Regarding walmart...
I picked up my iPad 3 on launch day at walmart and target. It went like this:
At about 4pm I went to the walmart electronics department and politely asked the clerk on duty when they would begin selling iPad 3's. He said probably midnight, but he wouldn't be on duty so he wasn't sure. He said the person on duty would come in at 8pm.
I left and came back at 10pm and spoke to the clerk on duty then. He said they would start selling at midnight, that I was "first in line", assuming I stayed. I did, and others started arriving shortly thereafter. We formed a nice orderly group that stayed out of other customers traffic. When the clerk got a break, he checked the stack of iPad boxes behind the counter and told us how many of each type there were. If I recall correctly there were 5 16gig wifi's and 5 64gig ATT. That's it. Just the two types. The clerk said we would be limited to purchasing one iPad per person.
Several times, as new people arrived, they asked to be sold the iPads early, but the clerk could not because the point of sale system wouldn't allow it.
At exactly midnight, some bits flipped in the cash register and the clerk started selling us our iPads.
I walked out with my 64gigATT and went over to the local target and best buy to check on their lines. Both stores were closed and there was no line either place.
I later went back to target at 6am because I get a 5% discount there with my target card. At 6am there were no lines, but the weather was nice, so I started a new line. Gradually the line filled with people, several of whom were also at the walmart at midnight. They were buying ipads for family and one wasn't enough
.
Target had the exact same stock as walmart: 5 16gig wifi and 5 64gig ATT. They sold out in minutes as well. Again, one per customer. I bought another 64gig ATT then went back to walmart and returned my unopened first ipad and got my money back. I assume it was restocked and sold soon thereafter (I had warned the clerk I might be doing a return because of the target discount).
Anyway, stock was very limited and didn't improve for several months at either walmart or target. The choice was 16gig wifi or 64gig ATT. Bestbuy eventually started getting in sprint and verizon, and more rarely a 32gig wifi.
I hope this rollout has more variety than the last.
I also hope that the carriers won't "lockout" the LTE ipads from other carriers like sprint and verizon have done with the ipad 4. Technically the ipads are unlocked, but you can't use an ipad bought for sprint on verizon because they track and block "serial numbers" (IMEI) from their competition. With only one LTE version this time around, I hope the carriers will play nice.
