So despite their fantastic breastfeeding policy, it appears that Boots has not got its act together in ensuring that staff are familiar with it. Yesterday I went into a city centre branch without a feeding room and asked to use one of the chairs in the pharmacy waiting area to feed DD2 (tho not sure why I asked in hindsight). The assistant refused, saying that methadone users picked up their prescriptions in the same area. I then asked her if there was someone else I could feed in the store. She stated that the store did not have feeding facilities and directed me to another branch in the city centre. I told her that I didn?t want to walk to the other branch. DD was screaming, I was very hot and the town centre was very busy. I said I was happy to feed anywhere in the store, didn?t care if people saw me and just needed a chair. The assistant repeated that there were no feeding facilities in the store and that I should go to the other one.
By this point there were loads of other customers waiting and I was getting really stressed. I asked if I could use the pharmacists consulting room, which the store has. She initially refused, then agreed to ask the pharmacist. The pharmacist came over and said I could not use the room as she was not sure if they were insured and that was not its purpose. I was about to give up and leave when the pharmacist said she would speak to the manager. The manager obviously said it was fine because I was then taken to the room, although the staff member taking me was very preoccupied by the fact it had a window( thought this was odd at the time, but following later events it made sense!)
Once in the room a member of staff came in and said she was waiting behind the door but that she would have her back to me! I started to feed and over heard the staff member waiting outside the door having a conversation with a man, who I assumed was a member of staff (the room was not in a public area). During this conversation the man clearly said ?She can breastfeed me if she wants?- the member of staff by the door then said ?sush, she can hear you?.. As I left I asked the staff member standing outside the door if the man was a member of Boots staff. She was evasive, but asked if I heard the ?comments?, (suggesting he had made more). Then she said ?sorry, you shouldn?t have heard that, then said ?you know what men are like? and finally asked me not to take it any further (I assumed this meant not to complain).
I rang Boots this morning to explain what happened and am waiting for a response. Am interested to know if anyone else has tried to feed in stores without feeding rooms and how they have got on? Have to say, I have done it once before, 3 years ago in a different branch and they couldn?t have been more helpful. So its not all bad.