Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Original poster

to be flippin annoyed with 'The Entertainer' toy shop?

117 replies

onelittleclara · 29/01/2012 21:11

Went into a branch of this toy shop yesterday with my boys. Was walking round and I noticed that they now have the shop divided into two sections:
'boys toys' and 'girls toys'. Was so angry I dragged my children straight out. If my sons wanted a doll (which they do play with) as soon as they see it labelled a 'girls toy' they are going to reject it outright. Surely a toy is a toy? Surely they are losing a potential 50% of their customers into the bargain.
Grrrrrr.

OP posts:

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 11:39

Yes so can you please point out where I said I thought they were 'thick'?

Or do you need to make up inflammatory posts because you feel your argument on it's own is a weak one?

Oops, nearly forgot the passive aggressive smiley

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 30/01/2012 11:39

Are the science sets, by any chance, in the boys' section?

Fan-fucking-tastic.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:41

Here

"I think most kids are intelligent enough to understand the 'boys' 'girls' thing is just a suggestion."

So the ones that don't understand it is just a suggestion, are not intelligent. Thick. Stupid. Dense. There are lots of words that can be used, I suppose.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:41

oranges123 · 30/01/2012 11:41

I am not sure about science sets (even if they do them) but I do remember the doctors' sets were in the boys section.

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 11:42

You're not going to catch a 3yo boy in the "girls" section

Oh now you really are being ridiculous.

I have 3 boys and you can 'catch them' in the girl's section any time they're looking at the entire shop....which they do before they choose their toys.

Then again, I've raised them to realise exactly what advertising is like and to make their own minds up about what they want to buy and play with.

gazzalw · 30/01/2012 11:43

Personally would rather give custom to The Entertainer than ToysRUs despite finding their religious views bizarre!

Seem to remember a couple of years back there was a TV programme with Sir John Harvey Jones - he went into failing businesses and helped to turn them around. Pretty sure that he was involved with The Entertainer and his recommendation was Sunday Trading but it was thrown out by the wwner because Sunday is a rest day. Whilst I commend him for sticking to his beliefs, it is unbelievable that in this day and age people think they can compete without trading on Sundays....

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:43

boulevard it's OK - the online shop has a kit called "spa science" in the girls section. Phew!

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:45

worra our local shops are mixed up with sections for different ages and different types of toys.

This shop has two sides to it, one labelled boys which is all blue, one labelled girls which is all pink.

It would be like a child going to the "wrong" floor of hamleys before the rearranged it - unusual.

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 11:46

If you see that as kids being 'thick' rather than simply not having learnt about advertising ploys (perhaps because their parents dragged them out of shops) then I really think you should be ashamed of yourself SardineQueen

Children who are still developing their intelligence and open mindedness are not thick.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:46

"I've raised them to realise exactly what advertising is like and to make their own minds up about what they want to buy and play with."

When they are 2, 3 years old?

Clever you.

Still a bit boggled that you think children who are 2 or 3 and think "this is for girls and this is for boys" are stupid. I think they are simply following the messages that they learn from a variety of sources.

PiousPrat · 30/01/2012 11:46

Are all Entertainers closed on Sundays then? I thought that when shops open a store in a shopping centre they had to abide by the opening times of that centre. I've definitely seen an Entertainer in the Metrocentre so assumed it would be open on Sundays just like every other store. No shopping centre wants to risk losing it's appeal of having all those shops in one place, by having different ones open at different times. I wouldn't have thought The Entertainer was a big enough brand to be able to barter their way out of Sunday openings with the lure of the business they'd bring in.

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:48

Worra are you seriously trying to suggest that saying someone is not intelligent, means something other than they are stupid?

I think that 2 and 3 year olds who don't understand the complexities of the media and advertising are simply young, and as many adults fall for advertising I would not blame a young child for doing so.

I would not view them as stupid. Sorry, not intelligent, that should be.

oranges123 · 30/01/2012 11:50

PiousPrat - the one in our local shopping centre is the only shop not open on a Sunday. It has opened fairly recently though and I suspect the old rules about opening times have been relaxed by the centre because getting shops in at all is becoming more of a struggle (Pumpkin Patch, Hawkins Bazaar, Barratts and a number of others have all shut up shop in the same centre within the last couple of weeks).

SardineQueen · 30/01/2012 11:51

I remember my DD when she was 2 and had started nursery, declining to wear her blue socks on the basis that they "were for boys".

I understand now, rather than thinking, that's sad, and trying to explain that boys and girls can wear what they want and there are no set colours etc, I should just have though "Oh dear, DD isn't intelligent". Yes that's more like it.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 30/01/2012 11:52

Deffo closed on Sundays Pious, I've been over to the Bullring in Birmingham on Sundays a few times and they are always closed

AmazingBouncingFerret · 30/01/2012 11:54

Oh and for the record ELC does not have Boy and girl sections. I know this from ten year of remerchandising their stores!

PiousPrat · 30/01/2012 11:56

Ah thanks. Sundays tend to be family days at Chez Prat and dragging the family around a shopping centre is my idea of hell so I've never actually been in to see if they open.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 30/01/2012 12:00

Ours is in a big shopping centre, been there for years and has never been open on a Sunday. If you go in in the evenings the centre is open till 8pm but plenty of shops shut earlier, I guess different centres have different policies.

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 12:00

Sardine I've tossed you enough bones already on this thread so this is my last post to you.

It's quite clear that you either have a warped view of children who have yet to gain full intelligence and it's also quite clear that you are simply hanging around looking for an argument.

I have explained myself fully, more than once.

If you can't 'get' what I'm saying and if you still insist I am calling children thick, then I suggest you concentrate on trying to expand your own limited intelligence.

goingtoofast · 30/01/2012 12:00

The WGC one is also my local one - the bright lights asre horrendus.

I Knew they were religious but didn't realise they didn't sell HP toys because of it. A local preschool dropped the christmas shoes boxes at the Entertainer for distribution this year.

oranges123 · 30/01/2012 12:01

Worraliberty - I still don't see how the OP was overreacting? She didn't approve of the way the shop was marketing its goods so she chose not to spend her money there - what is wrong with that? (I imagine she did not literally "drag" her children out of the shop.) If nobody ever makes a stand or complains about that sort of thing nothing would ever get changed.

Children do take on board the messages which are thrown at them and, whilst teaching them to understand and resist marketing is obviously important, at the same time, what is wrong with making a stand against those messages, even if it is just the personal one of withdrawing your custom?

goingtoofast · 30/01/2012 12:02

AmazingBouncingFerret ELC do however sell the same products in pink and blue - they make boys and girls versions of toys!

WorraLiberty · 30/01/2012 12:05

oranges That's fair enough but I personally think taking (even if she didn't drag) her children straight out was an over reaction...because her reason for doing it was that spotting something labelled as a girl's toy, would make her sons reject them.

I think as long as the OP continues to encourage her boys to be open minded, there'll be no need to shield them from advertising...which let's face it is an impossible task.

I'm more for explaining to children rather than shielding IYSWIM.

BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 30/01/2012 12:07

"I think most kids are intelligent enough to understand the 'boys' 'girls' thing is just a suggestion."

So the reason my 4yo DD was upset about some older girls teasing her about her "boys' shoes", is because she's not intelligent enough?

I explained they were just shoes, and that anyone could wear them, and there was nothing wrong with girls liking dinosaurs, but she seemed unconvinced.
I shall write to the school, and have her removed from the G&T program forthwith.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Swipe left for the next trending thread