Who can afford this?

So I’m doing my daily shelf check of the PX (where you just walk through everyday to see what they have. There’s rarely anything new, but you have to go because you are bored and you never know they might have that one thing you’ve always wanted) – anyway – a few days ago they got in a shipment of Playstation 3 game centers. These things cost $395 each. As I walk by I’m saying who is going to buy all these things. They are expensive and the games cost $50+ each. When do they have time to play? Where do they play them since they have small living qtrs and even smaller TVs? And then one day as I walk by I hear a guy say, “What the Hell. My wife will kill me, but so what.” He grabs a box and a ($60) game of the shelf. I’m sure that purchase consumed all the disposable income that guy had for the month - just for a computer game. He has a wife at least and maybe kids to boot. But who am I to judge – I have my own expensive toys…but that’s not my point.
I’ve discussed in the past how I think the car sales guys on the base seem to me as predatory…claiming these good deals to guys who are far away from competition and many days away from even touching the cars they are throwing down big bucks for. Well I’m trying to decide if the PS-3’s are the same thing? I’ve decided it’s not the same. First it’s an order of magnitude difference in cost (a month’s expendable cash versus a whole years worth for the cars). And second the guy actually does get to have his toy right then and there. Some of the guys live in 4 or 8 man pods and I am sure they can pass the time with these things and have lots of fun. I even contemplated bringing my Wii (see I told you I had expensive toys as well), but when I saw the qtrs I decided it was not worth it.
Having said all that…I’m amazed, because today they were sold out. This large display was completely empty. Who knows, maybe they were just spending their tax rebate checks.