February Beach Party!

We're a week into February. Do you know what that means?

If you said, "It's time to get out the squirt guns and beach toys," you just might work for Walmart!

The temperature outside is currently 44 degrees. (That's on the Fahrenheit scale, because, you know, 'Merica!) And while 44 is much warmer than the 9 degrees we had a week or two ago, I'm still not thinking, "Hey, let's go to the beach!" Or, "I think we should have a water fight!" Or, "I wonder where I could purchase 37 different varieties of squirt guns?"

Weapons for a winter water war.

We're one week away from Valentine's Day, so obviously they should fill the store with squirt guns because what couple doesn't celebrate the most romantic day of the year with a big water fight?

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to having a big beach party to celebrate President's Day. (As long as they remember to plow the snow off of the beach parking lot.)

Retailers are so worried about staying ahead of their customers that sometimes they get a little too far ahead. Does anybody ever really think, "If the weather is better than normal, I might get to the beach on Memorial Day, so just to be safe I'll be sure to buy some beach toys the first week of February." 

The problem is, in order to make room for these far-flung future items, the stores clear the shelves of things you might actually want or need right now. Have you ever tried to buy a winter coat in the middle of winter? Good luck. If you need a coat in February, you better have a time machine that can take you back to October, because that's when they stopped selling winter coats. 

Gloves, mittens, scarves, snow shovels: all these things are extremely hard to find in a store in February. Why is that? Didn't they see that some rodent in Pennsylvania said we're going to have six more weeks of winter?

Oh well, there's not much I can do about it. I'd better just go ahead and get my summer supply of squirt guns and beach toys now, because before March rolls in they'll all be replaced with the "Back to School" supplies.