Yesterday, my wife and I went shopping for some outdoor umbrellas. Not just any umbrellas, but ones that would extend over our pool (I went swimming on Saturday and my wife and son sat under one of our regular umbrellas on the side of the pool and we thought it would be a good idea to get some shade actually over the pool). We went to Home Expo and found nothing; next stop was Home Depot where we found 2 umbrellas, but no bases for them. Then came Costco, Lowes, and another Home Depot. Nothing. (We always tend to miss the right time in the season to buy.) We looked online and I found several, some with free shipping. Problem was if we didn’t like them, returning them would be problematic due to the weight. I found the same umbrella we saw at Home Depot on their online site for the same price and free shipping. However, online purchases can’t be returned at the stores. Hmmm. The listing has an in store SKU, so I started calling stores. The store we went to said they had 5 available and would visually check the stock. After being transferred around for a bit, I finally spoke to someone who was yelling to someone that had a clue. Turns out they had 2 without bases (I could have told them that). They didn’t know where the other 3 or the bases were.) I’m not sure how you lose bases (there were 2 boxes per umbrella) that weight 114 pounds! I found another store (35 minutes away) that said they actually had 6 and set one aside for me (I asked for two). We drive up there (this was the first adventure with the little on in my car as his seat is on one side in my car and in the center in my wife’s car, so we could fold down one seat) and managed to get 2 umbrellas in my car. Wow, those are heavy. After getting home and having a neighbor help me pull them out of the car, I put them together and am quite pleased.So, it’s a good thing we got them at the “end of the season” otherwise I would have overlooked this model (it was 25% off). Too bad it was such a pain to get what I wanted. Such is life in the big city.