Did you find everything you were looking for?

That question is usually asked when you are buying something. I didn't hear it today. And do you want to know why? Because I couldn't find anything. I went to buy cds today (I know, I'm olde-fashioned and an enemy of the planet). I was prepared to buy many. But I couldn't find any of the ones I was looking for. And I just realized that because I wasn't buying any, I couldn't complain about the ones I couldn't find.

I went to three stores. One was in the mall (HMV), and looked pretty much unchanged. After I went there, I went to FutureShop and then Best Buy. Both have changed noticeably. Their cd section, and even the dvd sections, have shrunk and moved. Is this because people are file-sharing? Or is it because nobody could find what they were looking for in the stores, and were therefore forced to shop online? It's a chicken-and-egg kind of thing, really.

And what can we do as wannabe-consumers? Just now, I thought to myself that I probably should have gone up to someone and told them how disappointed that I couldn't find anything. Yes. How crazy would I have looked if I had marched myself up to one of the till-girls and said "I came to your store prepared to spend a lot of money on cds. But I could find nothing. NOTHING. So I am taking my business elsewhere. Good day"?

They would have taken my photo on the security cameras, and posted it at all the doors with a label underneath: Disgruntled...approach with caution.

So I left, cd-less.