Does this make sense?

OK, this is just a shot in the dark, but did both of you talk to the same person in the store? Believe me, not everyone in any dealer I've ever been to knows where everything is at the same time. You probably got told there were no catalogs because the person you talked to didn't know (or wasn't told) any were available. Your friend who went in 30 minutes later, maybe talked to a different person who happened to have seen that pile of new catalogs under the counter and got your friend one. Hell, I've been in dealers talking to two different salespersons maybe 5 minutes apart and have gotten two different stories on what their motorcycle inventory was and what was available for sale!

Find out which person your friend talked to and go back and see if you can get a catalog (which will confirm or deny your theory). Talk to the parts manager (who just happens to make a living off of the parts and accessories you buy in that store) and let him/her know that they inconvenienced you because of the catalog snafu and you had to go to store X down the road to get what you needed. They hate stories like that!!

I can see that part of it, and it resembles the local dealer. It is not necessarily an intent to deceive but a general lack of information and interest.
If it were just limited to where a particular piece of literature is at the time it would not be that much of a problem, but the new generation of techs and parts people seems to acquire a know it all attitude after a month or two of experience that causes them to learn about product changes on customers bikes or parts that come back rather then from service literature.
If you throw riders into the mix, that have no product knowledge and operate under the assumption all dealer personnel knows what they are talking about, it's real easy to see where this is going.
Dealers are not all that different from any other business, every department has to have a person that has the knowledge and power to keep it going, sort of like a "the buck stops here" guy, and often it is not the guy in charge. It's real simple, find that guy, and do business with him or her exclusively.