As is probably common knowledge, it is possible to obtain a 10cm 9cm ratcheting offset wrench from Sears that works wonderfully on the Campy Record seatpost bolts. At only $6.99, you can order the part directly from Sears online. The process only takes a few minutes and you can input your zip and the wrench will be waiting for you at the nearest Sears as soon as you are contacted by phone or email. I was contacted the same day I ordered and decided to pick it up the following day. When I arrived they had this neat system where you slide the same credit card that you ordered online with and within 5 minutes they automatically know what part you are waiting for, and they bring it out for you. Theoretically it all works perfectly .. a miracle of the computer age. However on this day the guy came out and informed me that they had made a mistake and the part was not in the store for pickup or out on the floor. A manager comes out and apologizes to me but informs me that she has to cancel the first order, refund my money and then re-order for a new one on will call. All this takes another twenty minutes or so but she was so nice about it... very customer oriented even if the system occasionally gets ponderous and complicated.
After all of this, I decided to take a walk out on the floor and check to see if I could find the wrench. It turns out it was on the rack but miss hung one peg higher. I then had to get someone to take the wrench out for me and cancel the second order and then ring it up for me on a third.
Many years ago I worked at a hardware store. Because this was before the age of the common computer, we had to periodically walk the floor and check for dwindling stock. If I remember this 'manual' system used to work pretty well. Every once in a while a customer would inform us that a certain item was running low and we would jot down that we had to re-order on a handwritten notepad. When the reps showed up each week we would give them the order and a few days later we would receive it, check it off our order pad and stock the shelves. In the 1978 movie, Saturday Night Fever, the Travolta character had to run over from the hardware store he worked at to another hardware store to get a can of paint because a customer was waiting for that particular paint base, but in general the old system worked pretty well without cumbersome computer demands. I think the classic bike carries more with it than just lugs and skilled hand labour. It also carries with it the memories of hand written book-keeping, manual cash registers, simple brain power to keep track of all the retail complexities. Somehow Sears was still able to deliver a special wrench to its customers too.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl. USA