The Mysterious Lives of Bookshelves

I accompanied (not-so-willingly) Mom to SNR Pricesmart at Congressional because she wanted to buy some Lifetime tables going for (more or less) a thousand bucks off. (She also ended up buying an obscene amount --26 six-pack boxes-- Safeguard bath soaps.) As an indirect form of compensation I eyed a large chocolate-colored bookshelf and asked if we could get it for my room. She said Okay.

I wouldn't call the first store clerk Ma approached, "lazy." "Incompetent," more like it. First the guy first tells Mom that it's out of stock and only the display unit it left, then he removes the price tag so no-one else asks about it. While lining up at the checkout lane Mom confirmed to me that she asked the guy to check w/ other SNR outlets for the bookshelf's availability, but the idiot couldn't be bothered, or even delegate the task if he was too busy bossing around the forklift operator or something. I tried again, but this time went to the more helpful store clerks who took mom's orders for the Lifetime tables.

Lo and behold, not only were they in stock, they were stocked/stacked behind a different model bookshelf (silver-colored and twice the price). We had it wheeled over to checkout lane 13 for purchase.

Once home I was anxious enough to finish dinner early and get to work in assembling this heavy piece of room furniture. It took about 5 hours--procrastinating time included--, and STILL I was missing one long black screw. (It'll probably turn up. ) When finished the thing was taller than me and a pain in the back to move around (heavy mother...).

I was supposed to take some step-by-step pictures of the assembly-in-progress, but only remembered to do so after I'd fastened every ('cept that missing one) screw, hammered the flimsy plywood back panels in place, and moved all the books from the gray plastic bookcase (see 2nd pic) to their new home/shelf.

As you can see there's still plenty of shelf space, tho' that won't last.