Dear Retailers

Here's what we wanted to buy today: a couple of cheap blankets for the dogs; footed sleepers for Iain, size 12-18 months; a pair of soft-soled shoes for Iain, to keep his tootsies warm, size 12 months or bigger; some bath toys (for Iain); a bath toy holder (for Iain); some pants for Iain, sized 12-18 months; mittens for Iain so he can go for a walk with us; diapers; wipes.

Here's where we went: Target; Babies-R-Us; Old Navy; our local re-sale shop, Kid to Kid.

Why go so many places? Target had nothing. Old Navy had nothing. [in the footed-sleeper department, absolutely nothing. Because when it's 18 degrees outside, you definitely should not stock anything warm for baby to sleep in. Bad idea. Don't do it. Much better to carry sandals and beachwear. No, really.]

Babies-R-Us had almost nothing. We got diapers and wipes there, plus a few bath toys and a bath-toy-holder that so far seems to be a failure. And plug covers. And a bib. Obviously, they got us on the impulse buys. But no shoes, no mittens, no sleepers, no pants at a reasonable price. Actually, I should admit that they might have had those things, but we couldn't find them and since there were no employees working in the bath area, the clothing area, or the diapers/wipes/plug covers/toys/clearance areas, we couldn't ask.

Finally, heading toward the library to return Iain's books (he's such a slacker - won't even return his own library books. Sheesh.), we stopped in at Kid to Kid. There, we got 4 pairs of pants, four sleepers, a sweatshirt, and a fun toy, all for less than the diapers cost.

So here's the point: a variety of retailers are on the ropes. And they go on CNBC and they say, "Oh, people aren't buying!" Well, we tried to buy. We went substantially out of our way, trying to buy things. And after a lot of effort we only managed to buy some of the things we wanted. The failure in the system isn't just that people aren't shopping. It's that retailers don't seem to know what people want to buy, and aren't willing/able to provide it.