Bargain-basement blecch

The nearest big-box bookstore issued a 50% off coupon today, so I went to shop and found...nothing. Just a big bag of nothing. I understand that having a lot of unsold inventory was not good for their business, but in reducing what they have to things that are new or bland, they've managed to work themselves down to the lowest common denominator. It's not that they never have anything good there at all, but they certainly have little of genuine interest for me anymore, and I no longer go there with the happy excitement that I used to have. Previously, I would sally forth in the knowledge that I'd wind up hard-pressed to come away with only one item; now, I know that if I do buy anything there, it'll probably be grudgingly and without enthusiasm.

Meh.

I even stooped so low as to see if I could apply my coupon to, say, a boxed set of all of Tove Jansson's Moomin books--a shameful thing, because there's an independent children's bookstore down the road from my apartment, and I have pledged to purchase children's books only from them--but no worries. In the BBB's frantic desire to make sure that only the mundane, the usual, and the unchallenging are on its shelves, they made sure to relegate Tove Jansson to Big-Box Bookstore.com. No, thank you.

Finally, I thought to check for Margaret Stove's new book. "IN-STORE!" proclaimed the store's computer...but because of poor organization, or poor inventory control, or lack of interest on the part of underpaid, overworked employees, or all three, it was not, in fact, on the shelf. By this time my dissatisfaction was complete, and I returned home to make some toast and read library books, instead.

Perhaps 2011 will see the resurgence of independent, small businesses, since the large ones are doing so poorly satisfying the needs of many customers. Then again, fewer and fewer people have spare money these days, and starting and running a small business is colossally expensive. Margaret Stove, at any rate, will still be available another day.