This is all hypothetical, of course.
You’re a wealthy woman, with a couple of kids. One of them is nearing 4, and needs a nap mat. You hop on your spiffy new iBook and browse the internet and happen upon a store selling such cute nap mats. You decide to buy 6 of them.
This internet store scrambles around, because your order coincides with the PEAK of nap mat season. Internet store is happy that receive a nice big order for a woman that apparently has six children. They send you happy notes through email and beat on their manufacturers to MAKE.NAPMATS.FASTER. Must provide all six to you immediately. You receive your six nap mats about one week later.
While sipping your nonfat latte, you spread all six nap mats out in the family room, yell at the labradoodle to get the heck off them, and call your 4 year old. She trots in. You tell her you’ve ordered six nap mats, and she is to pick out her favorite. She goes through all of them, and decides on her favorite. She drags it off into her bedroom, probably complaining that it doesn’t have Princesses on it.
You package the other 5 nap mats up, write a short and sweet note to the internet store that sold you the six nap mats, telling them that you wanted your 4 year old to be able to PICK her favorite out up close and personal. You pay another $30 to ship the 5 back, and wait for your sizeable refund.
The owners of the internet store politely refund your money, even though they want to hunt you down and beat you. They are so thrilled that your 4 year old was able to pick her favorite nap mat, especially after they shipped you six nap mats at their cost, badgered 3 different manufacturers to MAKE.NAPMATS.FASTER. But you don’t care. Hey, at least you sent them back at your expense.
Those same owners wonder if they are just mean mothers because they don’t order hundreds of dollars of merchandise online to let their kids pick from in the safety and comfort of their home. They decide that they aren’t mean. Just practical.
Again, all theoretical, of course.
