Wii console is fostering some creative  shopping strategies, shared on a number of websites devoted to tracking down the device, the Washington Post reports. One advises Wii hopefuls not to ask store employees when the next shipment will arrive—instead, ask when the last one came in: "This is a question they can actually answer and gets the conversation going."

Sites instruct shoppers on consumer espionage, revealing a code that will supposedly yield Wii availability from Target price scanners, or advise them to drive to stores in remote areas. Others suggests a more Zen approach: "Finding a Wii was like finding a great girlfriend--I just had to stop stressing about it, and then I suddenly lucked into one at Target one day," one posting read. (More Nintendo Wii stories.)