Yesterday Wal-Mart's physical location started to take pre-orders for the deluxe version of the Wii U. I went in today and preordered mine. You have to do in the Layaway section its $47 down.
I nabbed the first preorder at the local Walmart I was going to camp.
The story that drew my attention to it.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/32115
It's my guess they are trying avoid problems with having people camp their stores. Since I think I remember there where problems with the Wii and especially the PS3 launches and raudiness.