Anathem at Borders

I picked up Neal Stephenson's new book Anathem today. This is geek nirvana and a good 900+ page distraction from politics. Hopefully I'll be posting a little less in the coming days.

I did get one rant out of it. I should have just pre-ordered it from Amazon . I think the price was 40% off though now it's 36% off. But I've been buying some things from Border's lately and they have it online for 40% off. There's a Border's in my town I like so I figured I'd pick it up today before meeting a friend for lunch.

I looked online and it was 40% off. I checked the in-store availability but it said "Out of stock, order at Borders.com" (it still does). I called the store and asked if they had it in stock and they did. So off I went.

I got there and they had a display by the entrance as I expected but it was only 20% off. I asked and they said yes that was the price, it could be different online; and of course there was sales tax (5%). I was annoyed but I was there, wanted it and didn't want to wait for shipping, so I bought it.

But I also talked to the manager and said first off the stock listing online was wrong. Second why was the price different? He said the online site is a different organization. I said no it isn't, it has the same name and trademark and it had (incorrect) information about your store's inventory. It's the online representation of your store. He said yes but of course when ordering online there are shipping charges. I said next time I'll order from amazon, get 40% off and get free shipping. He had no answer.

I understand there might be differences between an online store and a brick and morter store. I like being able to browse bookshelves and flip through pages and I understand that costs something. But the website let me enter a zip code in a box that said "Check store inventory". If the price is going to be different, they should tell me that. In fact I think it might be the law, but I'm too lazy to check.