A public apology to John Locke and Barnes and Noble

I need to begin this post with a confession.
I initially sat down to write this piece with a largely uninformed perspective. I had planned to write a long diatribe outlining the shortcomings in the operation of Barnes and Noble (the bookseller) when contrasted against the groundbreaking agreement between the publisher Simon and Schuster and the New York Times Bestseller John Locke. However,