Mothercare

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So, all the shops tomorrow. Sad.

Anyone seen any good deals there?

I loved Mothercare. I found the clothing expensive but their own brand car seats and travel systems are fantastic and I'm gutted that I didn't get a car seat for my baby in time as the Mothercare advance xp car seat is the best one I've had for my 3 year old.

I'll miss Little Bird ( although I never bought it until it went in the regular sales because it was expensive). But most of the baby stuff was get generic.
Some lovely summer dresses 2 for £10 though.

I was in my mother's local one just after Christmas and my mum had a reminisce with a staff member- about buying stuff for me and my brother as babies. It was the place then. But you got your magazines at whsmiths, your toiletries in boots, your pick n mix at Woolies then went to supermarket for your food. Now you just go to an put of town superstore for the lot. Shopping habits have changed.

I think people will miss it when it's gone.. briefly as there will be no whete to try out prams and car seats before buying online!

Woolworths wasn't expensive so I'm not sure that argument flies.

It's going, like so many other shops in the High Street, because most of us can't be arsed to go to the actual shops anymore and do so much of it online. I'm as guilty as anyone.

As a result, our local High Street is nothing but charity shops, nail bars, coffee shops and estate agents.

People hand-wringing and getting all face about others ‘getting a deal’ should ask themselves what will happen to the stock that doesn’t get sold. It will end up being liquidated and sold through places like Home Bargains, B&M etc. or on market stalls. It all has to go somewhere and all has to create as much revenue as possible. No point in being squeamish about it.

Woolworths wasn't expensive so I'm not sure that argument flies.

It does for mothercare though. There are multiple reasons why stores fail. Mothercares problem was not just pride but their lack of a reasonable business model. They didn't move with the times. Ditto Woolworths. By the end Woolworths was a disaster. People didn't need a store that sold a little bit of everything, they needed a store that knew its market and sold enough of what they wanted. Marks and Spencer's and Debenhams are the same, neither of those seem to have a clue who their target is so they are clambering about trying to sell to all. It's not working.

Not just PRICE

Woolworths wasn't expensive so I'm not sure that argument flies.

Has anyone said Woolworths went because it was expensive?

It went because they had a huge expensive to run store estate and, while it was the sort of place you went for something you hadn’t been able to find elsewhere, it had no real identity. It was a jack of all trades, master of none. It also had a lot of eggs in the media basket when Amazon was already destroying the competition in that market.

I've noticed that in my circle, new parents who I would have expected to be the chief Mothercare demographic 15 or 20 years ago, have now decamped to Sainsbury's and eBay/Facebook selling groups for most of their baby stuff. They don't have as much disposable income and they shop second hand for ethical reasons.

What I do think is a bit mad is all the people who have rushed out and spent £££ on mothercare brand goods like travel systems. If it goes wrong or is faulty what do they plan to do about it? They'll have no recourse with mothercare if they don't exist!

I've had 2 mothercare travel systems now and the first totally broke within less than 3 months so was replaced with the second which then broke within a further 3 months. Mothercare were generally pretty helpful in replacing/repairing but I wouldn't have bought anything own brand from them again and won't be surprised if the current travel system we have breaks at any point and I'll have to just suck it up and replace from elsewhere.

Their clothes weren't anything special for the price and pretty much everything could be bought cheaper from elsewhere. It's sad but i wasn't in the slightest bit surprised when I heard they were closing. It was the norm to visit our local store and be the only customer with about 6 members of staff asking if you needed any help.

It’s sad, My kids are teens now but looking back I bought all their prams and buggies from Mothercare and Toys r us. I used to love going in whilst pregnant and browsing, buying the bedding and wraps etc.
Where can someone go now to see a pram before buying, and try it out? Is there anywhere else like this?

They didn’t keep up with the times at all. Their maternity clothing was always quite old fashioned and their baby clothing was hugely overpriced. I only liked the Little Bird range by Jools Oliver but even that was pricey so I’d usually wait till the sales. They couldn’t compete with supermarkets, Primark or even H&M and the Zara basic range is cheaper too.

Has anyone said Woolworths went because it was expensive?

No, they were saying about Mothercare being expensive.

I used to pop in for odd items - dummies, sleeping bags, small gifts for other people's children. Did get some good deals in previous sales on things like bottles and steriliser. The clothes always seemed expensive and were heavily gendered so not to my taste.

You can see why they were in trouble - huge shops with big overheads, competition from on line shops, competition from supermarkets. Real shame for the shop staff though.

Surely Wilkos just replaced Woolies? Very similar stocks minus the strong media element.

I bought lots from Mothercare over the years. My children's prams, cots etc, I will really miss the little bird clothing range as that's all my ds wears. So sad for the staff

Loved browsing mothercare , and when we had a new born and were sleep deprived and out of baby grows we did get a few full priced items there but once my Brian functioned again I only got their lovely clothes in the sales haven’t really shop full priced items unless I had checked around and it was a good deal.
For example the cot sheets were on parr with other places.
I pretty much only sale shop and second hand buy for the bulk.
So sad for the staff though x

I remember when our local branch closed when I was pregnant with my youngest. I felt so sorry for the staff. Many had worked there a long time and knew the regular customers - they had been through the pregnancy, newborn phase and ongoing stages with their customers. They had watched our children grow up. I went in there very regularly during pregnancy and beyond and was quite attached to the staff/shop.

@Emmacb82 - I had some of those babygros. And I agree it sold things you just couldn't get anywhere else.

I must admit I had lots of maternity/bfing bras, maternity wear and pjs from there and found them good quality.

I went Friday and got 2 change bags that were meant to be £90 for the 2 but cost me £3.33 for both.

And that was the basic problem imo. £90 for a couple of change bags? Were they gold plated? Absurd.

When my children were born, we found Mothercare very expensive compared to most other places to acquire baby items. They priced themselves out of the market with most things. Babies grow out of things quickly; paying over the top prices for the items is madness.

It was also the place lots of new mums went to breastfeed. Although in our branch it was just an uncomfortable bench in the same small room as nappy changing went on! Still I had many lovely conversations with other new mums while perched on that hard bench! That was 12 odd years ago when there really wasn't much other provision. My town had amazing facilities in one of the shopping centres once my youngest was born - a large seperate breastfeeding room with comfortable chairs and foot rests, a large baby changing room and 3 seperate rooms with an adult sized and child sized toilet and changing mat area all big enough to wheel a pram in.

I was sad when ELC closed too - I liked their toys and craft materials.

Mothercare have done a deal with Boots - from next summer Boots will sell Mothercare own brand stuff in Boots and on Boots website. Mothercare is still a big successful company in other Countries, they just couldn't make it work in the UK.

Is this only in the UK. I was in mother care in Dublin last week and they had an ad in the window looking for staff.

I am sad to see it go. And especially sad for the staff. But truthfully we could only really afford to shop there in the sales. Was such good quality though. So I understand why things were priced as they were. We did get my youngest dc's travel system from there and last week bought her a pushchair in the sale. Both mothercare own brand and both absolutely brilliant. Solid and well made. What they got right they got really spot on but unfortunately most things are cheaper online or in supermarkets etc.

My mum used to shop for us in mothercare

The clothes were very good quality dd had some baby grows that washed and dried so well! No bobbling the ones from next.