I have never seen Wiis around the Boston area stores.... in fact the only reason i know what the boxes look like are from online pics

 How so? I would like to hear your interpretation of this anectodal data....

I go by my local target every week never seen 1, live in portland, oregon.

There has never been a shortage of Wiis here - sometimes the US version gets hard to find and the price is jacked up accordingly, but there always have been plenty (as in loads of them - several dozens, if not hundreds of per video game mall) Japanese Wiis.

Perhaps we're hoarding them all hence you can't find Wiis in the US?

On the flip side of the coin, 360s are readily available in the wild, although I have yet to see an Elite.

The PS3 is rarely seen in the wild here (apart from a few demo units) but this is because it's in low demand here (elsewhere?) and retailers are leery of carrying something that's not in demand.

I am frankly surprised that I was able to import my US Wii on my first attempt and that we sell US Wiis all the way here in Asia but people living in the US can't find US Wiis! 

$335 total:

 http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Nintendo-Wii-System-w-5-games_W0QQitemZ220125449004QQihZ012QQcategoryZ147176QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is about what the Wii was going for 3 months ago.  It's fluctuated, but for the most part people are willing to shell out 300-350 for a Wii and no trend shows that going down.

guy at my best buy today said they have gotten more in lately...was 10 in the case at 5pm- they had a big sign -hand drawn- at the front saying they were in...(they got them in at 1pm...30 of them...) while i was there(5 minutes or so), they sold 4 of the 10 left....

He said "starting to," which, if these anecdotal reports are true, is just a literal interpretation of those.

The good news is, even if these cases are sporadic, it means that those stores will be ordering fewer units, which means that more units can be shipped to areas where demand is still not yet met.  This will be a self-accelerating process as demand is satisfied in more and more areas.  Just in time for the holiday rush.  :) 

 Meh. I'll take it.

I hope they have enough for the Holiday season. That is the only thing that will hurt it. 

I saw 3 or 4 the other day at my local Wal-Mart Supercenter while trying to find RE4 Wii edition. Came back the next day and they were gone. I haven't saw them at any other store in my area since the launch. I'm in the Birmingham, Alabama area btw.

Yo compre mi DS en la pulga Rio :P no está tan mal jeje

es la pulga fresa...

 Y mi Wii me lo compré en McAllen el día en que salieron... acampé afuera de un circuit city desde las 4 am... llegue a Mcallen a las 2 y fui a varias tiendas donde ya habia demasiada gente formada hasta que vi el circuit city medio escondido jeje.