Wednesday, October 1, 2008

an open letter to my local mega-bookstore-cafe, whose inventory is inexplicably not posted online

Dear Nearly Anachronistic Establishment,

You have exactly one advantage over Amazon.com, and that is the possibility of near instant gratification, of being able to lay your hands on a book or CD or DVD mere hours or even minutes after first desiring it. Of the factors working against you, two are paramount: (1) your inventory is necessarily limited by the physical size of your store; and (2) your retail model requires interaction with another human being. These obstacles being easily mitigated (by posting your inventory online), yet still inexplicably uncorrected, I must adjudge you lazy and incompetent, and what was at first a utilitarian judgment involving the time value of money is now a moral repugnancy toward ever patronizing so lax a market participant ever again. Also, your coffee is subpar.

Sincerely,
mikaydee

P.S. Exactly what part of “Designing Social Inquiry” did your employee need me to spell for him?

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