Baby Shops - all gone?

[30somethingandtired]

When I had my first daughter, 8 years ago, I got most big things from Babies'r' Us, Mothercare, and Mammas & Pappas.

I'm now expecting number 2, and those shops are all gone / going. While supermarkets are great for clothes and nappies, I'm wondering where to buy larger items.

With things like the pram I'd really like to have a look and get a proper feel for the item before choosing. Can't really do that online, and much as I like little independents; the one near me is so tiny it has hardly any selection.

So where is everyone planning on buying their baby stuff now?

Can you go to Mothercare now?

They're having an 'everything must go' sale so everything is a bit or a lot cheaper...

PepePig not for much longer- they're also about to fold apparently. Unsurprising as it was £££ for pretty uninspiring or generic products.

I bought our nursery furniture from Argos and the pram from an independent retailer. I don't think the independents are necessarily more expensive- the ones I went to all had price match policies and did offers like a free car seat or car seat base depending on what you were buying, which was a substantial saving. An added bonus was the fact they built the pram and did a refresher on how to use the various features so we didn't need to wrestle with it on delivery. Definitely worth seeing what local retailers offer if you don't have a JL nearby.

10% off everything in Mothercare todayand it was really busy! They've had much better discounts in the past and it hasn't been half as busy.

I wish @KellyHall ! I'm only 7 weeks so it's way too early to start buying things, even in a sale.

I live close to the mamas and papas factory outlet so can have a look at prams there when it's time for baby no 2. But it is a shame there are so few places to actually try out things like prams these days.

I was gutted to find out mothercare was closing as I only went in for the first time last weekend.
We live near an outlet so I popped in today and it was pretty heaving. There's no further discounts in the outlets but I still managed to pick up a fair few things.

The prams they stock are ridiculously expensive though, mainly the iCandy brand with very few normal budget options.