I get around

The world needs more drive throughs.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the shining example set by the fast food industry in this regard and compliment them on their trailblazing, but what about the rest of retail America? As far as I can tell, just a few pharmacies and dry cleaners have followed their lead but that seems like too few, if you ask me.

In this age of hyper-safety when it comes to baby travel, just getting Jacob in or out of his car seat and in or out of the car or in or out of the stroller is a Herculean task. And when he's asleep and I'd like him to stay that way, I don't want to have to be Hercules and sling him abruptly from one store to the next. No, what I want instead is a drive through grocery store, a drive through post office, a drive through discount store, and more drive through restaurants (woman cannot live on Sonic and Taco Bell alone, people!) including a coffee shop. (And maybe a drive through baby store, while we're at it.) Because in these stores I am not there to browse right now. I am there on a specific errand. I know exactly what I want, and I want to get it quickly and with a minimum of baby disruption. If I can drive through and get food, drugs, and clean clothes, why can I not drive through and get milk, stamps, a white t-shirt, or some decent herbal tea? I promise to reward accommodating retailers when I have more free time on my hands.

Someone is missing the boat here. There is an untapped and desperate market out there (harried mothers and fathers) waiting to be catered to and have their lives made easier. In fact, this problem, that of missing the boat with this market, is epidemic. Consider the following tale of woe: I bought a small insulated bag to keep bottles cold while traveling. Said bag leaked all over my carry-on and kept things cool...ish but mostly wet. So I bought another insulated bag at my destination (after throwing away the first in a fit of pique), this one much more sophisticated, to do the same thing. This second one leaked all over my diaper bag when it accidentally tipped over. My question is this: could someone not invent something that will do exactly this, keep prepared bottles cold? And furthermore, why hasn't someone already done so? Is this now not a perennial problem for busy parents? The utter lack of appropriate products in a seemingly production saturated market is suspicious. Surely someone could spend less time developing yet another colorful play mat or line of "adorable" yet dangerous baby bedding and instead fix a real problem. Look at how creative these people have been!

Or, someone could just make some new drive throughs. Is this asking too much??