[IrishCatholic]

My daughter has all the series. I got off of work at 4 AM and stopped by WalMart on the way home. I figured they would be sold out.
Instead they pointed me to the back of the store at the electronics. There was a full pallet of books with a sign on top “limit 10 please”. No one was around. I picked up the book and walked to the front. The sales lady told me how people had stood in line for hours to get one. I just smiled as timing is everything.
It was sitting by the beside when my daughter woke up.

[Explorer89]

I wake up about 5 times every night normally, so, when I had the usual wakeful moment at 1:00am, I drove to Walmart, where they had a pallet of books just sitting there. A family actually showed up from a semi-distant Borders(?) where they had been stuck in line, and the older kid, sees the pallet and exclaims “I can’t believe it!”

I got home and starting reading at 2:30, at 6:00am, my nearly 12-year-old son woke up and took it from me. He was done by 12:15pm, including a 2-hour family outing to see a Capt John Smith recreation. (that was less than 6 hours!) Me? I didn’t finish until 11:00 pm. I kept re-reading paragraphs to make sure I really got what was happening.

[wolfinator]

Local supermarket had them at midnight. No line to speak of. Walk in, pay $17.99, walk out.

[SuziQ]

It was sitting by the beside when my daughter woke up.

What a sweet thing to do! Our Wally World isn't 24 hrs., so we couldn't do the 'early bird' thing there. I'd ordered an 'adult' version and a "Special Edition' kids version from Britain, and those would not have been in before yesterday, and I didn't want to have to fool with the 3 hour party at Borders, after pre-ordering, so I had just planned to go out early on Saturday to the Tarzhay, which opens at 7am.

I was out doing errands on Thursday, and heard on the radio that the Price Chopper grocery stores, which are open 24 hrs. would be selling the books starting at midnight. I needed some groceries anyway, so our youngest son and I went there just before midnight, he hung around near the front where they said to stand if you were waiting for a book, and I did my grocery shopping. We were out in twenty minutes with the book AND food!

Our daughter went to the Borders party with friends, even though she hadn't pre-ordered a book. She had fun, though. Turns out, I was the one who ended up reading the book first! I read through Chap. 12 before I gave up at 4am, then I finished it late Saturday afternoon.

[GraniteStateConservative]

It was sitting by the beside when my daughter woke up.

Random things like that stick with kids. You'll be dead for 30 years and she'll have that memory pop into her head and smile.

[Mygirlsmom]

I waited until Saturday morning, walked into Sam's club and picked one up off the pile. Also picked up a sealed "special edition" that had JKR's auto sig on it.

Then the fun began. I walked in to the house with the sealed copy, handed it to my HP maniac daughter, and said, "Here, I managed to find one, but you can't open it - it's a collector's edition". I only let her go nuts for a half a minute or so before I pulled out the other copy :o).