Mothercare, Exeter

Mothercare’s Mission Statement:‘our mission is to meet the needs and aspirations of parents for their children,worldwide’  So, does the Exeter store match their statement?  Well, it’s all located on one floor, they have baby changing facilities, a bottle warmer, and automatic doors on arrival! So it would seem to me that shopping in this store should be fairly hassle free.

I must admit that everytime I have been to this shop, it’s been a pretty painless experience.  But surely as a leading child and baby retailer it should have left more of an impression on me? Surely my visits there should make me want to go to back there everytime and nowhere else because it literally does stock everything a mum needs for her babba?! So I thought, why aren’t I running up Fore Street with the tank and barging my way in to the hassle free automatic entrance doors ?

Firstly there's the price, their own brand clothes are ridiculously expensive!! Now Myleene Klass, yes you were in a band (if you can call it that) yes you wore a bikini in the jungle, yes you were on those M & S ads and yes you have children but £30 for a baby dress in your Mothercare range?? A black baby dress??!! Who likes to dress their little one in black?! (ok some mums may do and if your one, apologies no offence intended) (but really? Black!?)  It is refreshing though to see a shop sell prams and car seats so we can have a look and a bit of our play. (don't get me started on the lack of pram shops, that's another blog in it's itself)  Who needs kids entertainment when there are all those car seats straps to click together !! 

Secondly the stores layout, its bizarre! In some spots you have reams of space but in others its cramped and busy!  I particularly don’t like the bit that sells the bottles/dummies/miscellaneous baby equipment but the clothes rails are too close together. You can tell quite easily, there’s a simple test.  If your pushing a pram through the hanging rails of clothes and come the end you have around 4 outfits on top of your pram that you didn’t actually pick up, you know the aisles aren’t wide enough.

Now as first time mum who decided to feed babba myself, when venturing into town my first question was where do I feed??!! I wasn’t confident about doing it in public, I was on my own, what if it took an hour, all these thoughts were going on in my head.  One of the yummy mummy brigrade advised me that Mothercare had a changing and feeding room! Brilliant I thought what a bleedin genius idea.  So I prepared one of my first trips to town on my own with babba like a military operation and once I felt I could accept the mission headed off.  Within thirty minutes of being in town, babba needed feeding. Off to Mothercare I trot feeling smug with myself for my calmness and I went to the end of the store very easily and simply and entered the ‘room’.  I call it a room because I have no other words for it.  The first thing that hit me when entering the ‘room’ was the smell.  Now, I know babies sometimes don’t smell of talcum powder and Johnsons but this was a stale dirty– I haven’t been cleaned in ages – smell.  Yuck I thought.  The second thing that hit was me the lack of privacy. There were a couple of changing units, and some seats.  Now, this is a lot more than other shops have but that’s no excuse to make them cramped and dirty.  There was no ventilation, and the room had 3 mothers in, one feeding the other two changing.  Three mothers come with six things; 3 buggies and 3 babies.  Put this in a small dirty room and the last thing you want to do is sit down and feed your child.  But needs must and all that.  So Mothercare, please clean up your changing room and utilise your space ooh and a few more sales wouldn't go a miss.  Oh yes,and for those of you who like striking up a conversation with strangers whilst they are trying to feed their child in a dirty small room, please don’t.  Its off putting and just plain annoying.  Having said that it was better than turning the other way to look at the nappy bin with shitty nappies spilling out of the top……………………………………………perhaps that is why I don't rush to go back...