to think its RIDICULOUS that Boots, M&S ect all put their children / baby sections on the upper lowr floors rather than the ground ones

[Disenchanted3]

so you always have to frig about with lifts / stairs / esculators with the kids?! Surely it makes more sense that the people without buggies have to travel further?

Even with the one floor Boots stores they shove the baby section right at the very back so you have to drag 3 fed up kids through miles of orange women spraying Jordans latest piss perfume in your eyes, acres of bright white shelving full of brighly coloured shampoo bottles that are just begging to be knocked down skittle style by a 4 year old and make up sections that just look like sweet shops!

Why not just put thm at the front / ground floor so I can be in and out in 3 minutes and not have to be painfully reminded that I should be wearing perfume/ makeup / shaving.

Harrumph.

Our local Boots is long and thin, everything is one one level except baby stuff sun protection and photography bit. To get to those sections you need to walk up about 15-20 steps or.... come back out of the store, walk down the street turn right, up the hill then right again and along to the back entrance to the store! They have one of those wheelchair/pushchair stairlift type things but it never seems to be working

So I usually go in and buy baby stuff first then walk round to the main high street to the other shops then nip in the main entrance and buy my toiletries, I'm used to it now but at first it used to drive me mad!

Well certainly with Boots and large dept stores, big companies such as Estee Lauder, Clinique,etc pay to have their counters set at the front (I have been told on good authority) so that us tired frazzled and skint mothers (or fathers, before I get lynched) will think "ooh look, I must have that £26 lipstick/aftershave/moisturiser and won't bother buying new bibs or cups or sleepsuits"

THe Clark's in Edinburgh has all the men's shoes on the ground floor, the women's on the first floor and the kids in the basement with NO LIFT!! If you have a buggy you have to get a member of staff to help you lug it down the stairs. Because of this utter twattery I don't shop there.

SpawnChorus ..i wonder how many people go to John Lewis because of this (me) i bet they lose a fair bit of buisness.

SpawnChorus I read years ago that they always put mens' stuff right by the entrance because men "will not make the effort to seek out their purchases." IE if they are not right where they want them they will not bother to look for shirts/trousers let alone buy them. So much for hunter/gatherers. Or maybe it's Man Looking Syndrome - if they didn't put the mens' stuff right by the door as soon as you come in, men would be adamant that shops like Debenhams do not sell mens' clothes.

Women, OTOH will seek out items to buy wherever they are hidden.

This does not work with DH and I. He shops like a woman, looking at everything. I shop like a bloke - one lighthouse sweeping glance of the whole shop and I instantly "know" there is nothing I want. He sometimes sends me back in for a proper look, bless.

It's because men are lazy, they won't browse so they put the stuff they need in the most accessible place so that they'll buy it. Sadly as a woman if you NEED some nappies/wipes/baby gros you are going to trudge to the back of the shop to get them. The shops know this so don't care where they put the kids stuff.

But men buy nappies and things too, surely? I mean, they do have children, don't they...

Why not put the make-up, shampoo and face creams upstairs, they are super-browsable and women would need to go and look at them/want to look at them thus getting the same result.

I hate going through the fog of perfume so I rarely shop in boots.

I much prefer having children's shoes up or downstairs as then you can take your eye off one for a moment while checking shoes and not worry that they've darted on to the road.

ya so nbu
drives me up the sodding wall.
I want to take dd into new look......oh look the teen clothes are upstairs, so I have to que for the lift(dd in wheelchair)
same with H&m
I think it is just plain daft

I don't know if anyone has posted this (I haven't read the whole thread) but the reason kids' departments are usually up or down stairs is to reduce the risk of kids running out of the shop without their parents or people coming into the shop and taking kids. The idea is that the stairs or lift make it more difficult. But i agree it is annoying

Clarks near me has the same sort of thing. Children's shoes upstairs, narrow staircase, no lift. Good job people in wheelchairs don't have children isn't it? Or as Jimmy above says, dc in wheelchairs.

Bessie123 but dc's in wheelchairs can't run into the road, yet we still have to miss out.
so that is a silly reason imo.

jimmychasesducks - but then with your argument a shop could never have a downstairs or an upstairs because there will always be people in wheelchairs who find access difficult. It is preferable to have slightly more difficult access for dcs who are not in wheelchairs, for safety reasons. I agree it is inconvenient, but that is the reasoning behind it.

We went into M&S yesterday to look at toys for a present(in basement). 1st doors (from the high street) have stairs down, the main 2nd doors no automatic ones, the automatic ones are right round the corner on a side road. So we go backwards with the buggy through the main doors, holding it open for 2 elderly people in electric buggy/scooters. I then have to get our, admittedly quite light/small buggy through loads of shoppers in a narrow aisle to get to the lift. People are really intolerant - how dare I come through with a buggy. We get the lift down to the basement and find they have hardly any toys as it's the wrong time of year. Aggh.

I won't be doing that again! Instead I went to lovely independent department store with big lifts and decent toy dept.

Bessie123 but can't the parents just keep hold of their dc's then there wouldn't be a problem

Jimmy - I dunno, and I can't claim to be speaking on behalf of shop designers everywhere. I guess they are trying to minimise risk. Personally, stairs and/or a lift often put me off even with a buggy, I can see your point.

Shops are organised by sales per square foot. The things that sell best are put in the areas with the most traffic to maximise sales.

I'm massively claustrophobic, so if it involves a lift, I just don't shop there any more. Simple.

BonsoirAnna - I really doubt that men buy more shoes and clothes than women & children.

I complained about this in every shop from BHS to M&S to Boots 22 frickin years ago when DD was in a buggy.

I cannot believe they are STILL doing it

M&S often put men on the ground floor, don;t they.

The M&S breed of woma n is particularly tenacious and they know she will tramp quite some distance to reach her own section.

Whereas the M&S man is not an independent fashion thinker and it is quite an effort to drag him through the door.

ROFL @ dogofpoints

Puts me in mind of Paxo and his boaktastic gusset anxiety

I'm afraid that it's because children and baby stuff is the most nicked .

A friend who worked for M&S said that they tried to put the children's stuff at the front on the ground floor in response to customer feedback and the volume of stuff that was stolen was incredible, even with security.