Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Amazon Rules

Evidently Amazon is doing better than expected right now.

Losses drop and profits grow -- according to an article in the NY Times.

This makes sense.

Especially in light of a recent negative shopping experience at the Alamo Quarry Borders store.

It all began with my wanting a "how to" book on hair wrapping.

Background information:

Two Sundays ago, I was at the Poteet Strawberry Festival. In a good mood and feeling self-indulgent, I let a guy wrap my hair.

Essentially he used a combination of brightly colored embroidery floss, metallic thread, beads and a strand of my hair to make a pretty dangle.

The next day, I was at my first ever Spur's game with my cousins and a lady sitting next to us also had a hair wrap.

The technique was different from mine. I decided to get a book with lots of pictures so I could better experiment.

I'm crafty by nature and my hair is just getting to the length that more creative braids and styling are possible.

So off I go to Borders this past Monday.

It was a frustrating exercise in failure.

First stop was the information booth were I was told by a young man that there were only a few titles concerning hair wrapping. He was confident they could be found in the appearance section upstairs.

Well they were not there. Nor were they in crafts or fashion.

Fed up with this guy's goose chases, I had a young lady look the topic up on the computer. She didn't want to -- but I growled something about not being a very patient person.

The machine spat out Children's Crafts -- but only one title.

So up to the second floor again. The Children's section was a mess. No order. Looking for the title or author's name in that disarray was fruitless.

So I went book by book and came up empty.

(I did find a kit that will let me make my own chewing gum -- but that was not the goal)

*Argh*

Never mind that I did buy a way cool cooking light Italian recipe book, a tome on the history of Wine, Beer and Spirits, and a beginner child lesson book complete with baby's first harmonica -- all at over 70% off the cover.

Yes, I am almost gleeful at the prospect of sending the harmonica to my niece. I already imagine her father's delight at the "wonderful" music she will make.

BUT despite the clerk's original assurances and over an hour of diligent searching on my part, no color pictures of wrapped hair.

Yesterday I logged onto Amazon and had what I wanted ordered in less than five minutes of browsing.

To Hell with Borders.

posted by Bohica at 12:03 PM