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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think debenhams wall of sweets at the till in the childrenswear dept is disgraceful.

121 replies

mairmaid · 12/02/2011 17:32

Don't often go shopping but found myself next to a wall of sweets in Debenhams childrenswear dept. Is this a new thing? I asked them if there was not some legislation with respect to sweets at tills. Their response "We're not a supermarket". Was there not a reason why legislation was recently stopped to reduce pester power at supermarket tills? Does it make it ok in debenhams just because you don't need to buy clothes as regularly as food?

OP posts:
allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 12/02/2011 18:21
Wink
allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 12/02/2011 18:21

oops, wrong thread!! Grin

LibraPoppyGirl · 12/02/2011 18:24

If you don't agree with the OP then obviously it is everybody's right to post their own opinion, after all this is - AIBU.

Some of these posts are just silly though and quite frankly unnecessary. Say you don't agree and move on. No need to keep coming back with sarcasm, designed to try and belittle the poster.

If you don't have anything constructive to say then why say anything at all?

LibraPoppyGirl · 12/02/2011 18:25

PS. Flame all you want, it matters not to me!

Laquitar · 12/02/2011 18:25

'Its very unfair to the parent when they are distracted with paying for items and trying to stop straying hands at the same time'.

Yes, life doesn't get more unfair than this. Grin

grubbalo · 12/02/2011 18:29

OK, to spell it out... I agree with what you're saying actually expatinscotland, and when I say no, no does mean no!

What I meant is, that as a parent with 2 very small boys, I try not to put them in "unreasonable" situations, i.e. where they can do something naughty that they don't actually think is naughty. My 2 year old saw a load of chocolate eggs on a shelf and thought "yum, I'll have one". He is 2, not 4, and actually didn't realise it was naughty. I would never have put him in that situation had I known chocolate is there... I believe my job as a parent is to stop that sort of thing happening. So in e.g. Tesco, I wouldn't let him roam free in the sweet aisle. However, in a bookshop, I actually don't mind him being out of the trolley as he knows to treat books nicely, looks at them carefully etc etc. What I don't expect is a load of chocolate on the shelf. Now I do, I won't put him in that situation again.

I don't post in this section very often and now I know why. People seem to be very keen to prove how clever they are and to get one up on each other rather than just making sensible points.

BabyDubsEverywhere · 12/02/2011 18:37

Am I the only one that actually buy my children sweets. It makes them happy, if they ask for some sweets when we are out shopping (which is probably once a week at very maximum) then they get them. Ill probably get myself some too.

The sweets are obviously there because people buy them, and as there inst a Debenhams employee brandishing a gun to shoppers near the sweeties, I assume that they are buying them with their own free will. I hate clothes shopping, sweets would make it much more appealing, leave them alone Grin

HarrietSchulenberg · 12/02/2011 18:37

I don't like seeing sweets in a clothes shop but don't have a problem saying No. If the store doesn't like having grumpy children and sour-faced children then get rid of the bloody sweets.

I have started having a "look the other way" policy towards pick-n-mix sections that are clearly aimed at small children (height of stand etc). If my 3 year old shoves a handful of jelly babies in his mouth while I'm looking at something else, I am NOT going to remove them or pay for them. But I flatly refuse to give in to any of my children pestering for sweets just because they've clapped eyes on them near a till, and in the case of it being in a clothes shop, I wouldn't be going back there.

bibbitybobbityhat · 12/02/2011 18:43

Yanbu.

And supermarkets.

Its just tiresome to have to say no all the time. It is of course marketing based on pester power. Everyone who has replied to you and said yabu is being economical with the truth, basically. They would prefer the sweets not to be there Smile.

DooinMeCleanin · 12/02/2011 18:43

BabyDubz if I bought my dc everything thing they asked for I'd be bankrupt, even if I just limited this to sweets. Dd1 is now old enough to walk to the shops on her own. She is back and forth like a yo-yo on pocket money day.

They do get sweets, but once their money is gone, it's gone. End of.

If I am in a particularly nice mood I might ask before I nip out to the shops if they want anything, but they learnt long ago the more they pester the more likely I am to say no.

ThePosieParker · 12/02/2011 18:44

My children see things all of the time that they want though...they just don't get it. My dcs have sweets sometimes, never regularly.....but I have major hang ups about 'treats' as I had very very few as a child and so when I moved into a sweet shop at eleven I went crazy! My dcs love sweets but they neither expect them or think that they are the most precious things in the world.

GabySolis · 12/02/2011 18:49

Stores know that parents won't risk a showdown with their child in a busy queue and will just say yes. It's very unfair to the parent when they're distracted with paying for items and trying to stop straying hands at the same time.

Seriously?! OK, granted it's bloody annoying that sweets are always at child grab level when you're distracted and paying at the tills or whatever (gets on my wick too) but there is a little word called NO to be used,if mine were pestering me for sweets I'd tell them no, you can't just go round saying 'yes' for an easy life!

BabyDubsEverywhere · 12/02/2011 18:50

See Dooin, we rarely go shopping, so i like to treat them when we do. Id find it quite convenient to have sweets near a childrens clothing area. Would save me going to a 'food' shop where i never just buy what i need Blush - i hate supermarkets - online is the only way here Wink

BabyDubsEverywhere · 12/02/2011 18:51

'My dcs love sweets but they neither expect them or think that they are the most precious things in the world.'
Same here posie, for now Grin

queenofboak · 12/02/2011 18:54

I find these stands at the tills very annoying.

Not for dd, she's good girl and doesn't try to take/ask for anything.

Me. I'm as fat as a pudding, however Grin

hormonesnomore · 12/02/2011 18:55

Am I the only one who now wants to see this 'wall of sweets'? Grin

PatriciaHolm · 12/02/2011 18:56

Grubbalo - if your DC is old enough and sensible enough to understand he needs to treat books nicely, look at them carefully, etc, he's old enough to understand he doesn't just help himself to chocolate from a shelf and start eating it, surely?

I can't see the problem tbh. It's not the shop's responsibility to make sure our children don't have anything interesting at finger height. My children have always been taught that they don't help themselves to anything off shelves, be that sweets or whatever, and it seems to work.

In a perfect world, maybe, nothing tempting for children would be in their eyeline Grin But shops are in it for the profit, that's never going to happen!

Laquitar · 12/02/2011 18:59

I want to ban eating nice things in the street. Sometimes i have my porridge in the morning and then as i walk out of the tube some shelfish people hold a donut or croissant and i sooo want one, it's so unfair. Those morons will lead me to obesity. Why is it still legal to eat?

queenofboak · 12/02/2011 19:01

Grin @ hormonesnomore

Mmmmm wall of sweets

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 12/02/2011 19:02

Laquitar I agree!! Grin

Laquitar · 12/02/2011 19:02

I noticed and loved the 'she knows to treat books nicely' too Grin

MsKLo · 12/02/2011 19:03

Agree libra that there have been some really nasty posts in reply here

I am quite surprised to see how many people think this is ok - I am with you op - it's a cheap and nasty way to lure children to sweets

I am also disheartened by the number of children I see so used to chomping on sweets - what is nice about giving a child an addiction to sugary things I do not know

A1980 · 12/02/2011 19:07

YABVVU

When I was a child there was none of this child obsessed, precious parents horseshit.

When I was a child it wouldn't matter if I was taken into a football pitch sized shop full of sweets, if my mum said no that was it. There would have been no tantrum from me as I knew it wouldn't work, no meant no.

It's a pity parents find it such a hard thing to instill these days.

grubbalo · 12/02/2011 19:10

Well no PatriciaHolm, I don't think he is... I have had books around him since he was tiny and he has grown up knowing what to do with them.. I don't often put him in front of a wall of chocolate and say no to him all the time. If he has food put in front of him then he generally assumes he can eat it. And he's actually not quite 2 yet, so I think that expecting him not to grab them is a bit much.

I still come back to why are people being so nasty? Or trying to prove how fab they are at parents? Why did you "love" my comment that he likes to treat books nicely Laquitar? I bow to your superiority at parenting, I obviously need to learn lessons from you. But one thing I won't be teaching my children is how to be snide and rude.

Laquitar · 12/02/2011 19:16

A1980 i agree,
when i was a child we lived for few years in a very busy tourist resort. Everywhere there was ice-cream and sweets and fizzy drinks. We didn't even ask our parents because we knew the answer. We also knew that if bussiness go well they will treat us few times. So we just sat there praying for more tourists.

There was always temptetation and selling around it is not a new thing.