SPACE NK... a queue full of kids... aibu

[TikehauLilly]

Popped into town with my dd to get some clothes for her and thought I would go to the Space NK to grab a couple of bits.... however to do this inwas informed by a security guard to wait in a queue.... populated by children! And not teenagers... children

It has just moved from a side lane into the main shopping centre but have I missed a children's line .... aibu to think the products £££ wise and also more importantly ingredient wise are not for children

I'll go to the one near work where there are definitely no children!!

What's going on ? Aibu to think SPACE NK is better suited to adults

I wonder what space nk thinks of the brand being associated with little kids now. Likely don't care if they are brining the money in I guess. Like any fad they will move onto the next one soon enough.

Tiktok can literally make vast numbers of children do stupid things.

Me too. The Avon Pretty Peach range - soap, bubble bath, hand cream - was all I aspired to in terms of skincare.

Boots (was it called natural collection) body shop etc .... aah the 90s childhood!

Likely space Nk don't care - thye are selling small tester pots of body lotion for £10... win win!

The Brazilian bum bum cream is divine though ! (£70 for any usable size!)

To the poster saying boots was full of middle aged woman - I think that's because we are more canny about what we buy.. eg) I have an eye watering ££ toner but a mid range moisturiser for the day. I couldn't care less what tik tok says and how pretty my bathroom shelves are!

Plus we earn our own money and pay our own bills!

My local Space NK is the same. Full of tweens buying Bum Bum cream travel sets.

when I did manage to get in a staff member said they refused to sell retinols etc to teens. I asked if the teens were spending and she said ‘OH YES’

Buff-Puff?

This is true for adults but not children. It's scary how many people don't think about the difference between adult and children's skin

If the point is that kids don’t need makeup aka skincare then adults don’t really need it either. It’s just a personal choice beyond good hygiene. Let adults be adults!

Think of this.....if skincare products were really that good, then nobody would have wrinkles/blemishes whatever, would they?
They'd just wash with soap and water, then apply a bit of cream or whatnot and pouf! Instant baby like skin.

Having said that, soap doesn't agree with me it makes me itch, and my post menopause skin is a bit on the dry side, but sadly i still haven't grown out of being prone to spots and blackheads - wrinkles and spots, eh? Now that's a good look......so I do indulge in some of these "magic" cleansers and moisturisers. But I still look like a shar pei, albeit a nice smelling and happy one.

Part of the difficulty - in the US at least - is that parents are now routinely dropping off groups of pre-teen children at shops like Sephora while they go and do their own errands, with instructions to stay in the shop until the adults return. It's kind of similar to the way some parents would drop children off at bookshops ten years ago, except that Sephora or Space NK is a much more interactive environment than say Waterstone's, where there are at least places to sit, rest, and hang out out of the flow of the book-buying public.

While some groups of teens (and some groups of adults) MAY get rowdy or block access, they also are generally somewhat self-aware and able to control themselves and can leave the shop when ready. Groups of unaccompanied 7-10 year olds basically force shop staff into the position of involuntary child carers, which takes them away from their other duties and negatively influences other customers. At the same time, more expensive skincare-makeup-fragrance-bath and body shops have lost custom due to cost of living and no doubt welcome new customers who may become customers for life. And COVID has proven that existing customers will generally continue to buy online if in-store shopping is too inconvenient - so overall, the trend's a win for upper management, with the brunt borne by front-line workers.

Another aspect that doesn't get talked about a lot is the fact that this hyper focus on cosmetics and skincare for under-12s - the money and the time and attention and energy that gets directed here rather than toward other interests and activities - is very heavily focused on girls rather than boys or all children equally. (I would say that teen boys are being targeted very heavily to buy high-end fragrances right now, but I think that tends to be a slightly older demographic - 15+ rather than 7-12.)

@AspiringChatBot This. I saw that some of the Sephoras removed all the testing samples as the kids were using them up and mixing them together to make “skin smoothies”, then leaving the mess everywhere. Unfortunately that then led to the kids opening the boxed ones and using them like testers. The waste was apparently still less than the amount the kids are spending so corporate doesn’t do anything.

I feel for the workers who presumably aren’t paid nearly enough to do their one job, let alone babysitting on top.

Yabu for thinking you get to decide who customers should be. Make choices for your own kids and leave others to do the same. Live and let live

@mamajong if u read all my posts u would see I wasn't saying I wanted to decide customers. Jeez

This post is very timely for me, I’ve been into my local Space NK last week as a bit of a treat. I was shocked! It was full of children (with and without parents) trying and mixing all the testers. I was looking at the Sol de Janeiro stuff and two of them told me “excuse me” and got in front of me , presumably not realising I was also looking at the same stuff 😂
They don’t have any decent stock anymore of non-teenagery Tik Tok brands and the sales assistants were less than helpful. I really think the whole vibe of the shop has changed, it certainly wasn’t a luxury or relaxing experience, I will not go back.

It's a thing on TikTok too according to I my DD. She's told me about pre-teens messing about with samples of stuff that is not at all suitable for young skin. She's not even that old but knows it's not suitable for her let alone those a lot younger.

Yes had my fair share of Bodyshop stuff but I think we mainly liked the smells and I loved collecting those bath pearls. We were not watching endless mindless shite on tiktok and pretending to be mini adults.

Sephora workers in the US were posting tiktoks a few months ago about their struggles in trying to explain to parents that their 9 year olds don’t need retinol

Yeah I heard an item on woman's hour a week or so ago about a pharmacy chain in the Netherlands (I think) that had decided to restrict anti ageing skincare to adults only, as so many children were buying it and it's harmful for their skin.

Omg Trafford centre is absolutely horrible for this! Primary school aged children seemingly on their own buying products which will almost certainly damage their skin not improve it

At least the body shop was bath pearls, white musk shower gel and peppermint foot lotion- nothing harmful!
The of trendy skincare for children is laughable I cant believe some parent are silly enough to pay for it.
Fair enough when they start getting spots but they don’t need face creams!

Skincare. Blame the parents, really, the children wouldn't be there without them, and they wouldn't be buying either.

That said, lots of women take their girls for nails, massages, mini spa, treating them like little adults. This is just the latest sad (and expensive) version of girls being hustled into adult female culture

I based my opinion on your first post, I don't have the time or energy to read all of your posts. I've given my opinion that yes yabu, sorry you've taken it personally that I don't agree with you.