It’s bad enough that I went into Best Buy the other day planning to ask an employee about reserving an Xbox 360, and no “video game department” people were in sight.

I called my local store today. I asked if I could reserve an Xbox 360. No. I asked, “Are you going to do anything special for the release date?”

“Like what?” the woman on the other end of the line asked me.

“Are you going to give people tickets for the line?”

“No.”

“Okay … what time does your store open?”

“Actually, we’re opening at midnight the night before for that.”

At that point I said thank you and hung up. Then I said — to no one in particular — that’s what I meant when I asked if you were doing anything special on release date. JIMINY CHRISTMAS!