ALBUQUERQUE -- New Mexico attorney general Gary King looks set to go where his counterparts in Ohio and Florida have gone before.

King recently informed the attorneys for Albuquerque-based children's-furniture retailer USA Baby and its parent company Midwest Baby that it may be trading in breach of the state's Unfair Practices Act.

The Act prevents companies from supplying less/fewer goods or services than customers have paid for.

The attorney general alleges that the USA Baby Albuquerque store is offering goods for sale "without the intent to reasonably meet expected public demand or to provide the goods or both."

Late last year former Ohio attorney general Jim Petro filed suit against the owners of three USA Baby stores in the state's northeast after first suing one of the owners in October, 2005. Petro's successor, Mike Dann, has indicated he intends to continue pursuing the suit.

The Ohio action, filed against the stores' new owner Midwest Baby, its three principals and the three stores' original owner, alleges more than 100 customers paid for furniture they never received. One of the stores, in Westlake, has since closed.

Several leading babyware companies have ceased shipping to Midwest Baby's five USA Baby stores, according to Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Sheryl Harris. As well as the two Ohio stores in Sylvania and Cuyahoga Falls and the Albuquerque franchise, Midwest Baby also owns stores in Aurora, Colo. and Tampa, Fla.

Former Florida attorney general Charlie Crist launched an investigation last September into the Tampa USA Baby store after similar complaints that the store took payments for goods it never delivered. The manager of that store has since left the company in acrimony.

USA Baby's Tampa franchise is currently being investigated by the Florida attorney general's Economic Crimes Division in Tampa. The possible charge is Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices.