East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee both primarily receive fuel supplies through spurs of the Colonial pipeline, which carries refined gasoline from the Texas Gulf Coast to the Northeast. [Hurricane] Ike damaged and knocked out power to many of those refineries, cutting the amount of gasoline fed into the pipeline.

The shortage should be remedied by next week, the paper reports:

The state is scheduled to receive 1.42 million barrels of gasoline over the next week, roughly matching its typical demand of 1.44 million barrels, Heidt said.

"Gas prices remain higher in Middle Tennessee" [The Tennessean] (Thanks to Jessica!)
(Photo: Pat Hawks)

Brian Lam over at Gizmodo says that most AT&T stores only had a few dozen of the new phone for sale today, and that you're better off going to an Apple store, as "they always have more." According to commenter camman68, the noon news in Wichita, KS has reported that all the AT&T stores in the area are completely sold out. Fear not, Witchititians, they seem to have some left on eBay. They'll just cost you over $800.

Wal-Mart Rations Rice, Warns of "Supply and Demand" Concerns [Fox Business News]
PREVIOUSLY: Costco: One Bag Of Rice Per Customer, Please

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it," the elder man said.

The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.

"Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the dwindling supply said.

Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

International demand is greater than the supply of available rice. That's led several key rice-growing countries to impose export restrictions — resulting in even tighter supplies. Prices are also being driven by some of the same forces boosting all commodities — a weak dollar and high fuel prices.

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World [NY Sun] (Thanks, Ryan!)
(Photo:greenwenvy08)

"The cases where we've found substantial shortage on all nozzles leads us to believe it's a good possibility it might prove to be deliberate. If it's deliberate, we're going to bring criminal charges," the commissioner promised.

Those charges may mean prosecution, plus fines that Irvin says could hit $1,000 for every gas customer allegedly cheated by these stations.

Staff members at the Georgia Department of Agriculture have contacted their counterparts in Florida, Irvin said, so the Sunshine State can keep a close eye on stations south of the border.

I live in Florida, and frequently drive up to this Cisco gas station just over the line in Georgia for cheaper gas. Usually this place is booming, they have probably close to 100 pumps, a convenience store, and a few restaurants. Yesterday, it was a ghost town. The state has shut them down for ripping off customers and found the regulatory seals on the pumps had been broken. I had suspected something was up, as my car was consistently taking more to fill up from empty when using their pumps. Greed=0 Consumers=1

(Thanks to Jay!)

"Investigators Freeze Hot Spot for Gas Across the Georgia Border" [First Coast News]

We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want," Fils-Aime said.

Asked if Nintendo had threatened such retailers with fewer Wii shipments, Fils-Aime said only that the company carried a lot of weight as maker of one of the most highly sought items this holiday season.

"We don't have to remind retailers of the strength we have right now. We are simply making an observation and that reinforces our point quite nicely with retailers," Fils-Aime said.

"Nintendo says Wii shortages hurt planning" [Reuters]

RELATED
"Reggie (Softly) Threatens Bundling Wii Retailers" [Kotaku]

One problem was that Nintendo had to plan production rates for the holiday season earlier this year, and based on how consoles have traditionally sold they assumed that slack summer sales would help them stockpile inventory for Christmas. Instead, the Wii kept selling strongly throughout the summer, ruining any chance of building up inventory. (I know! Isn't this sad for Nintendo!?)

According to Nintendo, they won't increase production above 1.8 million units, but they won't cut back either until demand subsides. A Nintendo executive offers the same tired old advice on how to score one if you're still looking: check out stores on Sunday mornings, or find out exactly when shipments arrive at your store, etc.

"Why You Can't Get Your Hands on a Wii" [Wired]
(Photo: Ian Muttoo)

"Demand still appears to exceed supply, and we believe that shortages could persist through the remainder of the year, including the key holiday period," said Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets, in a report by Next-Gen.biz.

Based on sales data from both Nintendo and GameStop, Sebastian also comments that the console developer is fulfilling its target of 1.5 million Wii units per month, but those numbers may not be good enough to satisfy the nation's hunger for Nintendo's next-gen system.

The moral of the story is, don't count on an amply supply of Nintendo Wiis this holiday season. If you see one now, might as well grab it and hide it in the garage until December. —MEGHANN MARCO

Wii Shortages may Continue to Holiday 2007 [PC World]
(Photo: George DeMet)

Nintendo's PR team send out an email announcing increased production:

"While shipments of Wii hardware are expected to grow this month due to increased production, demand for the system remains at unprecedented levels."

(Photo: toholio)

"Shipments for product advertised in our flyers are received by stores at different times throughout the week. Some stores MAY have already received shipments to fulfill this week's advertisement[s]," wrote Best Buy spokeswoman Heather Buksh. "With a commitment to our customers, stores that may have already received shipment of Wii have been instructed to retain this product until Friday to fulfill the advertisement in our flyer."

Conspiracy theorists have suggested that Nintendo and retailers are creating an artificial shortage.

"I wasn't aware that there were any stocks being held back in retail," says Nintendo Canada marketing director Pierre-Paul Trepanier. "It's surprising though, I would expect them to want them to make sure all their consumers are happy ... I can assure you that at our warehouse in Vancouver, we have zero units."

We're not buying the whole artificial shortage thing, but it does seem like a strange idea, and since Best Buy is a U.S. company, we're assuming the policy is company-wide and applies to the U.S.. Is Best Buy pissing off Peter to please Paul? Or is this the best strategy? We know we like it when things that are advertised in a flyer are in the stores. This may mean that Fridays are your best bet for a Wii. —MEGHANN MARCO (Thanks, Mike!) (Photo courtesy of Adam Melancon)

Best Buy stores told to 'retain' Nintendo game consoles [Globe and Mail]