Can’t buy it online. Can’t buy it in the store. Fail.

I was scouring the Interwebs today to see where in Canada I could buy a GorillaPod SLR at a price that wasn’t highway robbery. I stumbled upon the website of a well-known Canadian retailer, which had this exact model in their online store at a great price.

The website very specifically said, “This product is not available for online sale” and to “please visit (a store) near you.” That’s annoying at the best of times. What’s the point of having an online store if it doesn’t sell all of the products listed? (And a quick browse through the online store of this particular retailer indicates that there are lots of products for sale that aren’t actually being sold on the website.)

Undaunted, I drove down to the local outlet of the store, and they didn’t have the GorillaPod SLR. They had two other models (one lower end and one higher end) for sale but not the SLR model. I asked an associate about it, and he said that they don’t stock the SLR model at all.

So, to recap, they advertise a product online that they don’t sell online, tell you to visit the store, and it’s not sold in the store, either.

Epic fail.

I decided in the end that since I’m heading to the U.S. later this year for a few days that I’ll just buy my GorillaPod there.

Why do companies do this?

I'm trying to buy a new watch. I found a really sweet titanium-carbide gold watch from A Certain Watch Company.

So I start researching the best price for it. I find it at an online store for $215. But they don't ship that brand of watch to Canada.

I call my local jewelery store. They can't get it for me because A Certain Watch Company doesn't sell that model in Canada.

I find another online store, and, yup, they won't sell it to me because A Certain Watch Company doesn't authorize American watch models to be sold outside the US.

And, of course, A Certain Watch Company's Canadian website doesn't have the particular model I want.

I could, however, get someone in the US to buy it for me and mail it to me, but I can't actually BUY it from Canada.

So ... I want to give A Certain Watch Company money and they won't let me. Dumb.