To think finding school uniform is like the quest for the holy grail?

[WildBelle]

I don't know whether it's just the area I live in, but I find it so hard to find school uniform in the right size for my dd. Supermarkets seem to be well stocked when the schools first break up for summer, then the rest of the year it's like a lucky dip, usually with things only on the racks that are age 3 or age 16, with nothing in between.

I've looked in various Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury's stores in my area, and it's always the same. Dd desperately needs some more blue polo shirts but they seem to have completely disappeared from existence. On the odd Occasion I do manage to find something in the right size I feel a sense of jubilation, like I've beaten the system somehow.

AIBU to think that supermarkets are missing a trick here? Kids grow/lose stuff/trash stuff during the year and it's stuff they have to wear pretty much all year round, so there's always going to be a need for it. I know I could order online, but it's nice to be able to hold something against dd to see if it's going to fit, and I don't really want to pay delivery charges.

The internet is your friend. I live in an area where our local Asda & M&S have stock year round but if I haven't found an item in store I have always been able to order online from both stores.

Click and collect tends to be free.

Order online and collect in store from m&s , Next or Tesco .

Yes, I recommend going online as others have said. I have to as our local supermarkets never have dc1 size. Also the school has recently decided to change colours and rather marvellously nowhere stocks it.
I also have loads of stuff I could have put dc2 in but is no longer the right colour. Pissed me right off. What a bloody waste.

Matalan do year-round schoolwear x

Looks like ordering online is the way forward though - it seems nuts though, they still have space in the store taken up by school uniform, it's just always in useless sizes. I'm fairly sure if they kept a good range of sizes in stock they would sell consistently.

Do you really need to be able to touch a blue polo shirt to know what it'll be like?

Just order online - if your DD has grown out of age 7, you can be reasonably sure age 8 will be the right size, for example.

would be handy, some of the ones she's got are 6/7, and some are 9/10. Different shops size things differently.

My Tesco never has polo shirts or trousers in the right size or colour so I usually do click and collect with m&s or John Lewis to my nearest Waitrose.