We are due in about 10 weeks with twins so the wife and I headed to Keystone at the Crossing to visit Babies"R"Us and buybuy BABY. Turns out they are a stone's throw yet a world apart in more ways than one.
Coming in from the west meant we stopped at Babies "R" Us first, where we were greeted by a GFZ sign. I balked, then got "the look"... So I disarmed and went in anyway. We weren't there to spend any money, just to look around and maybe add some things to her shower registry. I was happy to hear she hadn't registered there yet and after walking the aisles we went over to buybuy BABY...
I had re-armed when we had gotten back to the car with the full expectation of having to disarm again after the hop, skip, and jump over to buybuy BABY... Not so!
No GFZ sign so we went right on in and had a really enjoyable time, well over an hour, shopping around. We even talked to a couple of associates who never even mentioned my sidearm. We also spent a lot of time shopping the same aisles as families with young children in tow without incident. No terrified MDA types, no MWAG calls, no 5 y.o. gun-grabbing girls, nothing!
We went about our business without incident as it should be. Needless to say even though the prices are virtually identical I (we) liked buybuy BABY much better and I encourage all INGOers to vote with their feet (and wallets) when it comes to these two stores.
And being the engineer-geek type I am, I have to say how impressed I was with all the cool, trick stuff rugrats have these days. The companies which make this stuff must invest a ton in R&D when it comes to car seats, strollers, even furniture... But man, this stuff is EXPENSIVE! Thank goodness for help from our families (including the two best sets of in-laws I could ever have).
Coming in from the west meant we stopped at Babies "R" Us first, where we were greeted by a GFZ sign. I balked, then got "the look"... So I disarmed and went in anyway. We weren't there to spend any money, just to look around and maybe add some things to her shower registry. I was happy to hear she hadn't registered there yet and after walking the aisles we went over to buybuy BABY...
I had re-armed when we had gotten back to the car with the full expectation of having to disarm again after the hop, skip, and jump over to buybuy BABY... Not so!
No GFZ sign so we went right on in and had a really enjoyable time, well over an hour, shopping around. We even talked to a couple of associates who never even mentioned my sidearm. We also spent a lot of time shopping the same aisles as families with young children in tow without incident. No terrified MDA types, no MWAG calls, no 5 y.o. gun-grabbing girls, nothing!
We went about our business without incident as it should be. Needless to say even though the prices are virtually identical I (we) liked buybuy BABY much better and I encourage all INGOers to vote with their feet (and wallets) when it comes to these two stores.
And being the engineer-geek type I am, I have to say how impressed I was with all the cool, trick stuff rugrats have these days. The companies which make this stuff must invest a ton in R&D when it comes to car seats, strollers, even furniture... But man, this stuff is EXPENSIVE! Thank goodness for help from our families (including the two best sets of in-laws I could ever have).
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