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Well, I thought I was ahead of the game on this one. According to the stores we contacted, baby cribs were mostly a special order item, and needed to be ordered six to twelve weeks in advance. I did all of the research and looked at cribs at Babies R Us, specialty baby stores, and online. Most cribs that we were shown cost between $500-1000! Those were the special order ones. A few chain stores had some cheap, imported Asian cribs, but I didn't want one quite that flimsy and low-quality.
The one that was recommended highly to me was a Child Craft crib, which was at least partially made in the United States. It was reasonably priced, and received high marks in the "Baby Bargains" book for quality, value and safety.
The specialty stores didn't carry that one, as it had too small a price tag to allow them a decent markup. I found it online at Target. It listed with a typical two-week delivery period, so I ordered it on March 8th. I was told it would be delivered by March 31.
On March 30, I received an email from Target saying that the crib shipment had been delayed, and that I could now expect the crib to be delivered on April 6.
On April 6, I received an email from Target stating that the crib order had been cancelled by Target because the item was now unavailable from their supplier.
This was extremely annoying to me, as Brian and I have a very busy weekend schedule with baby care classes and other obligations, and we are both working. I didn't want to place yet another online order only to have it fall through right before the baby arrived. This left us little time to do any more crib shopping, and if we had to order a crib, we needed to do it right away.
Fortunately, everything worked out in the end. I had stayed home from work that day, so I was able to drive out to the baby furnishings store a half an hour away and purchase a crib that was a floor sample. It was more expensive than the original crib I'd ordered, but it was right there and didn't need to be special ordered.
The saleswoman told me that the crib was great quality, and that the salespeople had liked all of the furniture from this company, but that they were no longer planning on carrying the line because of poor customer service. Apparently, people were waiting over 16 weeks for crib deliveries! This new crib is made by a company called Status. Baby Bargains ranks it very highly in their 2003 edition, but perhaps they haven't heard about the shipping delays.
So, if you are in the market for a crib, be aware! Order it well in advance of your due date to avoid hassles.