It's amazing (Well, I've been around long en ought not to be amazed at such thing.) how poorly a person reads what they are responding to. The response below has nothing to do with the original posting. The issue at hand is whether, or not, it is o.k. to go into a bookstore and look at a couple of books to evaluate them for purchase elsewhere. The person in question never bothered any of the staff, or in anyway added to the cost of the store at hand. While the original person to post the email can be commended for her loyalty to her local store, I don't fault the other person. If the person had taken staff time the issue is more debatable. I should point out that my wife and I sell stamps for collectors at shows. It is not uncommon for someone to take half an hour or more asking us for prices of items, which we have to look up individually. S/he will write down the prices and then go to another dealer for comparison pricing. It's upsetting, but it goes with the territory. Of course, if we see what's coming we refuse the time; which is what any store owner should do. But to suggest that a person has no right to enter a store to simply look at something that they have no intention of buying at that store is utter nonsense. What does this have to do with MD birds, anyway? Our bird club trip to Somerset Co. this past Saturday had a Lincoln's Sparrow. O.K. Norm? At 05:50 PM 11/22/99 -0500, you wrote: >stamps@sea-east.com wrote: > >> What he did is no different from comparison shopping for a refrigerator, >> furniture, etc. between department stores. If you can't look at something >> and compare and then go somewhere else, then you are at the mercy of the >> first place you go to. Right? > >Wrong! In the hypothetical case you posit, there is some chance that the >individual will return to the first merchant and make a purchase. When you >go >into a place with no intent to buy, and in fact an intent not to buy, but >only to >make use of a merchant's stock, salesperson's knowledge, and such in order >to do comparisons with the intent to go cheap elsewhere, you are contributing > >to the demise of the retail system as it is now known.....and you deserve the > >inevitability of no info at all. > >To get a glimpse of that future, read the article at >http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/22/152l-112299-idx.html > >Don't tell me it's not against the law and I won't tell you it's borderline >morality. > >David Strother >Bethesda, Maryland >dstrother@pop.dn.net >