Originally Posted by
mahasamatman
So you walk into a store looking for Coke. They say "nothing is available" because they've already sold their inventory. The store next door has plenty of Coke. You're saying the first store is shady?
Store 1's in Maastricht, Holland, Store 2 is 10 minutes across the border in Belgium, and we are in the days before Euro. I have dutch, not belgian currency. I know Store 1 can go grab inventory from Store 2 any time they want - they have an arrangement to do so when each happens to have inventory on hand. Store 1 just chooses not to grab a coke for me sometimes, 'cause obviously there's a cost to doing this. Me, I'm stuck without a coke, knowing that my vendor of preference could go grab one, but doesn't care enough about me as a customer to incur the cost of doing this.
Nothing untoward about this, I agree. It's business. And perfectly nice and harmless of the clerk to tell me there's no coke to be had in all the world right now, when I know from my cousin across the border that they are swimming in the stuff.
