A lesser known resource in our area for car seats and other baby gear like strollers, outlet covers, baby gates and more is the Kohl’s Safety Center located just inside the American Family Children’s Hospital. They carry the top safety brands of car seats like Diono and Britax as well as others like Graco and Chicco that also rank well.
The best part about this place? You won’t beat the prices anywhere else. And the icing on the cake? When you go, you can park right outside the front door and tell them that you’re there to try out some car seats in your car. Then, they’ll help you install a couple of your top picks so that you can choose the one you like best, make sure that it fits in your car, AND you know that it’s properly installed!
The only downside to the Kohl’s Safety Center is that their hours are somewhat limited to mostly regular business hours and one Saturday morning per month. It’s completely worth it to take a couple hours off of work to go.
If you absolutely can’t find the time to get to the Kohl’s Safety Center or they don’t carry what you’re looking for, your next best option (if you can afford the wait) is to take advantage of the Babies R’ Us Great Trade-In event once a year, usually in late January and/or early February. If you’ve already got older kids and expired car seats, it’s worth an extra percentage off of your new purchase. But don’t worry. If you don’t have anything to trade in, you can still get a decent deal on new baby gear. But I bet that if you ask your Facebook friends if they’ve got any expired car seats to get rid of, they’d be glad to unload one on you to be able to take advantage of the sale![/x_text]