Sears' Web Site Has a Surprise for Anyone Who Searches for 'Medicine Balls'

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Capitalism can be a cruel and unforgiving environment. A zero-sum ecosystem where every creature is both predator and prey. Especially when it comes to retail. 

Consider the case of Sears. It was once the mightiest apex predator in the jungle. When I was a kid the "Wish Book," the Sears Christmas catalogue that was like the kid's bible, would arrive right around the time school started. And by the time December hit I'd already have its dog-eared pages memorized. (Including the 30 or so pages of NFL gear that under most of items would read "Not available in the following teams: New England …" Because the Patriots of my youth sucked.) As an adult, I bought pretty much every major appliance from the store that was a cornerstone of the local mall that is now a pile of rubble as we speak. 

In the way that retail giant began in the 19th century because a train station clerk named Richard Warren Sears saw a market for pocket watches along the Transcontinental Railroad and built a mail order empire that crushed so many mom and pop stores, so Sears has now been ground into dust by online retailers like Amazon. It's Circle of Business Life kind of thing. You adapt or you die.

And there are few things sadder than the death spasms that come as that death becomes inevitable. When the employees whose labor you've built your business upon realize the end is near, things can get ugly. 

Take for example, this post that's going around the internet today. Go to Sears.com and search "Medicine Ball" and you'll find the height of employee disgruntledness. The link is NSFW, at least until they discover the prank and take it down. But here it is.

And here's the SFWish version. Sorry gents, but this item is out of stock. 

At least I assume this is a prank by a disgruntled employee. Only because in all my experience of shopping there for washing machines, lawn mowers, snow blowers and consumer electronics, I never noticed Heavy Hitch Ball Stretcher Hook with Weights that fit on almost any size balls and more weight can be added with the hanging clips and includes two 8 oz. weights. But to be fair, I wasn't looking. I've got age and gravity doing that for me. Maybe this has been a common item all along in some S&M section of the store I'd never visited when I was looking for a toaster oven. 

But my guess is, this was an act of sabotage by someone with a grudge. Someone who's no doubt long gone. And if Sears is looking for the culprit, I'd suggest they look for an angry IT guy. With brass balls.