I persevered throughout the initial shortages, and managed to get the Xbox Series X from a horrendous UK retailer ("GAME").
But, to make themselves more money, they had ultra-shit quality shirts with a shitty slogan ("Player1") printed on them, bundled them with all the PS5 & XSX consoles (plus extra controllers, cameras, awful games etc.) - all at full price, no discount - and then charged an extra £100+ for your order. There were a TINY amount of "consoles only" for sale, to draw you in - which sold out within literally 60 seconds - and tons of all the others (which sold out within 10 minutes).
They still do the same thing. It shouldn't be legal. I was tempted to just give my money to a scalper, rather than keep such a shit business (ran by a shit human being, i.e. Mike Ashley) going.
The sad thing is - the console is brilliant. Absolutely love it. I just wish more people could get hold of it, so we could all have next-gen experiences together...