Inconvenience Store
Posted by bubbadumptruck@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 3 comments
it's only open from 03:30 to 04:00. closed on weekends. there's no parking or drive thru.
there's no alcohol, no beer or wine. no cigarettes or tobacco products. only decaf coffee and vegan hotdogs on hot rollers with no tongs.
everything in the store is somehow out of reach and very hard to find.
they only take diners club cards.
Imajzineer@reddit
That doesn't sound inconvenient to me: there's a thirty minute window of opportunity, I can buy something to eat and drink and, gloves solve the heat issue, I can sit on someone's shoulders to reach things, I'm used to wandering around stores looking for where they've moved stuff to this week (which is even more confusing than knowing from the get go that I'm gonna have to search) ... and, above all, the location of the store is known.
What you want is something more like the planning application for the bypass in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ...
“First I’ve heard of it,” said Arthur, “why’s it got to be built?”
[...]
“But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”
“Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display …”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”
You want all of the above, but the store is only open for one minute at a time, but not every day, and the location isn't fixed either - but the location, day and opening minute are announced on a hotline, the number of which changes each time and is only announced by word of mouth ^(1) ... one minute in advance ... and their stock changes each time, so that the only way of finding out whether the trip will be worth it is to go and find out.
___
^(1) Basically, you need to have gone to more UK raves in the early '90s 😉
bubbadumptruck@reddit (OP)
the gold is always in the comments.
Imajzineer@reddit
Frequently, yes.