Swimsuit Shopping at Walmart

Ok, I admit it.  I hate shopping for bathing suits.

It hasn’t always been this way.  When I was young and trim, muscled from all that Army physical training, buying a bathing suit was simply a matter of picking out something that looked cute on the hanger and making sure it was in the right size.

Not any more.  Fast forward 15 years and a whole bunch of pounds and it’s not quite the quick, easy and painless situation it once was.  And it can be expensive–I hate paying a fortune for something that I don’t even feel makes me look my best (and what makes me look my best is something that isn’t quite so form fitting these days!)

Nevertheless, when Walmart offered me a chance to go shopping and check out their swimsuit offerings this year I decided to take the assignment.  After all, we do go to the lake a couple of times in the summer, and I wind up taking the kids to the town pool regularly as well.  Swimming is great exercise so I do like to get into the pool.  Besides all that–thinking back on it I realized my “new” swimsuit was at least 5 years old.

The spending limit was $40–so I figured I could find a suit for myself and maybe be able to pick up the second suit that Princess would need for camp this year.  I was blown away by the selections available in store, and to my total surprise, I was able to get EVERYONE in the family a swimsuit (the actual total was $43).  I did NOT expect that!

Let’s start with the ladies bathing suits (or are the swimsuits?).  Of course there was a full assortment of tiny bikinis–suitable for the college Co-Eds from Binghamton University right down the street.  There were a wide variety of one piece suits in various levels of coverage, and really nice matching separates in a variety of styles.  I like that trend of making several different styles of tops and of bottoms that all can work together in whatever configuration best suits the body type of the woman wearing it.

I tried on several suits, and I decided to be quite brave and put them out there for you all to see–even though I’m not fond of how I look in most of them.  Actually, I’m pretty sure you can tell from the looks on my face which suit was my favorite.

The two suits on the right are actually separates–two different tops with the same skirt.  They were pretty cute, but I didn’t feel secure in the coverage of my midsection when I was moving around.  The one on the far left quite frankly made me look like a tank.  The second one in was the winner, the Catalina Women’s  Sporty Side Print ,  with the side panels giving a bit of a slimming effect!

In the girls department there was not only a wide selection of suits (I love that crochet lace over rainbow two piece I’m showing below!) but also a lot of other swim wear pieces like the rashgaurds (that’s the swim shirts) and the swim shorts/board shorts.  I know that last year they did not have such a wide variety–as a matter of fact in my local store last year the only way you could get a rashgaurd was to buy a “set” that included both the swimsuit and the shirt.  I remember that because I was looking for just a shirt and couldn’t find one.  The shorts are also new–those will be great for when Princess and Buddy are biking over to the pool and coming home wet–they can just toss those shorts on over the suit and not have that icky wet cloth feeling.

I did notice that most of the selection was 2 piece suits–and for sleep away camp this summer Princess is required to have a one piece suit.  They had 5 styles that weren’t “baby-ish”.  Since Princess is a teen now (13! ack!) I gave her a quick call and described the suits to her–she chose the pink one because I described it to her as “it looks like a one piece in the front, but from the back it looks like a two piece”.

She liked it when I brought it home and saw it, but her comment was “oh.  It has a ruffle.”

The boys department really shocked me this year.  Not only did they have the rack of swimsuit/rashgaurd sets–but they had TWO endcaps and an additional full wall of boys swim trunks in all sorts of styles, colors and sizes.  It had to be at a minimum 3X the variety as there was last year.  I hadn’t expected there to be such a wide variety–I though there would just be a few and I’d pick the one that Buddy would probably like–but with such a varied selection I wound up pulling out the phone, again and calling home, again.

He wanted something plain, so we went with the orange and black shorts.

Similarly there was an extremely wide selection in the mens department–at least 4 full racks with swim suits of all kinds.  There were even swim trunks that looked like regular dress shorts!  I had to look at the label and inside the trunks to be sure they really were for swimming.  I picked out a standard blue pair with white trim that looked very “swimsuit” for Yankee Bill (he’s not really into crazy stuff).

I have to say, I do a lot of posts for Walmart and this was the first time in a long time where I truly was impressed with the variety of something available.  It is such a dramatic difference from last year’s assortment.  And of course the prices were excellent–everything I was interested in was well under $20 an item!

I know some of you might be thinking I’m crazy to be buying clothing items for teenagers and husbands without having them there to try things on–but with Walmart’s return policy, I know that as long as I keep the tags and receipt I can return the suits for 90 days if they don’t fit or my family doesn’t like the styles.  So I can shop with confidence!
****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.