I was recently (read: like two months ago) ogling these wooden alphabet flashcards at Pottery Barn Kids. They were on sale, but this was right after the holidays so I wasn't rushing to spend any more money just then.

So yesterday I finally get back up to the mall to buy them, and lo and behold it turns out they were on sale because PBK was clearing out their inventory because they were discontinuing them. And now they were all out.

I was sad and crushed and went home to google other vendors, but no one had even heard of them, not even ebay. Then I realized duh, maybe I should call other PBK locations to see if they had any left in stock. Why the PBK at my mall hadn't thought to offer to do this for me, I'll never know.

So I call the Chicago PBK store, and after rooting around awhile the girl says they are out as well, but many other stores still have them--specifically, The Shoppes at Arbor Lakes.

In Minnesota.

I discovered that after googling the phone number she helpfully gave me.

And I did that after phoning another suburban Chicago location that did, actually, still have some flashcards.

Which I drove out to pick up today, although I'm not sure why I'm bothering to educate my daughter when she is already qualified now to work the PBK customer service desk.