Once upon a true story, a visitor to London spent hours looking for the latest must-have Santa toy for his son in Africa. All stores were sold out, except one hidden away store with only one remaining toy.

And that was the problem. The shop owner refused to sell the toy, because, as he explained, “then he would have none left.”

Recently, she who must be obeyed tried to buy a bag of certain goodies. When the store owner saw how much was in the bag, she objected. “You cannot do that. That’s too much.”

Being sold out could be a case of bad planning or good product selection. Either way, don’t blame your customer for doing her job. Her job is to buy your product.

Your job is to sell it to the customer standing in front of you, not to protect the customer who might, maybe, decide to visit your store.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.