in a Barnes and Noble... Screaming at the top of his lungs, pounding, etc...
Don't you think that maybe... just maybe, you should take his ass outside and beat him sensless rather than stand there like an idiot making hundreds of customers uncomforable?
I'm just curious.
(yes, I said "beat him senseless"... it's an expression. Get over it.)
Happened to me, once, with my daughter when she was a 3 y.o. She went over the shoulder like a sack of potatoes - without any of the things she was screaming about, not even the one thing I had already agree to buy - and we went home. She now listens, and we have very few temper tantrums, particularly in public, and she listens very, very carefully when I ask if she wants me to "throw her over my shoulders like a sack of potatoes."
Making sure that you build up a good, solid, standard level of discipline when they're 2 or 3 will start paying you dividends so rich you won't believe it, even when they're only 5 or 6.