It's Things Like This

On the day I bought my spinner rack I also ended up buying a weight bench and a bunch of iron weight plates from Walmart.
The next day found me assembling the roughly five million pieces into a completed bench in a surprisingly short amount of time and with a minimal number of injuries.
Of course, when I'd gotten the bench and plates home on the day I bought them, I discovered that I had a problem.
While I already had a barbell, it was not "Olympic-sized" like the plates (and bench) required.
Okay, fair enough.  My fault.  I wasn't planning to actually use it until Monday anyway.  I'd simply go out into the world on Sunday - Saturday was the day of Hurricane Irene, so I wasn't going anywhere - and pick up the appropriate bar.
Unfortunately, all that Target had was the same inadequate bar that I already own.  I didn't feel like doing a lot of running around, and since I'd most likely be going back to Borders to pick up my spinner rack on Thursday, I figured I could swing by Walmart and pick one up at the same time, and in the meantime I would just stick with my existing workout.
So on Thursday, before meeting Scott, I stopped at Walmart to get a bar.  They didn't appear to sell just the bar, so, figuring I'd need more weights anyway, I bought a set of weights that included the bar.
The bar itself consists of three pieces:  two end segments and a middle piece that's attached to the ends via four metal pins.
The only problem was that there weren't any pins.
Okay, this was starting to get annoying.
I figured I'd contact the manufacturer and request the missing pieces, but in the meantime, I really wanted to start actually using my bench, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy another bar.
On Friday, I stopped at a sports equipment store and found that they also did not sell just a bar.  Not really needing any more weights, I decided I'd try another place sometime over the weekend.
So today I drove out to Sports Authority and found that, like Walmart and the other place, they did not sell just a bar.  My only option there was to shell out another $200 and get the bar with a 300 pound set of weights.  No, thank you.
So I went to Dulles Town Center and tried Dick's Sporting Goods.
Once again, my only option was shelling our $200 for a 300 pound set of weights.
Apparently it's against the law to sell just a bar, unless it's a curl bar (I did buy one of those) or a standard-sized bar like the one I already have.
When I was leaving Dick's, a girl working there asked me, "Did you find everything you were looking for, sir?"  I said, "Nope."
When she inquired as to what it was I was looking for, she looked at me as though I'd just grown another head out of my left shoulder when I answered, because why on earth would anyone want or need to buy just a bar?
She suggested, dubiously, that perhaps we could find something online, to which I responded, "I can buy things online by myself, thanks."
I was snarkier than I needed to be, but seriously, what the fuck?  Why is it so difficult to buy just an Olympic-sized weight bar without also buying a complete set of weights?  Other kinds of bars are available without being in a set.  I don't get it. 
And while I realize that this is a "First World Problem," it's just one of those things that leads me to almost believe that there seriously is someone - or multiple someones - who's just fucking with me.