Three large warehouse chains - Price Club, Sam's and BJ's - have refused to sell the book, officials at the publisher, Simon & Schuster, said yesterday.

He said, for instance, that Price/ Costco Inc., which operates the Price Clubs warehouse chain, did not comply with the Mattel policy.

The stores include Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton, Barnesandnoble.com, Borders, Waldenbooks and the warehouse chain Costco Wholesale.

Today, Mr. Latman says, Microworkz is filling orders within a few weeks, though the company is about to switch from direct sales on the Web to retail warehouse chains.

It's 1958 and Bruce Stevens is a buyer for a national warehouse chain who passes through his hometown of Montario, Idaho whilst en route to Boise on business.

He reveals his nefarious intentions to Susan, who passes the information onto the warehouse chain which nevertheless decides to take them off his hands at a fair but unprofitable price for Bruce.

Now the food is coming from warehouse chains like BJ's Wholesale Club and Sam's Club, where customers buy in bulk at lower prices.

The rest of the bookselling market includes everything from mail order companies to warehouse chains to food and drug stores.

He said it had also effectively gotten veto power over what some makers could sell to the warehouse chains, which mainly sought to sell some of the popular toys at Christmas time.

Bookstores that buy from Publishers Group may now feel they are supporting competitors through Advanced Marketing, the major buyer for the warehouse chains.