Is it me or have the shops gone mad?

[Birdly]

Just been out to buy winter-type shoes for dd and ds only to find that my local and very good shoe shop has already sold out of velcro-fastening girls' ankle boots! It's only 1st Sept, but they won't be getting any more in! How can they have sold out of winter shoes at the end of summer???? I know from experience that the popular stuff gets snapped up quickly but surely this is crazy?
Then again, I caught the staff at a local garden centre unpacking their Christmas trees last week (August!!!!) so I guess anything's possible.
Is it all due to global warming or something else entirely?

they're going mad - a card shop in staines was full of every style of christmas card last week, apparently they'd already been there for two weeks!

Worse than that was going into my local Clarks to buy shoes for my 5 year old whose feet have grown a size to be told that they only had school shoes until mid September!!! What was I meant to do, just let him go barefoot in the meantime??? (He is homeschooled by the way so I did not want school type shoes). Thankfully, my local John Lewis found me a pair in the exact right size left over from last year and sold them to me for half price!

I went to buy startrite shoes with ds to be told they had no plans to order any more schools shoes and I could only choose from 2 styles both of which were the wrong size and were brown !

It is madness isn;t it.

We have been trying to get hold of the school blazer for DD so she can wear the summer unifrm (easier to put on!) - they can wear it until October half term. But John Lewis has none in stock in her size, and can't get one until end of September 4 weeks into term. Argh!

Oh John Lewis makes me really cross with regards to school uniform.We can only buy it from there (huh) its a small school with 84 kids in it with 50 of the kids having to wear blazers/shirts etc surely it's not difficult to order in enough uniform, its different to every other school in the area and they do know they we are only suppose to buy it from them

there isn't one unfortunatly

We do have one but only open in term time.

hula , a thought . Can you get just a school badge from the shop and fix it onto a plain blazer from elsewhere or does it have fancy piping ? We did this initially with dd - a cheap navy one from BHS and badge free from school (just had to have the front to ask !). Then got her a proper one at the spring 2nd hand sale for £15. Otherwise I bet she could wear a cardigan and coat over her summer dress - do they have waterproof jacket on the uniform list ? tbh they tend to be more flexible when it is the official stockist out of stock !

I know SueW, but thats private schools for you, I think they forget that we haven't all got a never ending pot of money and just sometimes parents have no choice in private schooloing.I do agree about the blazers, £85 and it gets slung around,trod on, used as goal posts etc etc but never actually worn !

Dh and i went to town today and "wilkos" are selling christmas wrapping paper and decorations and so on! Me and dh just looked at each other in shock! It's only just September for god sake!

Liz - has to be a certain blazer and the badge is already on it, not available seperately. There is a waterproof jacket but again not available at the moment - also not part of preprep uniform, just prep. Summer dress has to be worn with the cardigan, blazer and boater only.

Sue - the second hand shop at DD's school was great for the winter coats and hats. Coat is about £85/90 new and we got one in perfect condition for £35, and a hat (normally £35 new) for just £5.

I went into Woolworths in Penzance on Friday and they're selling Advent Calendars with the sweets in which probably have a sell by date of before December (I didn't look though!).