OK, so we don’t want Wal-Mart, but neither do we want dollar-store row. With proper planning, there is an in-between.

Imagine you’ve ordered some Tupperware from a representative you found on the Internet. She’s on her way over to deliver your order, and you’re picturing some well-heeled, suburban-looking soccer-mom type. Maybe someone a little Stepford Wife-ish.

The doorbell rings. You open the door.

And there stands Jessica Seymour.

Her hair … more

No matter how upscale our neighborhood has become during the past decade, we still don’t seem to count to most national and regional retailers.

“Hi honey!” she calls out sweetly to a shopper, pausing briefly from her work to catch up on events in the customer’s life.

If your child attends Lakewood Elementary, if you dig lovely old homes, or if you’re a regular at gourmet grocery stores on free-sample day, then you’ll want to set aside the weekend of Nov. 8-9.

What sets this boutique apart from others is that it seems to suffer from something of an identity crisis, but in a good way.

Hence the four-month-old Caskets Direct on Abrams, across the street from the Minyard’s and up the block from the Lakewood Shopping Center.

Despite its name, the store is filled with a lot more than furniture (though it has a fine selection of mid-century antique imports).

Could a retail behemoth have its sights set on our neighborhood?

We spent the first few months of pregnancy periodically asking each other if maybe, someday soon, we shouldn’t figure out just what exactly it was that the baby and we were going to need.