pkt77242
Explorer
While I'm a firm believer that you should never assume malice when stupidity is an equally valid explanation, it seems a little widespread for incompetence.
But then, maybe I'm an optimist.
Street dates get broken pretty often (I have seen it many times in DVDs, Music and Video Games) sometimes through choice (wanting to give a friend a copy) many times from incompetence or poor training/plan. I am going to bet that the average worker at a large bookstore doesn't know the street date for the PHB (it might mean the world to us but not to them) as it isn't a release like a Harry Potter book that is crazy hyped. So I would view it as likely incompetence on their part.