Wednesday 2 September 2015

Dear shops! Move your childrens departments!

I don't know whether it's my pregnancy hormones making me more agitated or whether what I'm about to moan about is actually a fair point. I'm pretty sure it bothered me before I was pregnant so I'm going to voice my opinion.

I honestly feel completely fed up of shopping on the high street and finding that the majority of the children's and baby clothing are all on silly levels of the stores such as level 3 or the basement. I just can't understand the logic of this. I know that the majority of shoppers are women and therefore you'll normally find the womenswear on the ground floor. I suppose this is to draw us into the shops.

However, if you are shopping for children's or baby clothing you will have to venture to another floor. This really riles me up when more often than not I am shopping with the pram/pushchair. Shopping with a child is stressful enough as it is. You normally have a battle on your hands between entertaining them, pushing the pushchair and carrying your change bag and shopping bags. So why is it that the high street then chooses to make us go on a wild goose chase to find their clothes. We can't use the escalators as you can't put a pushchair on them so you have to use the lift. Where are the lifts though? That in itself is a quest and trek as they are normally hidden away at the back of the store. You then have a nose around, get your shopping and once again have to get back into the lift to exit the store.

Why can't the high street and brands sympathise with us parents. I honestly don't know of any store (other than an actual children's shop) that has the kids departments in an easily accessible place. In fact the only big store I can think of that actual thinks of the parent in Cardiff is Next.

Perhaps this doesn't happen in your area? Is it just Cardiff that feels the need to stress me out?! Another horrific example of this is one of our H&M stores which is located in the capital shopping centre in Cardiff. Again, the children's section is located on the first floor so you have to use the lift to get to it. If you plan to shop in there past 4pm (so i'm told by the staff inside the store) then not only do you have the inconvenience of going upstairs, you then have to drag yourself and the army of things you have in tow back downstairs to be able to pay for them!!! They stupidly close down all tills upstairs after 4pm. How ridiculous is that!!? I actually raised this point to the staff when I was last in there (passed 4pm) and explained how much of an inconvenience it is to close the tills down but they looked at me like I was stupid and some sort of deranged women. They couldn't see my point at all and couldn't even be bothered to humour me by saying we will discuss this within management. Let's wait till they have children and see what they have to say about it then.

What is your take on this? I would love to hear your thoughts. 
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11 comments

  1. This winds me up too! You get to the shop, have to walk all the way through to the lift, then usually through another department when you get upstairs to get to the baby clothes, then trek back to the lift and back out of the shop! It's so time consuming! Primark in Cardiff was the worst I found as it's always so busy you can't even fit in the lift with a pram! I gave up on finding the baby clothes and never went back!

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  2. I agree but I reckon it's simply because they make more from adult clothing than they do on kids and investing in changes to help parents will just eat into their profit. In which case, I'd say, either sell kids clothing properly or don't bother! Can't see the logic if they're not going to make it parent / child friendly. H&M is a case in point - on the first floor and they don't have kiddy changing rooms either.

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  3. Oh my goodness YES!! This drives me absolutely mental! Why is it so far away?!? Glad it's not just me! Xx

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  4. Yes! The only ones that make it easy are supermarkets! Otherwise it's fighting through busy shops, with people huffing at you. Thankfully, mine are older, so I can shop child free now x

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  5. Oh yes, it's a nightmare, isn't it? Then there are the queues for the lifts too. I don't live near many shops so mainly do online clothes shopping! x

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  6. Yes! It's a bloody nightmare! These days I do the majority of my shopping for the kids online. Way more fun :)

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  7. It is the same around here, we often go to Spytty in Newport shopping and pretty much ever shop there has the baby clothing upstairs. The only ones that don't are Next (our local Next in Cwmbran also has them downstairs, well done Next!) and Asda Living.
    The lifts are always tiny too and can only ever fit one pushchair in at a time!

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  8. I completely agree! I do most of my shopping online now because dragging three children in and out of lifts and dragging g them round the shops is a nightmare!

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  9. Oh yes, I am definitely with you on this one. It is exactly the same where we live too and it drives me mad that I always have to hunt for the lift and change floors. There are two shops I can think of that I can't actually shop in when I have the buggy as there seems to be no lift at all. Shopping online is so much easier!

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  10. You know i am SO with you on this Kerry. It's ridiculous. H&M especially need to get a flipping grip!

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  11. It's all very tactical... how they sleep at night, I'll never know... H&M at Capitol really gets to me, it's such a trek to get to the kids dept :( it happens everywhere, Primark is another one :( xxx

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