My amiibo-hunting buddy and I made a deal with each other: we would each attempt to buy two Rosalinas, one meant for the other, to increase our chances of both getting one. Expecting a one-per-customer restriction, we each dragged our significant others out of bed to come with us, because we are total power-nerds with amazingly supportive partners. Leemak (my g/f) agreed to this so long as she could give the one she buys to a friend at work if we both manage to get two and we wind up with a spare.
We get to an out-of-the-way Target at about 7 AM - it doesn't open until 8. Nobody's in line yet. The roads are terrible, it's snowing, and it's the Super Bowl. I don't expect a whole lot of competition, and Leemak doesn't exactly share the same passion of standing around in line in the cold as I do, so we sit in the car until we start to see people (this of course makes me very anxious, because I have no idea if there's a limit or how many people will get to the door first... in other words, I'm being a baby and she's kind of justified
) I finally spot an elderly woman walk up to the door around 7:35 and decide we need to line up then - good thing, too, because less than 5 minutes later six more people showed up behind us. That was pretty much the entire line, thankfully.
The elderly woman is very nice, but informs us she needs three of everything for her two grandkids - one of them collects and needs one in box and one to play with, and the other just wants to play with one. One of them also has a broken leg, and she had called the night before to confirm she could do this. "It's OK," I thought, "I'm second in line. I'll be fine... kind of stinks for the people behind us, but this is exactly what I was afraid of." We chat with people in line. The old woman says she doesn't quite understand people who collect just to hang on a shelf for years on end (myself, and her one grandson of course), but also tells us she already got Lucario and Bowser from TRU on Friday. This grandma's working overtime!
Meanwhile, we speak to another woman who used to work in fraud protection about TRU order cancellations. She tells us she knows from having worked on the inside that when retailers need to choose between orders to be cancelled and orders to keep, they all prioritize in the following order: gift cards, credit cards, debit cards, Paypal. It's all about availability of funds - these are ordered by how easy the money is to guarantee for the retailer. We also talk about swipe cards and ATM/gas pump card reader theft.
The doors open. The nine of us walk in an orderly fashion straight back to electronics, without being told to - it's just understood we have a truce, as it should be. A clerk behind the desk has a wheel cart with all the amiibos lined up already at the register. In total, there are a ton of Bowsers (I didn't count), 12 Rosalinas, 5 Toon Links, and 3 Sheiks.
"Three of everything," I recall the old woman saying, and I realize the Sheiks aren't going past her - until the clerk says there's a limit of one per customer. The elderly woman immediately responds, pleading that she was told she could have three of each, and the entire process is halted. Three more clerks and two more managers come over trying to tell her she can't have more than one of each. She's speaking very fast, her voice is cracking with distress, and she keeps bringing up her injured grandson and two others... I realize she's now crying. It's a little difficult for me to decide how to feel about it, but glancing back, I could tell nobody behind me is happy. Apparently somebody made a rude comment that I didn't hear, because at this point the ex-fraud protection woman tells somebody rather forcefully that she was there first and they aren't for her.
At this point, I should point out that all of the Target employees are handling the situation very well. Nobody is getting forceful, and they all stay calm in the face of an emotionally charged situation. However, it's clear that they aren't budging - so, that's when the old woman pulls out her trump card: a second credit card. "You'll only do one per customer, right? Well, here's a second customer. This is my grandson's credit card, and I brought it just in case." Reluctantly, the Target employees renege and allow her to buy
two of everything (except Bowser). I buy Rosalina and and the last Sheik, Leemak buys Rosalina and Toon Link. While I had the option of also buying my own Toon Link, I know I have one on the way, so I decided to leave my shot at it for the people behind me.
We leave the register, and both of us just need to look in our bags and hold the darn things for a moment and take it all in. Being the only amiibo I didn't have pre-ordered yet, it's a huge relief finally having one in hand.
As we're standing there, the old woman approaches us - we'd thought she had left! Tears were in her eyes and her face was red.
"Did you get the purple one?" she asks. I realize she means Sheik, but before I answer, she continues. "I think one of my grandsons might have gone out this morning to look for these too, so if you give me your phone number, I'd be happy to give you one after I find out. I swear I'm not just selling them online."
In the back of my mind, I'd been wondering whether the whole thing had been an act, but now I'm confident she's been telling the truth. I briefly consider giving up the Rosalina I bought for myself so she could have the three she wanted, but then I realize both of her grandsons are old enough to have credit cards - like she just said, one of them is at another Target doing the same thing. The other, the one with the broken leg, is the one who gave her his credit card, because he physically couldn't go out himself. I'm also not sure if my buddy got out to get his, and there's still Leemak's friend who wouldn't get one. I politely told her I got my Sheik, but there were others in line who wanted one. She goes off to make the same offer to someone else, and we leave.
By the time I get home, I see my buddy's been texting me. "I hope you got some because my entire morning's been a cluster," he writes. Apparently, while the snowstorm hadn't officially started yet, it got a lot colder where he was. In the process of getting up this morning, his wife's car door had froze and would no longer close, they'd somehow lost her keys in the snow for a while, and then the handle of his garage door snapped off. Still, he managed to get out and get his on time, so both of us and Leemak's friend got our Rosalinas.
