Just In Time Massive Fail

[elfs]

Saturday, in a full-on frenzy of packing, I had to take Kouryou-chan out to get a new bathing suit. The one she has is a bit worn and frayed, still usable but Kouryou-chan's getting into that age where appearance is important. We tried the local "box o' everything", every anchor store at the mall, and several children's specialty shops. It's mid-August, the hottest day of the year so far, and the stores have already pulled all of their swimsuits off the racks to make room for their "back to school" sales.

School doesn't start for another three weeks, the summer is still roaring, and the weather here warms up late, yet the retail "just in time" system has no room for regional distinctions. If you don't buy a swimsuit in June, you're screwed for the year.

One cheerful young woman told me, "Come back on Monday" as she cleared out a colorful rack of Hanah Montana t-shirts. "We'll have our whole new inventory up and on sale!" It didn't seem to matter to her that what the bouncy and bored little girl next to me needed was a swimsuit. She wasn't selling swimsuits. She was selling her Fall line already.

We never did find one. Kouryou-chan's a hard fit anyway. She's eight, but she's incredibly skinny and exceptionally tall. Size eight pants just fall off of her, and a size six swimsuit didn't stretch enough to accomodate her long frame. In the end, she's off to summer camp with the one swimsuit she has already. It's a bit worn, but we both think it'll last another week.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Argle bargle. Square peg, round hole.

The spirit of the stairs says, hotel gift shop? But still. Megafail on the scale of the Space Needle fireworks charlie foxtrot last year.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Tankinis. Two piece, but they cover the whole torso. It works really well for long/growing torsos. Target still had them on clearance down here this weekend. Sears still has the Land's End ones too -- they have long-bodied ones and tankinis. I know it doesn't help now, though.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Damn, should have tried Target. We did go to Sears. They were one of the anchors at Southcenter, and they'd already cleared their kid's section for the back to school stuff.

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

JIT didn't fail -- they lost your one purchase but will make many more sales on the products they plugged into that space. JIT is for THEM after all.

Pretty good example of why I'm not a libertarian -- it ain't about the consumer/citizen/individual at all. It's about the almighty dollar.

[mo-hair.livejournal.com]

omg- we have this same problem! eve is nearing size 8 and easily a 5 around the middle. in fact, finding skin tight skating dresses present a problem. i spent $100 getting her 3 skating skirts which then required altering and in the end don't fit (and now that they have been altered i can't even sell them for kids of average size.)

i think your best bet will be online with speedy delivery. tankinis and bikinis worked for a while with eve, but now the rise isn't high enough to maintain modesty if they are small enough in the width. blech.

all i can say is thank god for gap/gymbo slim pants! expensive but sometimes fit is actually worth it.

**raises hand and waves**

[loba.livejournal.com]

An idea? Try a sports store (perhaps REI?), and get her an on-sale competition suit (check the sizing page, because they usually list it in European sizing). They make'em small, and a long (or one of those 'tankinis') will help for her torso. And IMHO, they're not cheap, but Speedos wear rather well. :-)

PS: Online places look pretty good. :-) Check here and see if Kouryou-chan's size is somewhere. Or check here and use this for a nice little discount.

[jenk]

the retail "just in time" system has no room for regional distinctions.

The retail system was like this for decades before "just in time" was invented. Fall clothing used to come out in July.

On a more practical note, is there a swimwear store up there? Sylvia's Swimwear has a large range of sizes, but no location near you.

[fallenpegasus]

There is a store that does JIT, and in fact, pretty much *designed* JIT for retail, and who is utterly masterful at region distinctions and at "unplanned" fluctuations in demand.

Wal*Mart

All the malls are out of swimsuits and out of sunscreen. Even Costco is out of sunscreen.

But Walmart still has it.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

There's always thrift & second-hand stores. You can find some pretty good stuff too. Granted they try to do the seasonal thing as well, but they often get stuff at the end of a season and are therefor more likely to have it when the retailers are clearing out.