I was at Target a little while ago to grab a few things and I happened to walk down the seasonal home decor aisle.  There are cute little Valentine's Day frames, red pillows, throw rugs and a few pictures to hang on the wall.  There were some candles, nice vases and seashells for spring decorating. 

Next to the seashells was a 5 pound container of sand. 

Beach sand.  Light brown, fine grain beach sand. 

In case I've never mentioned it...I live in San Diego.  Now, I do live inland about 20 minutes from the closest breaking wave, but still. 

Sand.  Target sells little containers of sand.

Because I have a retail background, I understand and appreciate why Target changes out the back to school supply section with Halloween in August (and includes a back corner with Christmas basics).  I  understand why Valentine's Day and Christmas overlap.  I get why St. Patrick's Day only gets an endcap display and since its January, I'm prepared to see summer lawn chairs in the next few weeks.

Retailers like Target and Walmart have strictly timed floor models that they adhere to whether you're in San Diego or St. Paul.  It makes sense for merchandise flow reasons.  They can ship certain merchandise for all stores at the same time.  You can walk into a Target in any town and know that it looks just like the Target 1,000 miles away.  I bought my kids new ski pants in October when it was 90 degrees out.

The only variance I've noticed is that our Target sells sunblock year-round.  They didn't used to.  It used to come out with the summer merchandise and disappear when Halloween popped up.  They finally got wise to lost sales and began stocking sunblock year round.

But selling sand in San Diego?