Out of stock

During the past couple of months, I’ve gone from “why do people need portable MP3 players?” to “I want an MP3 player” to “I need an MP3 player” to “I have to have an MP3 player.” It’s not so much for listening to music, although that would be a bonus. It’s more that I’d like to use it as a learning tool. For example, I could buy a foreign language study course on CD, rip it to MP3, and load it into the player. Then I could listen over and over while at work, and eventually, after hearing the entire tape set 10, 15, 20 times I’d pick it up subliminally. Seems like a good way to learn a foreign language – maybe brush up on the Spanish I’ve forgotten since high school… or I could learn German… or Chinese… or maybe even… Romanian.

So yesterday, I was at brunch at Sleep Out’s and I began going through the ads in the Sunday paper. The Circuit City ad caught my eye. They had a Creative Labs 6 GB MP3 player for $159. That’s an incredible value… for comparison, 2 GB iPod Nanos are selling for $199 and up. Over the course of the day, I talked myself into getting the MP3 player.

So this morning at work, I hit Circuit City’s site, prepared to place an order. “Out of stock for online delivery,” the site said about the MP3 player. But, it told me, I could order it online and pick it up at a local store. That’s no problem, I thought, there’s a store a couple of miles from where I work. It had a link where I could check the availability in each store. First I looked at the Germantown Parkway store that is close to my work… out of stock. Then I checked the Winchester store… out of stock. Then I checked the Southaven store… out of stock. Even the Tupelo store is out of stock.

If an item isn’t available for immediate delivery, and most of your stores are sold out of it, why feature it in a big color ad? That annoys me.

I guess for now, my laptop will have to function as my very large portable MP3 player.