M&P have gone now too!

[LucaFritz]

Another baby company gone bust i can't work out from the article if its with immediate effect on all stores though ? A few workers turned up to find they didn't have a job anymore and the shops were shut

Where will people go to try out prams and car seats now?

My nearest city has lost Babies r us, Mamas and Papas and Mothercare all within 100 yards of each other. No idea where I would now shop for late get baby items that I wish to view in person rather than shop online.

As greedytiger says - where on earth do you buy things from?! I would never buy a pram etc from somewhere I couldnt see it, try it etc. Alrhough as my 60 something colleagues said today, their kids aren't interested in functional, they want cool, so maybe people dint give a shit as long as it fits the current vibe. For me, I wanted to know I could collapse it easily, rather than being the funky mum. I liked a shop and actual advice.

I couldn't buy something like a pram or car seat without testing it out first even when you read the specifications online its hard to picture how heavy it'll be etc. I didn't buy my pram from mothercare but i tried a few out there to get a feel first before i saw the one i wanted 2nd hand. Only place i can still think of in my area that will do prams is John Lewis and there selection is very poor mainly icandy and bugaboo at my local one or Smyths toys do a tiny selection

I didn't buy my pram from mothercare but i tried a few out there to get a feel first before i saw the one i wanted 2nd hand.

And this is precisely why shops go under. People use it like a museum and then go elsewhere to buy cheaper.

I found John Lewis to have an excellent selection and staff who knew what they were on about. So I expect people will go there.

No they went under because there prams and things cost hundreds more than an online retailer did and people can't afford that they got too greedy for themselves both mothercare and M&P. I feel sorry for the staff but not for the companies behind this shambles they should have moved with the times and noticed a change in how parents shopped for their babies we now have two kinds of shopper one who buys new but gets the cheapest deal they can and ones like me who will buy things like prams clothes etc 2nd if they see a good bargain im not about to pay £900 for a pram when a lady down the road was selling me it for £100 because she didn't like it

Online stores will always be able to sell stuff cheaper due to not having the overheads of shop rent/sales assistant wages/bills. Or their overheads will be much reduced anyway.

But yes m&p were always expensive even compared to mothercare. I never shopped there when dd was small as I couldn’t afford it.

I haven’t got a John Lewis within a 50 mile radius. But until today I was 5 miles from a mothercare and a m&p.

I worry about mattress shops going under as well. I’d hate to buy a mattress without trying it in a shop first.

I think the main culprit of all these stores nationwide going under are the councils or whoever who set the rents on these shops and the rates. My local high street is a now a desert wasteland with one or two charity shops dotted on it and a betting shop the local retail parks aren't faring much better either something has to give at somepoint

I think There some sort of business model which is like a membership thing or you pay £5 entry or whatever. And it's where you go to try out prams, car seats, washing machines and other big items. That you need but usually buy online but want to physically look at first. You can't buy there as there's only one of everything in stock.
Like a window shopping experience but on a big scale.

Yeah writing it down it sounds daft doesn't it

John Lewis for in store pushchairs but most people buy online or second hand. M&P and Mothercare died because they were overpriced and couldn’t live up to the internet as with most retail stores we have lost. Sad but it’s the way of the world now, people want deals and mostly the convenience of online shopping.

We had a local shop that stocked M&P but cheaper and great customer service.
M&P was just far too overpriced in the end. I think the novelty of it dropped off. Also I think there’s more choice now, if people spend money they want something unique.

We have a local family run pram and car seat/nursery furniture type shop which has been running for 60 years and just expanded into a larger premises. They are fantastic and known for miles around for their customer service and stuff. People here choose them over MC and M&P all the time.

M&P were more expensive and had shittier in-branch service than John Lewis for prams / furniture. That was their downfall in the cities where they needed to close. If you notice all the cities where they do make a profit they are located at the perfect distance where convenience means the two sets of customer bases never meet / might be very different.

Mothercare just didn’t have the right business model considering the strength of it’s brand. It should have gone high scale in terms of product and service (similar to John Lewis) but instead decided to sell the same low budget shit as the supermarkets but for more expensive prices. I’m predicting they will close and then re-open in a year or two with a far more exclusive business model.