Mothercare’s new store

When pregnant with Little Miss C Mothercare was my first port of call to look at baby things. I’m guessing the simple reason why was because I remember going there with my mum as a small child to buy things either for myself or for my younger sister. Nowadays there are also other stores selling things for babies and toddlers, and supermarkets also have a wide range for this market, but Mothercare is still there and they’re making some changes to their stores to make sure that they meet the needs of modern parents and their offspring.

I was delighted to be invited along to see the new-style Mothercare store in Edmonton recently and as soon as I walked in I was blown away with just how different it was to what I had been expected. As Mothercare have moved away from the high street they have instead taken on large retail park sites – some of which came to the company when they bought out the Boot’s Children’s World stores back in the 90s – and until I stepped into the Edmonton store most of these have all looked somewhat similar and like most large out of town stores.  The first thing that hits you in Edmonton is just how light it is inside the store. Even at 8pm on a July evening the store was still flooded with natural light and that instantly made me feel incredibly refreshed – so much better than all the artificial lights that many of these stores rely on.

There was also a strong feeling of quality in the store. The layout was well suited to parents with pushchairs – large aisles and enough space to get around display racks without knocking everything off. Your eyes are also drawn upwards to the mezzanine level where children of any age will be instantly drawn. The whole level has been dedicated to Early Learning Centre, but rather than there just being shelves of toys the emphasis is on play and for children to be encourage to go and try things out. There are life-sized Happyland characters, a windmill and a giant castle, as well as a caterpillar themed reading area. A white picket fence separates off a Little Tikes play area which has the usual playhouse, cars and also a filling station and slides. I almost dread taking Little Miss C there as I’m not sure we’d be able to get her out again in a hurry!

The addition of the play area and an in-store branch of Costa Coffee means that Mothercare is no longer a shop, but instead becomes a destination. The whole effort of taking a toddler and a newborn shopping there will be so much easier when you can also include some play for the toddler and a nice coffee and slice of cake for mum and dad. If it was slightly closer to home then I can definitely imagine arranging to meet other mums there for coffee and it would be an ideal place for NCT groups or similar to meet up.

The changes don’t stop there though. Also in-store is a Clarks shoes concession, PixiFoto and even a Babybond scanning facility (where you can either prebook or get a walk in appointment if available). The addition of a new “mumspace” also means that they can host activities there for parents, babies and children. I was fascinated to get talking to a local breast feeding councillor who told me that she has been working with Mothercare running sessions for parents to be on breastfeeding in some stores and she said that she was there to look at how these could possibly be adapted to make the most of the new set-up that this Edmonton store provided. I simply had no idea that Mothercare did this before.

Of course, in addition to all this new stuff the store also stocks the Mothercare range, from car seats and pushchairs through to baby clothes, maternity wear and various bits of equipment. The children’s clothing range has been updated to include some “budget” lines and as I looked round I found some lovely things for LMC that were really good quality and priced very reasonably. 

I was quite surprised to realise that Mothercare opened their first store in 1961 – I knew they’d been around for a while, but had no idea that they’d been there for parents for over 50 years now. A lovely effort had been made in the changing rooms and toilet area of the store to make a statement about the company’s history. Whilst it’s true to say that vintage is all over the place at the moment, the collage of old catalogue covers really was quite special. It was fascinating to see how styles had changed since then, but also how some things are now very much back in fashion. Overall the decoration of the store was very much focused on parenting and childhood, rather than just on trying to sell products. This was a refreshing change to the way that many shops are these days.

I completely fell in love with this new store format and sincerely hope that they roll this out to all their stores, especially the two closest to where I live. Until then I’m actually quite tempted to drive the extra distance to get to this store quite simply because the whole shopping experience there is so much better. I think we’ve got everything we need for baby C’s arrival, but I’m sure there will be things that I need once he or she is here and the idea of making it a bit of a bigger adventure than just a usual trip to the shops will be very attractive to LMC and hence to me too!

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend a VIP event at the Mothercare store and left with a goodie bag including some treats for myself, LMC and Baby C.