Go to a military surplus store. Buy a US Air Force arctic snorkel parka. They're pricey, but nothing's better for keeping the winter on the side where it belongs. I don't think I could survive in this state without mine.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. My gf got a hat (she keeps losing 'em) at Target on clearance for $1.80.

Both Home Dept and Target were completely sold out of 3Mwindow insulator kits. It's idiotic.

Same crap happens in the dinky towns in greater Minnesota, too. I'd really like to know who makes the decisions about these things so I can call them and yell at them.

Try Burlington Coat Factory. David has had some luck there buying coats in winter. The outlets are still selling them too.

Can't blame this just on Target Boutique--as you noted, Wal-Mart's winter selection is dramatically slimming as well.

Look, retailers don't just do stuff to do stuff. Target is one of the two or three most successful retailers in American history. If they're switching over to spring stuff now, you can bet your bottom dollar it's because it makes them more money than sticking with winter clothes.

Annoying? Yes, it is. But this isn't an example of anything insidious. It's just the market at work. I thought you conservatives liked the market?

You're just now figuring out modern retail cycles? You won't be able to find a swimsuit by mid-June.

As Margaret noted, Burlington should have a variety, but check Wilsons Leather first.

No, I've known the retail cycles for a long time. I just didn't like their manifestation in my life last week.

Conservatives believe that many questions are better solved by market interactions (and civil society in general) and not the political process. That doesn't mean they have to like everything that happens IN the market.

To paraphrase Churchill, market-based economics is terribly inefficient and annoying, except in relative comparison to every other system that has been tried.

There's also a perception (naive perhaps), that _everything_ in the free market isn't entirely market driven. Sometimes bad decisions get made by idiots in power, and get ensconced in corporate tradition. Such bad decisions may take a long time to get corrected, if other things are going fairly well. One hopes that griping of the sort we're doing will contribute to the eventual solution.

Policyguy is right; I'm a free-marketeer of the highest order.

It just seems to me - a consumer - that when Target (based in Minneapolis) does its planning, it might not KILL them to leave a few coats in Minnesota through January. They might not sell many in Toledo or Virginia, but I bet they'd have moved enough to have turned a per-unit profit up here last week...

Forget Target and Wal-Mart, Mitch. The only sensible place to get cold-weather gear in this town is Kaplan's, on Lake Street and 15th Avenue in Minneapolis. Their selection of clothes and footgear for workin' guys like us cannot be beat, and I say this as a regular customer of Wal-Mart. They have parkas, they have balaclavas, watch caps, Sorels, everything you need for very reasonable prices.

Thanks for the tip. Can't believe I forgot about Kaplans - I used to live right by there.

Doh!

And thanks! To Kaplans I shall go!

No, No! Fleetfarm, that's where you get the incredibly warm and tough winter wear. And yes, they still have an full selection, even sizes for short fat men, not that I need them.

Target is for wiggers -- white teens who wish they were rap stars because they think they're cool. Or hip. Or neat-o. Or whatever the hell the new word is for that concept.