To think smiggle is rubbish??

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

My DD needs a pencil case this year, going into year 2. All summer she has been asking to get the stuff from Smiggle. She's a terrible sleeper and we did a reward chart, with the reward being that she could get one and fill it from there.

She earned it, so yesterday we went and she got a pencil case, water bottle, keyring, pencils that smell like strawberries, toppers, ruler, scissors, rubbers like lollipops, colours, a pen with a Pom Pom on it and a few other things. (£90!!!! Almost had a heart attack)

We left the shop and she wanted to look at her stuff... picked up the pen and the Pom Pom fell off.

Then she tried the soap band ruler, and it had a big scratch in the design all on the inside

So as I was two minutes out, I went back to the shop and showed them that the items were faulty. They refused to give me a refund and said they only do gift vouchers. I'm pretty sure that's not right, said so, and was refused, so got the gift voucher and left.

Today we were getting her stuff ready for school, putting her stuff in the pencil case, and the zip broke. Totally broke off. Ffs.

Also the metal part of the sharpener is not in right so it doesn't sharpen properly.

Now she has to go to school tomorrow without her little pencil case she's been so excited about. Which I know isn't a big deal... but it is to her.

I'm so annoyed. If you're going to charge £5 a pen and ££££ a pencil case, surely you have to make them with a bit of care so they last more than three seconds.

I'm so pissed off.

Return not fit for purpose as as faulty they have to return money not vouchers. Report to trading standards!

Circumlocutor I know. You did it with much more humour and finesse than I managed, but the misspelling still kept happening. Don't know why exactly but I snapped!

There's a Smiggle near me, I was enticed in by the riot of pretty colours and walked out with a curling lip at the "You're 'avin' a larf!" prices.

What's with the repeated references to 'momma' in this thread?

Is it a reference to something to do with Smiggle or something else? I feel like I'm missing out on something not knowing what it's about.

The momma reference purely happened because I was listening to some obscure soul compilation earlier and there were lots of 'momma' references. Just stuck in my head!

It is a chain of shops, although available online also. I have seen them in York, Brent Cross, Enfield and St Alban's. They can be recognised by the strong artificial scent, high temperature, cluttered neon coloured displays and hordes of over excited smallchildren

A gateway shop to Lush then?

Smiggle is shite. Anything dd has had from there has fallen apart, leaked or just been shite.

I see Circumlocutor.

I thought there was something I needed to know about!

Smiggle is ridiculously over priced for what it is, I normally walk in with dd and then just stand there shaking my head at the price of everything. Got all dds stationary this year from Wilko and WHS, total spend appox £20.

Any 80s kids here who had those fluffy zip up pencils cases? I had one in red. Like Elmo

I remember wanting some stabilo felt tips that came in a flat tin, but I had to wait for my birthday. IIRC they were about £7 which was silly money in 1985

That explains it - I don't live near any of those places - it has completely passed me by.

I've not even heard of Smiggle. If you want to pay those prices, crack on. I'm surprised they don't refund easily, though. My normally-priced outlets do. Maybe they have a ridiculous amount of refund requests? I wonder why .

Yes, Smiggle stuff is overpriced rubbish. I dont expect anything from there to last more than 5 mins. For that reason i avoid buying anything over £5 there...

Smuggle is a pile of overpriced, garish shit that children incessantly argue over in the classroom. I can't stand the stuff.

They have a watch they sell for £15, which is available for £3 online and £5 in tesco. That sealed it for me as off the list. Tiger, sainsbury, whsmith, paperchase are all better value... Yes even paperchase!
Sorry to hear you are having difficulty, as its a shop full of throwaway stuff.

Whenever I go past I imagine container loads of plastic floating round the world for no real reason!

Bought dc a watch in there. Thankfully I tried to set it up outside the shop - it was broken.
Also bought a school bag, in the sale but still £££. Strap fell off.
They are shite. Flimsy, overpriced crap. I won't let dc shop there anymore. Can get lovely stuff for a fraction of the price in the supermarket or wilkos

Oh yes, Tiger is great.... and seriously Paperchase would probably be cheaper and I consider them at the expensive end of the market. ( good for Sales though)

I have also found some cool stationary bits in Sainsbury's - neon pink and yellow with panda motifs. It doesn't scream supermarket at all.

The best thing about their utter calamity of an advent calendar last year, where every item was either broken or something you would expect to find in a £3 box of Christmas Crackers was that DD saw through them and now is happy to go next door to Tiger and spend a tenner on a basket full of stuff that actually works and doesn't break.

Is it possible to somehow raise less materialistic kids or kids who are less influenced by peer pressure about all this consumerist shite? Genuinely wondering/hoping as my eldest is only 3 so we haven't got to that stage yet!

Now you mention it Barbara the one is York is a couple of doors down from Lush!!

I think DC go through phases and then work out that the stuff isn't that great and move on. I tend to think it is just part of growing up. Not every DC will be Into to every phase. Was there anything you liked Bayleaves as a DC that looking back you can see was over priced tat?

Was there anything you liked Bayleaves as a DC that looking back you can see was over priced tat?

I'm yet to meet a kid who doesn't go through phases of being tat mad. No doubt someone will say their child went straight from loving ethically sourced wooden toddler toys to loving chess sets chiselled by a women's co-operative in Guatemala. No tat phase in between.

I think moderate amounts of tat are fun. I know I had various silly phases as a kid.

Yes, there were loads of things I wanted as a kid which were tat, in fact I was very materialistic, it's taken me a long time to grow out of it. I'd love to have less materialistic kids but I guess wanting all the latest goodies is one of the joys of modern childhood! My DH is quite a stickler for quality and hates money being "wasted" on tat that doesn't last, so our poor kids will probably feel very hard done by when we don't buy them the faddy plastic tat all the other kids have.

On the flip side, fun stationery is not the worst thing to desire...! I always wanted all the lovely pencil cases in WH Smith when I was little, and I still do love stationery.

Oh yes Circumlocutor I guess moderate amounts of tat are fine As much as I'd love my kids to have nothing but bespoke wooden toys and Grimms rainbows galore, the reality is that all toddlers love plastic Fisher Price and Vtech crap, especially the goddamn toot toots..!

They've been in Australia for over a decade now, and I can still smell the rank purple scented things despite not having stepped inside a shop in at least 10 years.

It's utter crap !! My DD has around 7 of the pencil cases , a school bag and more crap . The school bag ripped and a zip fell off within weeks ! I told her last year I will never buy anything else from there .