OI!! Where`s my balloon (Adams Kids)

Member Name: sue26

Product:	Adams Kids
Date:	28/11/01 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very friendly staff

Disadvantages: Not that cheap

Now Adams isn`t normally my first choice of shops when buying clothes for my kids, neither is any new shop come to that. I can`t really see the point in buying new clothes for children as they grow out of them so fast and new clothes are just too expensive. This is especially true of my 20 mth old daughter, who has been on one continuous growth spurt since she was born, and is now not far short of my 4 yr old.

Doing my usual Tesco shop one day though, I just happened to glance through the window of my local Adams shop where I spotted the most gorgeous little fairy outfits that you`ve ever seen. Now I just couldn`t resist these for my two daughters, and they`ll make a wonderful christmas present, but I had to act quick though because they were selling like hot cakes.

So in I went to check out they had the right sizes and nearly had a heart attack when I spied the price tag. But what the heck, christmas is only once a year, and a bloomin good job it is too. The dresses themselves were £14 each, but you can`t buy a fairy dress without buying the wings(£4.99), wands(2.99), and halos(2.99), now can you. Don`t forget that this was all times 2 as well so it did tot up to more than I`d have liked to have spent.

I had a quick glance round the rest of the store, even though there was no way I was buying anything else. Everything is set out neat and tidy, arranged according to age, and all the boys stuff is separated from the girls stuff, and the older stuff is separated from the baby stuff, so it`s really easy to find what you`re looking for. Adams only cater for children up to 10 years of age, but some of the clothes are pretty large so you`d still be able to find something for a smaller child who is over this age.

They also sell quite a big range of childrens` shoes considering how small the shop is. When I say small, I mean small, this store isn`t that much bigger than my living room. There are a few seats dotted around at the end of the
store, this makes it much easier for children trying on shoes rather than sitting on the floor. Not that it would`ve mattered as the shop is carpeted and the carpet is extremely clean considering there`s slobbering kids in and out all day, not to mention buggies with muddy wheels.

Now as I`ve mentioned, this isn`t the cheapest of shops, but it is cheaper than shops such as Mothercare. Kids` shoes start off at around £8 which is pretty reasonable, and they do last, and I know because I have bought my son his school shoes from here a few times in the past.

Because this is a small shop there were only two members of staff working and they were extremely helpful and friendly. When it came to paying the woman behind the till asked if I`d like to apply for a store card as it was 20% off everthing you purchased for 3 days.

Usually when it comes to store cards I`d decline the offer outright as these are the sort of things that can end you up in a lot of debt. This time though I decided to apply because 20% off would save me quite a bit off my bill, and after all it was only a one off purchase that I`d be able to pay off in full when my bill came through the post.

Filling in the form and getting it accepted took about 10 minutes, and while I was doing this the the other woman offered to watch the kids for me. This wasn`t an easy task she`d taken on either, for as well as blowing up balloons for the 3 of them, she also had to keep chasing after my youngest daughter who has a fascination for running out of stores in the blink of an eye.

Once I`d been accepted for a store card I was given my till receipt and all the bumph that usually comes with these things, and my goods were folded up nicely into a large adams carrier bag, which incidentally are pretty thick so there`s no chance of the handles ripping.

So off we went with the children clutching tightly to their balloons, and the friendly staff bidding us a happy christmas
, and we all lived happily ever after. Well we almost did, apart from the fact that all the way round tescos I had to listen to the chorus of "is that dress for me and can I wear it when I get home?", from my 4yr old, and me having to explain that santa was coming to pick it up when she went to bed. As well as this there was also the moan from my son of "how come they`ve got something and I haven`t, it`s not fair". Well it can`t be a bed of roses all the time.

It`s a good job I went when I did because the following day all the fairy outfits had completely sold out. Now this is also where sods-law is likely to step in, you just watch, I bet I see something similar for 10p when I go to a car boot sale next week.

Happy shopping.

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