Best Buy Employees Buy Wii U For Teen That Visited Store Daily For Smash Bros Gaming Sessions

Are you looking for a feel-good story this holiday season? Employees at a Best Buy location Valley Stream, New York delivered one over the weekend when they surprised a teenager with a free Wii U console and game bundle ($300 retail) as a Christmas present. Several associates at the Best Buy store contributed towards the holiday gift for the teen, who had been coming into the store on a daily basis to play Smash Bros. at a Wii U kiosk.

Raheim Storr, a manager at Best Buy who has been with the store for nearly a decade, recorded the moment and uploaded it to YouTube. The video shows several store associates approach the teen with the Wii U console and receipt in hand as he sat at the kiosk playing Smash Bros. Caught off guard, the teen's initially subdued reaction is due to him thinking it was a joke. It wasn't, though the video cuts out just as the teen seemed to be realizing it.

After gifting the teen a Wii U bundle and receipt, an employee drove him home where they were met by parents who were "beyond welcoming."


"This kid came in every single day to play the display Wii U, the employees in this store saw an opportunity to make a child smile and did just that. They chipped in and purchased a Wii U for him with their own money. This is amazing, why shop at Amazon when you have genuine people in this world that you can continue to help keep a job," the video's description reads on YouTube.

The kind gesture is gaining widespread media attention, though it doesn't appear to have been a marketing stunt (not that it should matter in this case). Associates from the store's Appliances Department conceived and carried out the idea. The general manager for the store said he wasn't even aware of it until the video went viral.

Unfortunately, the Internet doesn't always behave appropriately (understatement of the year) and some of the comments to the story on YouTube and reddit have been, well, not very nice.

"Whilst people have some horrible opinions about Best Buy associates I can not begin to express how wrong they actually are. I posted this to show otherwise, can't tell you how often I give people discounts or children that save money to buy items and come up a few dollars short. We are here to complete people's lives not take away from it," Storr stated in the comments section on YouTube. "Been with the company for 10 years now and what our store did is why I continue to stay. The trolls I see on here make it hard sometimes as I deal with them in the store on a daily basis however it is what I signed up for and we all work through it. Thank you again everyone. Continue to shop at Best Buy and keep us all employed so that we can continue to do things like this for people day in and out."

Regardless of anyone's opinion about Best Buy, this particular store and the employees involved deserved some major kudos here.