I am beginning to think that Wal-Mart has a prejudice against little boys. It is the most difficult thing to find little boy clothes at Wally World, really it is. Day before yesterday I was there shopping for much needed food and was browsing the Baby section to see what they had. Winter coats, 11 different styles for girls, 3 for boys (My hubby tells me that as of yesterday, they only had 2 for boys). Pants a plenty for little girls; overalls, shortalls, jumpsuits etc. Take for instant the clearance rack. If you have been in the retail business, that tells you a lot on how your product sells. Constantly little girls outfits, dresses, shirts and on and on. The small amount of little boy things are fought over. Really, if you see it on the clearance rack and think to come back even in an hour it is already gone. Grab it while you can. Wal-Mart Buyers (those who supposed know what they are doing by reading what sells, checking the trends and buying what is supposed to sell in the stores for good citizens like me to buy at Wally) take note; if you have 2 racks of little girl clothes on the clearance racks and 5 items of boys; you are buying too much girl clothes and not enough boy clothes.
Holidays are the worse too. Take Christmas, months before the Blessed Event there are cute little holiday outfits for girls. Cute little girly sweatshirts, jumpsuits and of course the really cute and nice dressy dresses for the holiday. You know, the type you go to church in. Nothing much for the boys, which is really sad, because I have 3 of them. Can I splurge a little and buy them little dress clothes at Wal-Mart? No. Once I asked the manager of that section, She said "yes, they had the little boy outfits, but they sold out fast." Really? No. I had been there everyday for 2 weeks looking for dressy outfits for my boys so I can take Christmas pictures. Boy I sure hate being lied to; especially by a manger. Besides the fact, if they really did sell that quick, then obviously then Wal-mart needed to have more on hand.
Really, when I worked at Alco you were expected to check the sheet that told you what sold the best and make a display of those and order a lot. That was at the store level, what do you think they were doing at the executive level. I did talk to one or two of the Alco buyers. One was really nice and knew what she was doing. The other was too knew and didn't know too much about our area for correct distribution. So really, I am not talking out of my ear here.
When I had my middle son in the baby/toddler swim class years ago; I found out I was not the only one with boys that had that problem with Wal-mart. Of course they didn't complain to Wal-Mart like I did. No, they simply got in their car and went to Flagstaff where there are a great variety to choose from and stores who actually look at what sells. I wish I could do that. I know that Target has a much better selection of cute boy outfits. Heck, even the Wal-mart in Showlow has a better boy clothes than we do. I guess it comes down to that Wal-mart isn't proud of this little store in Winslow. They think they have a monopoly here so don't put much of an effort into the store. Excuses like, we are next to a Reservation, we have a loss prevention problem, we don't get to order stuff for our store, it just comes in, etc doesn't really fly with me. Just excuses. It comes down to I can't expect the store here to listen to me, so I will shop elsewhere for little boy clothes like everyone else.
Customer Service. It comes down to customer service. For 6 years I have been trying to get some more little boy clothes to come in. I've been complaining, trying suggestions; it just falls on deaf ears. So I guess I will have to follow the other mothers of boys in this little town and buy out of town. Don't worry, I'll still probably browse the boy clothes looking for something and still probably frown as the little girl stuff overwhelms the baby/toddler/preschool section. But come the times when I need something for pictures or holiday parties, I will go to Flagstaff to their stores.
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