Thanks for all these helpful comments and leads. Yesterday, another relative tried calling Nintendo directly to ask where to get the Wii. One online site they suggested was EBGames.com. They had a POSSIBLE Pre-order Wii for January. You can order, and you may or may not get it. However, they won't charge your charge card until they are sure they are sending it. It was also a whole bundle, with various accessories and 4 games thrown in, and came to almost $600, I believe.

My niece decided she wanted to try to get this, by using her recent birthday money and putting in some money she's saved in the last year from her allowance and other gifts. So my brother put in the order. Today the order page is showing that only one game is backordered, and everything else is showing "Usually ships in 24 hours." However, it doesn't show anything has actually shipped. At this point, it isn't clear if it will in fact ship right away, not ship until January (or later), or not ship at all. I'll certainly post soon again if it does ship in the next few days.

Meanwhile, last night we were at a mall in Alpharetta, Georgia, (about a half hour from my brother's home), and did stop into a Gamestop store. Like the other stores we've tried, they had a display Wii for people to try, but none in stock. They won't keep a waiting list, you just have to get lucky and find out about it at the right time when a few happen to come in.

At any rate, we didn't know about Fry's, so that's a good lead too, if it turns out that the online order doesn't work out. I just printed out the address for that store from the above link.

So the saga continues...