This is really sad. I knew that The Shortage would last through 2007, but that doesn't mean I understand it or forgive it. Granted, I have seen a handful of Wii in Best Buy on occasion since mid-Summer, but that was always on a Tuesday afternoon, and I feel safe assuming that they were gone by the time the 9-to-5ers hit the rush hour gridlock.
I don't care if it raises the ire of the apologists, but at this point, you can't tell me that it's all on customer demand. They're going to milk this self-perpetuating hype machine as long as they can, by sacrificing a few sales up front to get that many more down the road. They can do this because everyone wants one, whereas Sony's already done, what, two price cuts and a couple hardware revisions??
Let's just see where the supply is at by the time Brawl ships. I would not be surprised if 2008 largely looks very similar to the last couple months of '06 and all of '07.