Staines: Mamas and Papas - Booyakasha!
by matt @ 11:30 pm. Blogged under Living and Dying
On Saturday afternoon my wife and I took a trip to Staines to pick up some paperwork from my accountant. For some reason the sunshine had brought all the nutters out on to the M25 to try and kill us; I successfully avoided several near collisions. Whilst in Staines we planned to visit the Mothercare and Mamas and Papas stores to check out pushchairs and cots etc. Websites are all well and good for a lot of things but we wanted to be able to better visualise baby furniture sizes and find out more ‘new parent’ information. Staines town centre reminded us very much of my home town Stevenage - those classic depressing square buildings carrying metal window frames, chequered tiles adorning blue and yellow flaking walls and ceilings. I was on the look out for Ali G - a now dated character I know, no sign of him or the West Side Massif either.
We began our journey into the pram buying world at Mothercare; a very sweet but unknowledgeable girl tried in vain to demonstrate folding functions, misdescribing optional add-ons etc. She did at least advise us against buying one of the new three-wheeled rubber tyre models which apparently suffer from frequent punctures - good to know. What I hadn’t realised was how advanced the world of prams is, you’re not buying a pram anymore it’s a travel pack - complete with ‘pramette’, ‘infant carrier’, ‘car base’ and ’stroller’. I have to admit to being pretty glad I grew up with Transformer toys - these ‘baby transport solutions’ are not too different, there’s even a potential market there for the manufacturers to add in a robot function - winning over all us blokes. I’d willingly push my son or daughter around in a Decepticon.
At Mamas and Papas in the Two Rivers Shopping Centre we were blown away by the product knowledge of the sales guy who wasn’t much older than the girl in Mothercare. Nothing was too much trouble, quite astounding considering that I managed to get out of him that he wasn’t on commission. Thankfully Suzie_Q fell in love with not only the sales guy… but also the ‘Pliko Pramette’ - available in a range of colours with optional extras - it’s really a lot like buying a car (and you could for the price!). We were also talked through the different baby bed options - cot or cot bed? Pocket sprung or hypoallergenic mattress?
Coming from a retail merchandising background I found the Mamas and Papas store to be fantastically laid out, clean designs, great products, superb styles and ranges - it made Mothercare look like a car boot sale. Having picked up the store catalogue (for £1) we now have the job of picking out what we want and ordering it to pick up in a few weeks time. Needless to say we won’t be going back to Mothercare - it’ll be Mamas and Papas items that we’ll have ‘in da house… aiii’.
Technorati Tags: mamas and papas, ali g, staines, prams, pushchairs, pliko, mothercare
Loading ...
March 19th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
For goodness sake buy a pram or a buggy that lets Baby P face you so that you can have a chat. It’s much better to talk to mamma and papa than to strangers in the street. and not one where baby number 2 goes in the shopping basket bit underneath and has to spend their day talking to someone else’e bum either.
March 24th, 2007 at 10:36 am
And don’t forget to try smaller shop outlets where you can quite often haggle on the price and get about £200 off the major store price of a buggy.
I saw it done on the tv yesterday. We don’t haggle enough in shops in this country. As my dad used to say if you don’t ask you don’t get!
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:55 am
I HAVE SPENT THE LAST YEAR WORKING IN STAINES AND THE BEST THING ABOUT IT WAS THE NEXT OUTLET STORE AND THEY SELL DUVET SETS FOR 50P (ALMOST) YOU ARE SPOT ON WITH YOUR DESCRIPTION THOUGH. I WAS DISAPOINTED I NEVER CAME ACROSS ALI EITHER, LOTS OF WANNABES BUT NEVER HIM
April 9th, 2007 at 11:04 am
I’m glad we went to Staines’ Mothercare instead of our local one in Redhill even though they weren’t much help either - Edwina Currie was thrown out!