I stopped caring right around the time that I accidentally ate an earwax-flavoured Bott’s Bean. But I may be alone. According to the Globe, all 300 Mac’s Convenience Stores in the “three prairie provinces and British Columbia have been denied permission to sell the newest, and last, instalment of the popular Harry Potter series when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows goes on sale July 21.” Why? Security. Not because they’re afraid that the little muggles and their mommies will beat each other up for a copy, but because Mac’s staffers can’t be trusted to not sell/leak the book early. Apparently the publishers review every store for their trustworthiness and punish those deemed stupid or greedy. “In 2005 two Loblaw-affiliated outlets – a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, B.C., and an Extra Foods store in Abbotsford, B.C. – accidentally sold a total of about 20 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and were temporarily denied copies as a result.”
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2007.