THE PRETENCE OF PRE-ORDERING
Now available for pre-order. You may have seen the phrase online so often you don’t stop to think about what a nonsense it is. First, it begins with a deception – ‘now available’. No, it isn’t. Which is the whole point of the second part – ‘pre-order’. If the thing was available you wouldn’t, by definition, need to ‘pre-order’ it. You could order it and it would be despatched. When a company uses the phrase ‘now available for pre-order’ the retailer is encouraging advance orders using a linguistic sleight-of-hand which tries to give the false impression that the product is ready to ship.
Then we come to ‘pre-order’. What does this even mean? You either order
