Mr. Andrews and I made a little road trip north today to check out the Best Buy PlayStation 3 line of insanity—you know, the line of dudes queueing up eleven days in advance? After hearing rumblings that the camping crowd had been dispersed, we had to see what was up.

After a delicious IKEA lunch, we cruised on over to the big blue house of electronics to be greeted by... no one. One yellow shirted Best Buy employee stood watching over the parking lot, leaning on a concrete pylon for support.

Us: Are you in line?
Yellow Shirt: What?
Us: In line for the PlayStation 3.
Yellow Shirt: No. I just want to make sure no one hits my car.
Us: Yeah. I don't want anyone to hit my car either. Will you watch it?
Yellow Shirt: ...
Us: So this isn't the line?
Yellow Shirt: There is no line. The cops came and told them to leave.
Us: Really? How many people were there?

At this point a sour faced Blue Shirt walked up, presumably of higher rank, moving into smoke break territory. She wasn't happy about the whole situation.

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.

Then the Scary Alpha Manager Man appeared.

Scary Alpha Manager Man: We can't talk about anything PlayStation.
Us: Oh, we're just curious. We're not lining up.
Scary Alpha Manager Man: Sorry, can't talk about anything PlayStation.
Us: So when can you line up?
Scary Alpha Manager Man: There's a sign.

We check the sign. Andrews tries to take a photo of the sign.

Scary Alpha Manager Man: Don't do that. Sir. Please don't take a picture of the store.
Us: Okay. It's not a big deal. We just want information. Don't worry.
Scary Alpha Manager Man: I'm not worried.
Us: This isn't even a midnight launch store is it?
Yellow Shirt: No.
Us: That's dumb. Who would line up at this store?
Scary Alpha Manager Man: We can't talk about it.
Us: When can you start lining up?
Yellow Shirt: You can start lining up the day before.
Us: Can we line up off property before that? Maybe line up our cars?
Scary Alpha Manager Man: What?
Us: Okay. Thanks for the information.
Scary Alpha Manager Man: You're welcome.

And that was pretty much that. Oh wait, we walked around the store for a bit, discussed the finer points of DLP televisions and HDMI 1.3 then went outside to take pictures of the store. Maybe we'll check back the day before and see what the line situation is like. One thing's for certain, we know who won't be at the front of the line next time.

Thanks to Scott for photos! Michael McWhertor