Most market research shows that boomers still want CDs.  I'm a boomer and I decided I wanted a CD.  In this case, I wanted a specific CD now.  Not a few days from now, or whenever my neighbor decided to bring it back to my house after he saw the package on the porch and decided he needed to listen to it a few times before I got home from work, then forgot to bring it back for three weeks or so.  

The names of the people and places involved have been changed to protect the oblivious.  I did name the CD in question, because other fans will know why I just really, really, had to have it immediately!  And because it came out almost three years ago, which is the last time I tried to buy a CD at a brick and mortar retailer.  

The scene: A big box retailer on a street full of competing big box retailers. This one specializes in electronics.  I thought I could do two errands with one trip and buy a USB port for my computer and a CD at the same time.  

Act 1: I enter the store and a clean cut looking guy in a t-shirt and khakis intercepts me at the door.

Overly Perky Sales Associate (OPSA): Welcome to Huge Store.  How are you?
Me (Me) : OK.  I'm looking for the new Pat Metheny Group CD.
OPSA: So how is your day going?
Me: OK, I just need to get the CD and look at some computer stuff.
OPSA (now following me): So are you doin' good today?
Me: Uh, I guess so.  I'm going to go look at the CDs.
OPSA: Oh, OK.  Have A Nice Day. (Sees customer entering store and moves rapidly to the entrance to overly greet them)

Act 2: I wander around the CD/DVD/Gaming section for a while and eventually find a little section in the far corner marked “jazz.” with new releases by Kenny G and Enya prominently displayed over the rack. I find the little divider that says “Pat Metheny” and see three items in front of it.  One of them is actually a Pat Metheny Group CD – the one with “Last Train Home” on it that came out in the late 80s.  It's marked down but I already have it.  I go in search of someone who works there.  After about 10 minutes of walking the serpentine aisles, I do find someone who works there.

Me: Hi, could you help me find a CD.
Someone Who Works There (SWWT): Just a minute, I'm on the phone.  (Pulls out a phone and starts talking on it.  I fidget and stare at a rack of discounted greatest hits CDs by people like Aerosmith and Journey.)

Act 3: 10 minutes later.  Same place.

SWWT: (Puts phone in pocket) So, what were you looking for?
Me: I was looking for the Pat Metheny Group CD that came out yesterday.  (Adults are not necessarily release date shoppers.  I was at work all day on release date. I know, I'm a Bad Fan.)
SWWT: What kind of music is it?
Me: Jazz.  It's called The Way Up.
SWWT: Did you look in the jazz section?
Me: It wasn't there, you just had one CD from him, and it was a really old one.
SWWT: It might be in the back.  Sometimes we don't get stuff out that isn't, like, hits.
Me: Could you check?
SWWT: Are you sure it came out yesterday?
Me: It came out yesterday.  It's in the ad on your website too.
SWWT: So you can order it online then.
Me: I want to get it now.  Could you check?
SWWT: OK, but it will be a minute.

Interlude: I fidget around for a while, look at DVDs I don't have any reason to buy, because I don't have time to watch them, watch a kid playing a Madden demo and get nostalgic for football season, even though it just ended about a week ago, read the store's sale flyer. And then...

Act 4: SWWT returns triumphantly from the stock room with two CDs in his hand.  One is One Quiet Night (two years old) and the other is (gasp!)  The Way Up.

SWWT: Is it one of these?
Me: (pointing to The Way Up).  That's the one.  (Takes CD, looks at price which is about $6 over the online price, makes choking noise and resolves to forgo Starbucks double espressos for the rest of the week.)
SWWT: Yeah, there were about five of them in the back.
Me: Maybe you should put them out.  He has a lot of fans here.
SWWT: Oh.  Uh, yeah.  I should do that after my break.  (Exits toward stock room door.  Does not put the other CD in the bin where someone could actually buy it on the way out.)

- Shannon West