Claire's Accessories... no longer cheap and nasty

[scaryfrogfish]

... just nasty.

I popped in yesterday to see if they had an eye mask for sleeping for DD8. I had already had a quick look in Primark, but theirs were all unicorns and glitter, and DD is NOT a unicorn person. Primark's were around £3.50ish.

Claire's did have some satiny, cheap-looking black eye masks which would have done the job... But they were £8. £8! For a bit of flimsy satin.

I thought Claire's was where tweens went to spend pocket money - but it seems more expensive than Accessorize these days. Or am I just out of touch?

It was always over-priced but cheerful.
Unless you had staff discount.
I can't believe they actually trained me up to wield an ear piercing gun

Sorry cant help with that, not been in for a while.
But if I took my 6 year old in she'd want everything

I can't see what market they're appealing to. I wouldn't take DD8 in because a) it's tat (fair enough, she loves tat) but b) it's expensive. If I'm going to get her tat, it'll be from the pound shop or Primark.

If I'm going to get her something expensive, I would expect it to be good quality. Who is buying this shit?

Honestly it's gone super expensive for what is essentially tat. I popped in to look at some cute fashion earrings recently, nothing under the £8-12 region

My just turned 8 year old loves all the tat and could happily buy everything. She is definitely their target audience.

I literally just bought one of those eye masks for Dd’s birthday! It’s all rather overpriced tat in there.

@Magicbabywaves

I literally just bought one of those eye masks for Dd’s birthday! It’s all rather overpriced tat in there.

But it was £8, *@Magicbabywaves*, £8!

And it was shit!

Why, @Magicbabywaves, why?

They had wonder woman eye masks in Asda the other day.

I bought some hair clips from Claire's for dd a couple of months ago and they were rubbish. Broke really quickly and weren't cheap.

It also now costs £60 for an ear piercing!

They’ve never been cheap or even decently priced.

My DD was the right age when those god awful JoJo Bows were a thing and they were £10 each and just extremely cheaply made tatt.

They do a “deal” of buy 3 get 3 free which one theory sounds good but you’ll be lucky to find 6 items that you’re still willing to buy for the price of three.

@MargaeryTyrell

It also now costs £60 for an ear piercing!

It was about £16 to £28 when I was doing it. Bargain. I even attached my latex glove to the piercing for no extra charge (I was mortified and the lady took it very well!)

It’s always been just nasty to my knowledge, never cheap. Although they do epic sales, took my niece in last year for her birthday and gave her £50 to spend - she came out with 2 bags full of sparkly tat!

Yeah it’s always been a rip off.

It probably just seemed cheap before Primark was everywhere!

It’s ridiculously expensive

It's semi-reasonably priced if you do the buy 3 get 3 free, but my dd(6) would spend aaaaallllll day in there just choosing one thing given half a chance, so finding 6 things before I lose the will to live is a challenge.

She does absolutely love it though.

It's grim. But now my teen has gone upscale, it's even more expensive! Luckily she has a job.

Since when have they been cheap.
I wouldn’t call them nasty either.

I was in Claire's yesterday and they had a huge range thick of eye masks - pandas, unicorns etc all with fancy embellishments. It's overpriced at top price but almost always has some version of the thing you need in a sale with significant discount or on the multibuy offers. I get things for the birthday present cupboard while I'm in there if I only need one thing, pay for 3 and have 5 extra birthday party gifts to store away. They are always really popular.

Honestly it's gone super expensive for what is essentially tat. I popped in to look at some cute fashion earrings recently, nothing under the £8-12 region

Dd got a set of 8 pairs of earrings in there yesterday for £4. As above the sales are usually hugely discounted so worth rummaging and keeping an eye open if it's something specific

It’s not necessarily cheap but I don’t think it’s all tat either. My DD8 is their ideal client! We went in there yesterday and I spent under £20 and got 6 things on the deal, five of which I’d say she actually wanted. Bit of a splurge but she broke her arm this week so was due a treat and it made her happy.

Sorry if this may seem trying to really oppose you on purpose, and I totally do agree that 8pounds is really expensive for that sleeping mask! I would certainly not buy my kids that mask on a regular day.

But I mean
It was her 🎂 BIRTHDAY!!
So I would buy them for my dd once in a year on her birthday. If you really HATE buying her that buy it only on her birthday!
Claire’s is NOT nasty. It is just selling and you understand it?!
I think that is a behavior of nasty parents. Well of course I am not saying I would buy everything at a market that my kid wants to

I mean at least just on her birthday you can spend 8pounds

My 8 year old is definitely the target market - after having a discussion with her about peer pressure i agreed to let her go into the store with her today so she could see what it was all about and what her friends thought was so great about the place - i couldn't believe how expensive everything was for what is total tat. What was worse was that she was ripped off by the sales assistant - she bought an item that was advertised as £10 reduced by 50% to £5 but they still charged her the full £10.
https://www.claires.com/pink-bunny-water-filled-glitter-keychain-6378.html?lang=en_GB&selectedshipment=ship_to_address
This was in the Gateshead Metro Centre Claire's Accessories store - parents you need to supervise your kids in here to make sure they're not being ripped off - i mean shame on you Claire's Accessories for ripping off an 8 year old's pocket money - i'm disgusted!! We won't be going back after such a bad experience - i urge others not to go here either...