My kingdom for new wheels

I needed a new set of wheels for my Rollerblades™, so I took a ride over to a local sporting goods store - I figured "this is California, everyone has Rollerblades." I was wrong - they didn't actually carry anything skating-related.

So I figured I had better check on the with the experts and went to Rollerblade's web site to see what dealers were near me. They pointed me to Play It Again Sports - I agree, it seemed odd that a place that deals mainly with used sports equipment would sell wheels, but I figured "the Internet says they have them, so they must."

Bzzzt, wrong again. Nothing, no skates, nothing.

Back to the Internet I went again; this time I found a Sportmart in San Jose. I learned my lesson at PIAS. This time I called - "do you have Rollerblade wheels?" .. "yes, we do" .. "Great, I'm looking for a set of 78 82A - do you have any?" .. "yes, on the shelf" .. "Great, thanks!"

And I drove over.. Off to the rollerblade section I went, and what did I find? Nothing! Well, ok, not nothing, I found a bunch of wheels which were not 78 82A. So I went to the front of and asked where they were. The salesman I talked to on the phone, I'll call him "Andrew", assured me (for a second time) that they had the wheels I wanted, so off we went, to the back of the store, to where I didn't find the wheels I was looking for the first time.

Andrew made a good show of going through all of the wheels they had on the shelf.. And came up empty-handed (by show of hands, how many people were surprised by that?) But he wasn't one to take no for an answer; he assured me there were "some in the back" so he went to get them.

Thankfully, he returned quickly. But he was empty-handed once again. "I guess you didn't have any?" .. "No, they're back there, in the warehouse, it's too messy, the warehouse guys didn't clean up."

"Great, thanks, so, uhm, you never actually saw them when you told me on the phone that you had them?" .. "no we had two packs an hour ago" .. "I see, there must have been a run on them, such a popular size, I completely understand" .. "Uhm, yeah" .. "And now you're telling me that the warehouse is all icky and you don't want to get dirty? Got it, no prob. Sure, I'll come back again, when hell freezes over!"