Babies R Us: How do you sleep at night, besides on a gigantic pile of my money?

The BBQ Pit
1

Today’s pitting will feature Babies R Us. A store I generally quite like.

Mrs. Chastain and I, being the proud new parents of a baby eating-machine…er, girl, headed off to BRU to buy formula.

Expensive stuff, but I knew that going in.

The canister of the powdered formula we wanted had a price tag of $20.99. As I started to pick one up, I noticed beside the aisle with the individual cans were larger six-packs of the same cans.

The pack consisted of six cans wrapped in cellophane. Nothing else. No coupons for future purchase, no literature, no nothin’.

The price of this six-pack was $137.99. :confused:

Hold on whiles I digs out my calculator, you baby-mongering rapists. 'Cause last I checked, six cans of your baby life-giving powder should come to $127.00.

So where the hell is my ten bucks going?

When I brought this to the attention of one of the purple-shirted staff, I was told that they do it intentionally. :confused:

And that “it costs more due to the convenience factor.” :confused: :confused:

So here we go:

Fuck you, and fuck your shitty price-gouging ways. Are you seriously trying to tell me that you’re charging an extra $10 for a cardboard flat and some cellophane? Because I’ve half a mind to stick one of these cans up somebody’s ass.

I can tell you already, you unclefuckers, I won’t be returning now that I’ve exhausted my supply of gift cards so generously given to us by relatives. I’m truly sad that you’ve made so much money off of us already, and I won’t be contributing one more red cent to your coffers.

You might think you have us over a barrel, but trust me – I can buy formula elsewhere. And, because I’m going elsewhere to buy the formula, I can go elsewhere to buy everything else, too.

So stick a bottle warmer in your ear, Babies R Us. I’m done with you. :mad:

2

Costco. And Target for everything else.

3

Not wanting to make a worthy rant into an informative post… :slight_smile:

Can someone explain the following to me:

  1. Why are coupons that formula companies use actually checks? :confused:
    I don’t use them, but get them by the ton. I either give them away or leave them next to the can at the store. Is that a bad thing?

2)Why do stores limit the cans you can buy? I have often seen something like: limit 6 cans. Is there typically a run on formula? At those prices, I can’t imagine people buying 10 at once. Just the same, you’d think the store would be pleased to have such sales.
I now return you to your rant in progress.

4

You have a machine that eats babies?

5

Actually, the way it’s written, it could either be:

A) a machine that eats babies, or
B) a tiny eating machine

I wish I could buy one of the first. She is, however, the second. :smiley:

6

I noticed my local Stater Bros pulling the same stunt with Diet Coke. A 24 pack was something like $7.50. Right next to it was a sale of 12 packs, 2 for $5.

Does that make any sense at all? Why would they do that?

Of course, two days later, their “sale” was 2 12 packs for $7.00, and a 24 case was $6.99, so if there’s any rhyme or reason to this shit, it eludes me.

7

Hmmm. Considering the cost of formula, is there a special reason why Mrs. Chastain can’t simply feed the baby from her own, natural, free supply? Worked for my mom…
Apologies if there is a medical reason that precludes breast milk.

8

It’s…uhm, tricky. Suffice it to say breastfeeding won’t work. We did it for a few days, and discovered it wasn’t working as well as advertised due to a variety of factors.

In any case, we discovered that formula feeding helps IttyBittyChastain sleep better. Less water in the formula than in the breastmilk, so she gets full faster.

9

Is it possible that the single tins of the Baby Formula were on special? Because if they were, then the 6pk isnt over priced, but actually, the single tins are underpriced, and your getting a bargain!

For example, at the store where I work, Coca Cola 2ltr’s are often on special, but the pack of 4 2ltr’s never is, so often the 4 pack is dearer then buying 4 2ltrs individually, and its not because of over charging, its because the way the specials run.

Of course, if they are not on special, then you have every right in the world to be pissed about it.

10

Man, I just hope my nieces won’t work there…that’s pretty taboo… :eek:

I know, I know…motherfuckers is just as taboo…but that word “unclefuckers” just sends chills down my spine!

11

Nope. Not on special. AFAIK, formula never goes on sale, because they have you over a barrel, anyway. It’s not like you’ll stop buying it.

12

I spoke with my pediatrician after I had my last baby and she assured me that the generic brand of baby formula is just as adequate as the name brands. Formula regulations are very strict, so there’s not really any wiggle room on quality. And generic is usually over 50% cheaper!

My mom insists that the baby formula/product market is a racket–“All you girls were on milk by 3 months and you came out OK.” On the one hand, I know she’s exaggerating. But on the other hand–I see crap like the “toddler formula” and commercials asking “Shouldn’t your child still be a Gerber baby?” while shilling overpriced applesauce and I wonder if maybe ol’ mom isn’t on to something.

13

I’ll preface this with IANAP (I am not a parent), but is there a particular reason that the formula had to be bought at Babies-R-Us? I saw the part about the gift cards, but was there not a big ticket item you could have gotten with the cards, and bought the formula somewhere else? Or were you just trying to dump the gift cards and get necessities? I’m not up on the cost of formula - is it cheaper elsewhere, or do all of the stores have you over a barrel?

Thanks for reminding us why we’re skipping the child issue for another couple of years - we can’t afford it! (Breastfeeding is 99.9% not an option for me due to a prior surgery - one of those things I won’t know until it happens, but more than likely not…so I sympathize with your wife).

(I did have a friend who supplemented with goat’s milk after her twins turned a year old - she said the breastfeeding was catching up with her, and so she just switched over to goat’s milk because it’s closer to breastmilk and because her children showed signs of cow’s milk allergies- but did tell me that her ped said it wasn’t recommended for under a year old. Not sure why, but a quick google turns up that it can cause various diseases and is lacking in a few vitamins that young infants need. She did say it was quite expensive - that it would have been cheaper to buy a goat:D).

Ava

14

Someone grammatical help me out here…

I would have said “baby eating-machine” could mean either (preferably) “an immature machine designed to eat” or (from context) “baby that is an eating machine”. But I would have thought if you meant “a machine that ate babies” you’d have to say “baby-eating-machine” or “baby-eating machine” :confused:

15

He said that he would indeed buy his formula elsewhere (as well as everything else he might otherwise have bought there).

16

There’s lots of reasons that people can’t breastfeed. I myself tried and had a decent milk supply but my son refuse to latch despite us working at it for a month after he was born. I was so certain I was going to breastfeed I didn’t have any formula on hand when I went home and had to get someone to bring me some!

It is expensive though. The brand I use changed somewhat because of new regulations (ALL formula’s have to have a certain level of iron now. Before there was the regular, and extra iron. Now it’s one type with iron levels at about what was in the extra iron.) I talked to a representative of the company and she told me that they had only upped it by a couple of dollars, the stores selling it upped it by 14 in total. I nearly choked when one week I was paying 24.99 the next I was paying 38.99. I’m lucky enough that my doctor okayed switching to the next step (6-12months) which still only costs… 24.99 at most 26.99 depending where I go.

Unfortunately I have no Costco nearby otherwise I’d be shopping there myself. I do have wal-mart (yeah yeah boo hiss) though.

If you feel like you’re getting ripped off, shop around or switch to no-name. The brand I use really isn’t much more than the no-name as long as I know where to shop (can usually get a couple dollars knocked off, plus those ‘check’ coupons)

17

I never quite understood the “business plan” involved, but a friend of a friend years ago would go into KMart and other stores on the day the formula was delivered and buy it all, boxes of it, then load it into a box truck and then … I don’t know what they did with it, but presumably sold it at a profit somehow. It got to the point where the managers weren’t letting thim in the store. So, in this case I see where a limit would be a good idea.

And the price of formula was one of the biggest reason my wife worked so hard at breast feeding. Our son was diffcult, slow but the girl was easy and fast!

18

I can verify this. I have a cousin who works for Wyeth, a major formula maker.

Wal-Mart brand formula worked just fine for the Moto twins.

19

Babies R Us deserves to be pitted. May I offer another reason?

They are unbelievably condescending and confusing.

On the way back from the New England Fest-A-Que, I stopped at a Babies R Us to try out a rocker-glider. You see, I’d seen it in the Babies R Us section of my local Toys R Us, but it was up on a shelf and I could not sit on it to try it out.

So I’m looking around the big Babies R Us, and I don’t see it. I ask the furniture salesguy, “Where’s the glider that’s on sale?”

Furniture Salesguy (sneering down nose): “We don’t haaaaave sales here.”
Me: “Well, I saw it in a different Babies R Us and it was on sale.”
FS: “You must be wrong.”
Me: :confused:
FS: “Was it online?”
Me: “Uh, maybe…but I saw it in the Babies R Us in <insert city>.”
FS: “Ooooooh. You mean inside Toys R Us. That’s a different store. They sell low quality things.”
Me: “Different store? But it has the same name…same logo…the same baby registry…”
FS: “Different store.”

I mean, what the hell?

20

I am not a doctor or nutrionist, but what I’ve read is that formula is less digestible than breast milk, so it takes longer to digest. I’ve also read that goat’s milk is more nutritious and more easily digested than cow’s milk. However, mostly I read about goat’s milk in literature from goat dairies, so I take that with a grain of salt.

I’m not saying that people who feed formula are horrid parents, especially if they’ve given breastfeeding an honest try. Commercial formula is pretty good these days. I remember how my mother used to mix up formula for my little brother, who had been born 3 months premature and was in an incubator for nearly 3 months. After all that time, her milk had dried up. She had breastfed my other siblings and me, and was disappointed that she couldn’t do it with Johnny. He turned out tall and strong anyway.

Oh, and speaking of a baby eating-machine…I went to high school with the guy who is now my husband, and had lunch with him regularly. He was skinny as a rail, and regularly ate two or three trays of food for lunch. It was about four times what I ate for lunch, and I was always astonished to watch him inhale that food. He’d always eat a big breakfast and dinner, it’s just that teenage boys burn Calories at an amazing rate.