Phone books for morons (and we are the morons)

I was going to call the Warehouse in Petone today after getting some excellent service from a staff member, Peato. He not only helped me, but a grandmother who was ahead of me—and he put up with her demands and jokes. But I could not initially find this large chain in the telephone book—only Warehouse Stationery appears to be there.
   Finding this unreasonable, I did the unthinkable: I looked under T. For The. And there it was.
   Now, when I grew up, we were told that only morons would file things under the definite—or indefinite—article. In fact, I distinctly remember sitcoms where the manager had a ditzy secretary who would do this, and the audience would laugh at how stupid she was. But now, the phone company does it? When did we turn into a nation of assholes that would search for the Warehouse under T? The phone book was not like this when I was growing up. Whomever set the books in those days had some intelligence.
   We will eventually get encyclopædias that have a massive T volume for entries such as the Beatles and the Isle of Man.