When a bookstore is not a ...

This morning my stepson tried to purchase an item at the MCC Bookstore that he needs for a course that starts in one week. The item is out-of-stock, and he wanted to order it and pay for it this morning.

Presumably, that would mean he might be first in line (or near the front of the line) for that item when it comes in. A bookstore's dream customer. Pay up front and wait for the delivery. Right?

Wrong.

"We don't do it that way." Man! I hate those words. No retail store should ever expect (or allow) its employees to utter such words.

Talk about total shut-down. There was no way around that this morning. You'd have thought we were asking for the keys to Ft. Knox and the time when the next shipment was scheduled to arrive.

Or maybe the manager-in-charge this morning had read a great book that I'm reading right now. The title is The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Allison Hoover Bartlett. The book is about John Gilkey, a man who loved books and had no money to buy them, so he stole credit card numbers and used them to place prepaid telephone orders for books that his father or he would pick up.

It's a good read. You can buy it through Read Between the Lynes in Woodstock (watch out for prepaid telephone orders, Arlene).