Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Coincidences Can Add Up Swiftly
Something I had not (yet) posted about was more or less the topic of this post, on how Barnes & Noble is under attack from the left for carrying Unfit For Command, and from the right for being out of stock. Our experience was in between; online they are misleading about its availability, and the timing of its actual availability feels suspicious even if it is not. I commented:
Deb tried to order Unfit For Command from B&N online, along with a few other books. It said the book was in stock and would ship in 3-5 days.
Since all the books had that status, it was a shock to find the order would not ship for several weeks after the order was processed! She was irate and canceled the whole thing, with some difficulty.
Turned out the culprit was that one book, advertised as immediately available, but not really available until almost the election.
Coincidence? Probably, but it’s easy to assume the worst.