To say no to Claire’s?

[Brokebackretail]

Basically my children aged 6 and 9 want to spend all their pocket money in Claire’s.

Everything they buy ends up broken within a week or two as it's such poor quality.

I want to give them autonomy with their money, and wanted them to change their mind about Claire’s themselves, but there's no sign of that.

Should I outlaw Claire’s and direct them to better quality stuff, or do I let them continue shopping there even though I hate it?

YANBU - outlaw Claire’s!
YABU - let them spend where they want

Surprised at that. Claire’s must have changed a lot since mine were younger. But no, don’t ban it. Pocket money is theirs-there shouldn’t be strings.

I agree. Awful quality and overpriced.
My now 13 year old wouldn’t be seen dead in there but it used to be the case that she couldn’t even walk past without begging me to go in. We laughed about it the other day in fact!

Never had an issue with breakages from Claire’s but it’s been a while since my 2 were the target market.

for things like water bottles you are better off taking them to Asda who also did have cheap jewellery but again it’s been a while since I looked. For bags again supermarkets or why not look in charity shops?

My water bottle was bought online and they had hundreds of pictures to choose from, metal so indestructible and keeps water cold, paid £12 3 years ago. I have pandas on mine

My youngest GD would buy any old tat, particularly if it was pink! Her room was bulging with stuff that was broken, missing a bit, worn out, unloved, redundant! The amount of plastic was obscene to be honest.
She didn’t grow out of this stage and now prefers to save up for a particular item, now she is older her tastes have changed and she is getting more responsible with her spending money.
The ‘save a bit and spend a bit’ ethos is great…….it encourages children to value money and we now find that all the GC are saving everything……..never thought we’d see that day.
The OP could consider NOT actually going anywhere near Claire’s with her children for a few weeks.

Actually (and I hate Claires but have to defend them a little bit here), DD2 bought a Pikachu bucket hat from there about 2-3 years ago now and it's still going strong to this day and gets her a load of compliments about how epic a hat it is every time she wears it.

My attitude has always been - your money, I'll point out it's shite you're blowing it on but when it's gone it's gone and don't come crying to me if it breaks in a second - one's learnt this so far better than the other.

Everything they buy ends up broken within a week or two as it's such poor quality

I'm no big fan of Claire's but if every single thing they buy there is broken within two weeks, that's about how well they're looking after their stuff. It's not purely a quality thing. I've had bits from Claire's that are still on the go many years later.

More generally, why not just put a limit on it? You can spend X in Claire's, that's all.

Maybe explain the phrase "buy cheap, buy twice" and then still let them decide after looking at better quality options

Reduce the frequency of going into town, so there are fewer trips to Claire’s? If they’re buying to add to ever-growing piles of accessories can they do a mini shop / swap between them and their friends?

I agree that ‘my money my choice’ is an important lesson, but what alternatives could they spend on? Hobbies (buying beads and making their own accessories?) Trips?

Can you introduce ‘spend or save’ incentives to show there’s a balance of where money goes?

I agree with the quality of things we've brought from Claires, my 2 (7 and 10) love the shop and we've had many things break within days so I try and avoid it these days where possible. We rarely visit our shopping centre and tend to stick to the retail parks where apart from in asda theres no Claires. My 10 yr old loves hair accessories, I've started buying more of these vrom superdrug and or boots as quality is loads better more expensive but better quality x

I don’t think Temu is an option that should be encouraged (for same reason as Shein) but othrwise agree - or charity shops, Tesco…

You need to teach them that they need to divide their pocket money into three, in proportions to be discussed and agreed.

long term savings for something they really want which they can’t touch and which you will add to when it reaches a certain amount to encourage them.

short term savings for cards, little presents for friends etc

splurge money for tat, comics, sweeties,

Perhaps sign up to their emails that'd tell you when they're doing special promotions in-store, and take them at those times. Also, they do promotions online to (like 4 for the price of 3). Teach them to be savvy with how they shop.
I don't find Claires to be particularly bad quality, you might have been unlucky - however, I do think it's overpriced for what it is.

This

plus it’s never too early to teach them about eBay, Quidco, Wowcher etc

By the time dd was a teenager she was going to the mall with her friends and through my accounts was teaching them to check out websites for discounts whilst in the changing rooms

Its about thinking of what you want and how to get it for less than ticket price or ticket price plus free gifts thrown in.

I find Claire's utter shit, overpriced, that stupid offer that keeps you in there for hours trying to find three 'free' items that inevitably end up with you spending more. I avoid it like the plague although my kids will go in there if they can and I agree the stuff is poor quality.

To be fair though, they will spend all their money on something unless you teach them to save half. My daughter is currently obsessed with Jelly cats and spends any spare penny she has on them.

Eh I think you need to teach looking after things..Our 4 year old twins have loads of accessories and nothing has broken or been broken..Once there finished with there hair things,bangles etc they know to put them away

@Brokebackretail I'm with you. And it's not just the waste of money buying flimsy crap, it's that the crap all ends up in landfill or the sea, destroying the environment. Teach them not to buy crap.

The Claire’s phase doesn’t last long, we had a rule that DD couldn’t buy multiple of the same thing in quick succession eg water bottles (she was obsessed at one point), and her bank account automatically divided her pocket money into save and spend.

We also had a rule that only 10% could be spent on online games, or she would have bankrupted herself on Robux. My kids still parrot “we don’t spend real money on imaginary things.

No matter what they buy when they’re young, it’s all going to disappear into the ether anyway. They aren’t buying heirlooms, they just want the buzz of buying something new and shiny. They will learn to make better choices as they get older.

Claire’s stuff is trash so not surprised it’s breaking. We had to ban stuff from Tiger as it’s also trash and just breaks. Maybe get them into vinted? Or Etsy? Think you need to take the lead here, it’s landfill stuff and wasting their money.

Can you avoid going past Claire's in your day-to-day? So there's casually "no opportunity"? Presumably they don't shop online?

Then equally as casually, happen to be in an area where there's somewhere nice they can spend their money? Then coo over the stuff and how nice / interesting or whatever it is.

Banning it, will just make it into forbidden fruit ime.

It takes quite a few years before they start understanding being sensible with money.

limiting the amt they can spend seems a compromise.

I believe more in supporting local businesses and will spend a bit more if it supports an independent shop. I encourage my children to do the same.

We have this problem too. But mine also likes primark - has figured she gets more for her money. Claire's is poor quality and we are forever losing or breaking stuff. I just tend to avoid parts of the mall where there is one.

Let them shop there if it's what they like but maybe limit it to a certain amount and try and encourage them to look for better value for money elsewhere. Primark has similar stuff, it might not be amazing quality on all of its items but it's a lot cheaper.

We have limits on space so once a space is full, no more of that stuff e.g. if your jewellery box is full, something else needs to go before something new comes in.