No offense, but I wonder how many actually check MR to find this stuff out when it's only a phone call away.
Do you not think that there are many people on this forum about to buy a new MBP?
That really has nothing to do with calling a store to check stock. Can you point me to where on this website that I can check stock levels?
I believe the OP is talking about ordering online and picking up at a local Apple store.
That's actually the same as calling and checking if a store has stock since BTO can't be picked up in store immediately like the base/ultimate models can.