Buy Buy Baby and Beyond...

You may have already heard, but as I am slow on the corporate news now that I am no longer in the corporate world, I just heard about a beautiful merger. No, not the nuptials of Mimi and Nick, but the merger of east coast baby merch mecca Buy Buy Baby and home of the weekly 20% off mailer - Bed, Bath and Beyond. To the Momish, the takeaway is that those 20% off coupons may now be used (double check with your local store) to stock up on all things baby gear - including strollers of the carrycot variety (a secret obsession). I know many of my New York friends had registries at Buy Buy Baby - so hopefully the Midwesterners and west coasters will soon have another registry option... I do know that Bed, Bath and Beyond's website already has a baby section and it features a wide variety of high, middle and low price points (for instance, in strollers they offer Uppa-Baby, Peg Perego, Bugaboo, Combi, Joovy, Maclaren, etc.)

An interesting tidbit for me (in my past-life I liked to pretend to be a corporate attorney and work on mergers and acquisitions - and even had "Family Business" magazine on my routing list at the law firm) from the deal was that Buy Buy Baby was founded by the sons of the founder of Bed, Bath and Beyond. Buy Buy Baby had eight stores and was worth $86 million. It will be interesting to see if the deal means that baby merchandise will be carried at Bed, Bath stores or if more Buy Buy Baby stores will pop up through out the country.

Fru-gal

I love to shop. What gal doesn't. But those who know me well know that the one thing I love more than shopping (in addition to the babish and the hubish, natch) is bargain shopping.

And what stores are the bargain bins for bargain shoppers? The sisters in saving - TJMaxx and Marshalls. Now don't get me wrong, I love me some Tar-zhay too, but my motto has always been to never sacrifice quality for a deal - and if you really scout and scour, at these stores you can always find diamonds in the rough for the price of coal.

But because I have some friends and one brother who seem to think that these stores are a waste of time, I decided to post a little blog about some of the fabulous baby finds there. So if you are of the mindset that you'd rather not sift through racks and racks to maybe find that one designer cast-off, I would encourage you to take another look at the baby section. Most TJs and Marshalls have a wide selection of toys, books and baby gear that is easy to find and look through.

Here are some of my recent finds: 1) JJ Cole Bundle Me Urban - retails for $39.99 found on clearance for $22.00; 2) Peg Perego high chair - retails for $169.99 on sale for $129.99; 3) Maclaren Triumph stroller - retails for $179.99 on sale for $119.00; 4) Halo Sleepsack (various colors, styles and sizes, including organic cotton) - retails for $19.99 - marked at 12.99. My son's entire library of Eric Carle and Karen Katz books are from these stores too!

Of course, the find that really got me excited was an all wood kitchen set - on clearance for $40 bucks. But alas, even though it was in blue - the Hubbish vetoed it for the Babish... so if anyone is near the TJMaxx/Homegoods in Bloomingdale Illinois - you have yourself a great find.

Happy shopping.