Christmas Stalkings Galore

They gather and wait, often in the middle of the store, always near the electronic toy section. Sometimes they sit on chairs--ones they’ve brought along or ones the store has loaned. Sometimes they lean against shopping carts, circled, wagon-like, as they keep on alert for any sign of movement in the aisles.

The names of the stores and the shoppers change from town to town, but for the last several weeks, they have all done the same thing: lined up for hours and left with nothing. This is not shopping, some would argue, this is hunting.

The prey: the Sony PlayStation 2. “If anyone cuts in front of us,” one shopper at a Fry’s in Anaheim says with a laugh, “they aren’t getting out of this store alive.”

Gonzo shoppers in pursuit of the newest version of the Sony video game console that plays DVDs too are in it for the long haul. And they are relentless. The must-have item of the year is in such short supply that news of shipments is guarded like a state secret. Store employees are under strict orders not to discuss the game’s comings and goings. Determined shoppers figure they have to be at the store every day on the slim chance that a shipment might land.

The official response from management at Best Buy’s store No. 119 to all the fuss: “We really can’t comment on this.”

But the scene at that store, played out each day at noon--the time deliveries usually come in--is one a sales clerk describes as “just plain ridiculous.” It is also just plain routine.

At Fry’s Electronics in Anaheim, the same consumer phenomenon occurs each day at 8 a.m. sharp, when a similar checkbook-armed contingent enters the automatic doors with the restraint of eighth-grade girls at an ‘N Sync concert. “It’s crazy,” offers a Fry’s employee. “It’s not just our store; I hear they’re everywhere.”

There is usually one toy each year that grabs shoppers by the throat. Cabbage Patch Dolls, virtual pets, Tickle Me Elmo are among the favorites of Christmases past.

“I’ve been doing this for 21 years, getting my son the latest itch,” says Karen Kolbach, who has been showing up at Fry’s in her hometown of Anaheim every day for three weeks. She’s searching for a PlayStation 2 for her son, Mike, a student at UC Santa Barbara.

“Every day, the employees say, ‘Good morning. Here are the stalkers,’ ” she says. “We’re used to it by now.”

The mismatched supply and demand has occurred because Sony was not able to ship the 1 million units it promised following PlayStation 2’s debut in October. It triggered a frenzy of holiday gift buyers lining up anywhere and everywhere a truck might show up to deliver the $299 game machines.

But instead of dog-eat-dog, the groups of game seekers are remarkably chummy. “They all know each other now, they’re like family,” said one retail employee, who works mornings at Fry’s. “They get here first thing and line up, pulling up chairs and drinking their coffee. They won’t leave until we tell them that the truck was here and that there are no PlayStations,” she said. “Then they leave together. I don’t know where they go from here.”

Ilene Montembeau of Anaheim Hills is a member of that itinerant extended family. She waits in line sometimes six hours a day in hopes of getting one of the machines for her daughter, Becky, 12, and her son Michael, 15. Leaving no stone unturned, while standing in line she’ll call radio shows that offer the game as a contest prize.

“I’m giving up after this week, though,” she says, eating a breakfast sandwich in the makeshift waiting room the group has set up in the middle of the store, with chairs and a clipboard marking their place in line. “But I obviously really want one.”

Judy Gebhardt of Buena Park wants the game for her son, Timothy, 14, who she says placed 11th in the Nintendo World Championships when he was 8. “When you call the stores and ask about them, they’re really getting sick of it,” she said, comfortable in her spot five minutes after the store opened its doors at 8 a.m. Monday morning. “If you mention PlayStation 2, they won’t even let you through to the electronics department. It’s crazy.”

Crazy is something one gets used to these days within electronic superstores, says Anwar Azmul, who works in the video game war zone at Circuit City in Los Angeles. “All day, we have at least 100 people who come in and ask about the PlayStation 2,” says Azmul. “We had eight or nine [PlayStation 2s] that came in last Wednesday, but they sold out in 10 minutes,” he said. “Now, we aren’t expecting any until January . . . but that won’t stop them.”

Kolbach, who is entering her third week camping out at Fry’s, says, “My journey began at 3:45 a.m. on Oct. 26, when I lined up at Target in Fullerton for one.”

That store received a shipment of 36 machines, but Kolbach was too far back in line. “I was eight shy,” she said. “But I’m not gonna give up.”

There is a catch to all this: The hours spent in pursuit of this holiday gift are leaving these shoppers with little time for the actual holidays.

“None of us have our Christmas ornaments up,” says Sharon Sturgeon, a mother of five from Anaheim Hills. “I have my lights up, and that’s about it.”

The shoppers’ quest may seem downright certifiable to some, but the bulk of those in line blame motherly love for their madness.

“One year it was Star Wars, then Power Rangers,” says Kolbach, sporting a red, Christmas-decorated sweatshirt. “This is just what I do.”