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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Babies 'R Us & Target Fail

We'd been telling Elianna for the last couple of months that one of her birthday presents would be a new bed. She's been really excited about the prospect, and whenever you ask her what she's getting for her birthday she'll say excitedly that she's getting a bed.

Today, I went with Kayla to Babies 'R Us and Target near the Whitestone Expressway. I started walking the aisles of Babies 'R Us, and nowhere could I find the children's beds so nicely advertised online. After a while, I saw on the far side of the store, all the way up high, 4 children's beds. After searching vainly for someone to help me out, I found one worker who informed me that in fact, that was all they had in stock. Ordering the ones I'd seen online, he informed me, would take 7-14 days to get shipped. Disappointing, but understandable; it's unreasonable to expect them to carry every bed in stock. I went back, looked at the beds (or what I could see from 20 feet below them), and decided that two of them were possibilities for Elianna. I looked around again for someone to talk to, finally walking to the cashier area, where they told me that I needed to go to the furniture desk.

I walked over to the furniture desk, where there was nobody sitting, and waited, while keeping my eye out for an employee. After 5 minutes of noting not one worker within 150 feet of where I was standing, I walked back to the front of the store, found a couple of workers standing around, and mentioned the empty furniture desk; one of them pointed to a man helping a young lady in the stroller section and said he was the person I needed. After waiting a few more minutes, the man was available, we headed back to the furniture desk, and he asked what I was looking for.

I pointed out the two beds I'd thought would be appropriate, and after clicking around for a few minutes, he told me that they were out of stock, but he could order them - and it would take 7-14 days. I asked what the difference was between that and ordering online; he said "with online, you never know how long it will really take." Hmm. I asked how often they do have the beds in stock, and was told "Well, we never really have them in stock. Whenever anyone wants one, we just order it." I thanked him for the information and left the store.

What?! How bogus is that? If I wanted to order the product and wait a couple of weeks, I'd be using your website. I don't expect a store to carry at all times every product, but to never carry any of a product you're claiming to have in store is just wrong - especially when you're pretending on the shelves that you carry it in stock. Worse is the clicking around to "check" if it's in stock, when you already know that you don't carry a single one. Had I not asked how often they have it in stock, the implication would be that they usually have beds, but I picked an unlucky day. It's simply gross customer service and a disgusting way to run a business on the part of Babies 'R Us.

Afterward, we drove over to Target, which had diapers for Kayla at $12/box cheaper than Babies 'R Us did. I hope nobody buys diapers at Babies 'R Us - I actually laughed when I saw the price and realized it wasn't for two boxes. +2 points for Target... but they also get a -10 for the ultimate sin: Switching their plastic bags. One of the best things about Target has been one of the single most important traits for any shopper, especially if you're buying a lot of items as people tend to do at places like Target: Great, strong, durable plastic bags. As I was being rung up at the register today I noticed that the bags looked thinner, felt strange, and didn't seem as strong. Since Kayla's car seat was taking up part of the cart, I had to hold three of the bags in my hand as I wheeled out of the store. Sure enough, the handles immediately started to stretch apart, and a bag dropped. As I picked that one back up, another bag ripped apart completely. When I finally got a handle on all the items, my yarmulke flew off (of course), and was retrieved by a nice man who was randomly standing outside Target. (Side note: I never understood why there are always random people standing outside on that strip - there's nothing out there at all.)

I never understood why companies switch bags. The savings can't be that much at the bulk they're getting them, and as soon as people realize, they demand double bags every time. In addition, people become more and more frustrated with the store and - consciously or not - create bad associations with going to that store: "Oh man, it was so annoying to shlep out there, then the bags ripped, it was such a mess, and the baby was crying..." This is especially true if something breaks, as is bound to happen.

All in all, a poor, unsuccessful day of shopping. Sigh.

15 comments:

  1. Sorry you had such a bad experience! We got our toddler bed at the Toys R Us on the way home from those two stores. Maybe since it's geared towards older kids, they have more of a selection of beds rather than cribs in stock (or at all). We chose one from the several they had, had someone help us locate the box, and were out of there with a bed in about 25 minutes.

    What's the brand of diapers you found for -$12 at Target? I usually combine Babies R Us store coupons that are $5/box with manufacturer's coupons, and have found that to be cheaper than Target, but maybe prices have changed?

    The people on the outer strip of the stores just seem to be waiting for someone - maybe a car parked far away or an employee to bring forward a heavy or unwieldy item? More irritating are the cars that just stand there and interfere with traffic.

    As for the bag thing, some of the local groceries have been doing this for over a year or so. It has definitely come along with the economic downturn, despite, as you pointed out, probably not making sense in the long run. RaggedyDad says he's reminded of how they used to send plastic store bags back to Russia for relatives who were still there to sell. Maybe it really is just a matter of time before some of these stores stop giving out bags altogether.

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  2. That really stinks. Phooey on them.

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  3. RM - Interesting theory on Toys 'R Us. Could be... but they had this whole section set aside for toddlers, they just had nothing there. It was weird.

    The Pampers Cruisers were 28.99 for a large box at Target [not amazing], but they were 40.99 [!!] at Babies 'R Us. I really had to check that they weren't for two boxes. I have *never* seen diapers so expensive. I guess they're building in the $5 coupons and manufacturers' coupons into the price now.

    I know some of the local groceries have been doing it, but that doesn't shock me as much. I'd have expected Target to keep their old bags, which really were good. If anything, a good company would brag about how even in the downturn, they're trying to keep things convenient for customers even with the little things. Dunno - just disappointing.

    I've always been pretty impressed with the lack of traffic around Target, except when people leave their carts out (come on! they have places to put the carts every 30 feet!!!). But I usually go a little after noon or late at night, which are probably quieter times.

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  4. I do find that Babies R Us employs people who are far less competent and not anywhere nearly as well trained as Buy Buy Baby, as mentioned in your more recent post.

    An example - our gate (we've had it and loved it for years) was purchased at BRU. I originally went in to the store when our oldest started getting ready to crawl and asked for a gate for the top of the stairs (these are hardware-mounted) and was shown a pressure gate labeled clearly "Not For Use at the Top of Stairs!". Right.

    Buy Buy Baby is a great place to go to talk to salespeople who are extremely informed about the specs of strollers and car seats. They are very adept at doing side-by-side comparisons between two items. Overall their prices are higher, but it was clearly not an issue in your case.

    As far as the diaper debate goes, I hate to press the issue, but I've been buying diapers exclusively at BRU for years, and I never want to feel like a chump, so I looked into this a little further on the respective store websites. It seems like the box sizes you're comparing aren't equal.

    For a size 3 diaper, for instance, the box at Target costing $28.99 contains 116 diapers (price per diaper ~24.9 cents). The size 3 box at BRU costing $40.99 contains 160 diapers (~25.6 cents per diaper).

    BRU sends out regular mailings for $5 off/box of diapers, and when combined with a mfr. coupon (these are usually $1.50 off, but I've had some that were $2.50 or $3.00), that brings the box cost down to $34.49, for a per-diaper cost of 21.5 cents at BRU.

    The only time I buy diapers is when I have both of these coupons, and I usually buy 2 or 3 boxes. I can't remember paying more or ever running out.

    BRU has a similar coupon deal for wipes at $2 off/box, combined with an mfr. coupon for more savings. But I do actually like their store brand wipes a lot. Sometimes those are included in a sale too.

    Not to sound like a Pampers sticky tab here, but I've got to give BRU credit where credit is dood--er, due.

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  5. That gate story is sad... luckily I already knew which one we wanted, so that was easy.

    The bed at BBB was $90; online the lowest we saw was $70, but with shipping it would have been about the same, plus we'd have had to wait a while longer; also, we didn't love that model. The others were 90-100 online.

    I hear you on the diapers - I'll check again next time. But I specifically looked and the boxes seemed to be either the same size or smaller. (I didn't look at the numbers, since the ones I noticed on top at BRU were Size 6, and the ones I needed were Size 3.) In Target, the same size box - which has a diminishing number of diapers as the size increases - is the same price, so I'm assuming the ones I saw which seemed similar in size were the same count set as the 116.

    Why wouldn't the mfr. coupon work at Target?

    The $28.99 is the new "sale" price at Target on the diapers. Until recently we were always paying $25.99, and we always bought two at a time. More importantly, about 2/3 of the time when they're on sale, they also give you a $10 Target gift card if you buy two boxes at a time. (Alas, they did not have that offer yesterday.)

    That brings down the cost at Target to (at the current 28.99 price) 47.98 for 232 diapers, or ~20.7 cents. Since we don't always get the sale, if we put it at half the time (I think it's more often than that - I'd gotten cards the last three times before yesterday), it comes out to ~22.8 cents/diaper.

    If you used the mfr. coupon at Target (which may not be allowed if it's on sale, granted), you'd bring down your costs to 20.03 cents a diaper if they have the $10 Target deal every time or 22.2 if they did 1/2 the time.

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  6. All in all, it's probably close in both places. Serach had said "buy at BRU, it's cheaper there", which is why I looked. I was just so surprised to see how expensive they were. I'm still almost positive that the size box I saw was the same as what I buy, which would bring the price per diaper up at BRU by a ton - ~35.0 if there were 116 in a box of 3's with no discounts, ~29.7 if I had the $5 and $1.50 coupons.

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  7. I'm sure Target would accept the mfr. coupons, but at BRU they offer a store coupon together with that.

    I don't consider a store gift card with purchase to be *exactly* the same thing as a coupon on the product I need since:

    1. I usually go to BRU to buy diapers only, and wind up indeed buying only diapers there vs. buying other store items to use a gift card, making 2 transactions, etc.

    and
    2. Target is the kind of store where I'll likely spend at least $10 if not much more on other 'stuff' that I do sort of or probably need but didn't necessarily need to buy right then.

    We used to shop at Target a lot between 2001 and 2003 or so, but the prices there overall became higher (I'm talking about general household goods), and I just got tired of how costly going to Target became because of all the odds-and-ends and incidentals.

    The prices for the boxes and diaper counts can be verified onn the store websites. The discrepancy you posted about is just too huge to be realistic.

    The $40.99 at BRU is also recent-ish (a few months?). The 160 for size 3 box size at BRU used to run $35.99. For a short while they raised the prices to $40.99, and then lowered them back again, but they seem to be back up as do prices for so many things!

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  8. I'm sure Target would accept the mfr. coupons, but at BRU they offer a store coupon together with that.

    Right, I just mean that the mfr. coupon would bring down the price per diaper in Target.

    We used to shop at Target a lot between 2001 and 2003 or so, but the prices there overall became higher (I'm talking about general household goods), and I just got tired of how costly going to Target became because of all the odds-and-ends and incidentals.

    Agreed - I think I talked to Raggedy Dad about that before. :) I always tell people going to target to be careful - they have good prices, but not *great* prices, on a lot of things, and bad prices on others.

    The prices for the boxes and diaper counts can be verified onn the store websites.

    Yeah, first thing I did before. :D

    The discrepancy you posted about is just too huge to be realistic.

    Either I saw wrong on the sizes, or they put the wrong size boxes on the stand.

    The $40.99 at BRU is also recent-ish (a few months?). The 160 for size 3 box size at BRU used to run $35.99. For a short while they raised the prices to $40.99, and then lowered them back again, but they seem to be back up as do prices for so many things!

    Yeah - I hate when stores shoot prices up, then drop them back to where they were, call it a "sale", and soon after end the "sale" and now they have a new higher price. That way people transition in their heads from $25 = normal to $25 = sale to $30 = normal without getting upset at stores for raising prices.

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  9. Just to clarify what I meant before:

    If you bought two boxes at Target at 28.99 apiece:

    57.98 = ~24.99c
    -3.00 manufacturer coupons
    54.98 = ~23.69c
    -10.00 Target card*
    44.98 = ~19.39c

    * That's if you always got one. If you got one half the time, the average price is ~21.44c

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  10. RaggedyMom, you found the price of clothes for big girls scary, but I find the current price of diapers scary. I don't think I ever shelled out $30 to $40 at a time, though I did not usually buy bulk packages. I usually combined coupons with supermarket sales or just bought whatever worked out the cheapest and still be up to the job. I don't think I usually went for the Toys R Us brand. But I do know that some people go to Costco for diapers and such, claiming it is much cheaper.

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  11. Ariella - I don't know, since we're not members, but I've heard that CostCo isn't any cheaper really anymore.

    One couple we know swears by the Amazon diapers that they order online and are much cheaper, and haven't had a problem. We didn't do well with any other brands we've tried (Huggies was horrible).

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  12. Interestingly enough, I was at Pathmark this afternoon, and they had a sign up that said "Please don't double-bag! Our bags are designed and tested to be able to hold up to 20 pounds safely." Seems to make a whole lot more sense that what Target did with their bags. I'll miss the old Target bags. :(

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  13. Some of the moms I know seem convinced that Huggies work better for boys - maybe it's something anatomical about the way the diaper is cut and the more absorbent spots on the diaper. Im yirtzeh Hashem Huggies by you one day in the future ;)

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  14. Rageddy Mom, a long, long time ago --it was already on the way out by the time my first was born 15 years ago-- there were gender specific diapers. Apparently, that was not a success.

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