Pre-order etiquette?

Recently I've been thinking about my past; my pre-order book past.  See, there's a book release coming up from Chloe Neill, that I'm nearly desperate for. And it doesn't help that a couple bitches friends I know received advanced readers copies, and are screaming about whatever developments happen in the book; making me even more crazy for the freakin thing. So anyway, a week ahead of time I went to the interweb to set-up my pre order, making sure I have my title on it's release date May 3rd like a good book addict, and about halfway through the prebook I started wondering why, when it comes to those highly anticipated releases, I find myself HAVING to purchase the digital edition instead of supporting my local book store. 



See, I have an amazing fantasy book store, Mysterious Galaxy, here in town, and it's one of my favorite places on earth.  They have author events all the time, have amazing stock, and everyone who works there is crazy for sci-fi/fantasy just like me. And I musn't forget to mention the smell.  I swear they could bottle the air and sell it... well maybe to just me.  The minute I walk in, I can't help myself from taking in a deep breath and letting out an embarrassingly vocal sigh. It completely transforms me into a non-stressed, leisurely shopper who swears she feels instantly more intelligent.  So anyway yeah, I do my best to support them instead of a big box or on-line store.


Like I said though, I recently started thinking back to some of the books I just HAD to have on release day and I realized that I almost always pre-ordered the digital edition rather than buying the physical one.  Why?  OK, well a lot of times the digital edition can be less expensive, which is always a plus (think Shadowfever) but this title wasn't.  It's a paperback and it's $7.99 whether it's digital or physical. So there blew that excuse. I can't blame it on stock issues, because as I mentioned that isn't an issue with my store. Maybe I feel shame for looking so desperate that I'm waiting outside their door, coffee in hand, when the manager arrives to open the store?  No, I stopped caring what other people thought about me when I hit 30. I could lie and say that I have too many books on my bookshelf and buying the digital edition every once and a while cuts down on clutter.  But I just cleaned out my bookshelves and donated/swapped a ton away. So, I'm out of logical excuses.   


But I still couldn't stop myself from hitting that way too easy "BUY" button, ensuring that my book is nestled safely on my ipad when I open it at 7am Tuesday morning. Am I that much of a junkie, that I can't wait until 10 am to go out and physically buy a copy?  Yes. Yes, I'm afraid I might be. 


But it makes me wonder.  Am I alone? How do you pre-order?