On my way home today, I decided to stop in at the Chapters on Rideau St. and see if I could pick up a copy of Don Tapscott’s new book Wikinomics. A quick check on the Book Search terminal, and I discover there’s 19 copies in the store. “Great! I’m in luck.” Off I go to the Business / Business Technology section, and the book is no where to be found. A helpful Chapters employee asks if they can help and point me in the general direction and mention that it’s displayed quite openly – and therefore one would think it easy to find. I scan all of the Business sections I can think of, check the Technology section, and happen to glance at another Book Search terminal which someone has left on the Wikinomics search result as well. I have competition. As I walk past another Chapters employee, I overhear that another individual is also looking for the book, and that she is unable to help him find it. Another quick scan of the shelves, and I leave empty handed.

Would it be so difficult to tag each book with an RFID tag and then place a mesh network of RFID transmitters on each shelf so as to keep track of every book within the store passively. A Book Search would display exactly where each book was located within the store, and avoid the ridiculousness that was today’s bookstore experience. I’ve slowly stopped going into Chapters/Indigo as much as I used to as they either tend not to carry the book I’m looking for, or its simply too hard to find a title.

Update: As you may have noticed from the comments, both the Rideau Store Manager, and Heather Reisman have been in contact offering to right the situation.