Pregnant? Had A Baby? You HAVE to shop here! (Kiddicare)

Member Name: krazykat2005

Product:	Kiddicare
Date:	16/06/06 (690 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic facilities, friendly staff and brilliant prices

Disadvantages: Toilets are a bit tight for pregnant ladies and no help with carrying heavy furniture to cars

"Babies are expensive."

You hear people saying this all the time, but you never really believe it until it is your turn to have that first child.

It is calculated that raising a child from birth to twenty-one costs a parent about the same as buying the average British house - £150,000. For child number one that first year alone is estimated to cost a staggering £7000.

A quote that just says it all to me is:

"Everyone knows that raising children can be expensive but few will have realised that bringing up three children could cost nearly half a million pounds!"

Half a million pounds! What?! If you are anything like me these figures probably gave you a kind of mini heart attack, especially if you are on a relatively low income like my partner and myself are.

After panicking for a couple of days (and driving the other half mad with my worries), I knuckled down and began to draw up a budget. Listing the things that I thought were essential I gave myself an absolute limit as to how much I could afford to spend. Then I set about finding somewhere to get them all, and what a task that was!

I eventually asked on the Bounty message boards, my favourite website for help and support with all things baby, and one place caught my eye because of its close proximity. I checked the website out and was so impressed with the prices that I quickly arranged the first of many visits.

** HOW TO GET THERE **

The Kiddicare Megastore is in Werrington, just five minutes outside of Peterborough. I found the best way to get directions was to use a route map planner, like the one on multimap.com or theaa.com, as this gives you directions tailored to suit your needs.

The postcode you will need to input is PE4 6LA (1184 Lincoln Road).

If you are still having difficulties check out the directions on the Kiddicare website, found here www.kiddicare.info ( the retail website is www.kiddicare.com).

** FACILITIES **

This is where Kiddicare are better than most other nursery retailers in my opinion. They really do cater to their main market - expecting parents - with facilities that allow even a heavily pregnant woman to shop in comfort for hours if she so wants (and so I did!).

- Over two hundred free parking spaces
- Disabled access
- Toilets with disabled access
- Baby feeding and changing areas
- Refreshments

I always love freebies, so not having to pay for our parking was a bonus especially considering the fact that each time we went I spent at least two hours browsing and buying. The car park is well laid out with a clearly visible path (with zebra crossings) to get you safely across to the shop no matter how far away you park. The spaces were only an average size which would have been a negative point had the car park been busy - have you ever seen a massively pregnant woman try to squeeze out of a car while trying not to damage the car next to them! Fortunately I never found the car park ever more than half full (and I visited on a Saturday afternoon just before Christmas) and never had this problem. Be careful as you are leaving as we missed the exit and ended up going around the car park again (men drivers, tut tut!)

The toilets were well decorated with lovely warm colours and, more essentially, were always very clean. They even had facilities for the newly toilet trained amongst us - a potty seat on the toilet to save you falling in - and a changing table and mat for those still in nappies - there were no free nappies or wipes like some places so don't forget to bring your own. There was one negative, that being that there wasn't that much manouvering room for pregnant ladies. The toilet doors opened inwards and I found that I had to lean back and turn sideways when opening the door to get out, not easy considering the size of the bump and the fact that I was on crutches!

I never used the baby feeding area, but I popped my head in to check it out nevertheless. It was a lovely quiet room with comfy nursing chairs, bottle warmers, highchairs for the bigger babies and a sink with running water. Again, like the toilets, it was spotlessly clean… certainly a far cry from the usual cramped room with a uncomfortable chair with a faint aroma of urine hanging in the air that I have had the pleasure of using (not) in similar places - naming no names, lets just say big cheap supermarkets and leave it at that.

The refreshments area has a few tables and chairs - perfect to get off of those tired swollen feet for a few minutes - and has a few vending machines providing things like sandwiches, snacks like chocolate and crisps, and cold/hot drinks.

** THE SHOP **

Grab a trolley (you'll need a token or a one pound coin) or a basket and begin. Make sure you are visiting between the hours of nine and five, and that it is not a Sunday or a bank holiday or you won't get in.

As you come into the foyer through the movement activated doors (great if you have a buggy) there are lots of special offer items at reduced prices. On your first left are the toilets and the feeding room, keep going and you will bypass the aisles and arrive in a large open space with loads of buggies and prams, these are display models on a couple of slightly raised platforms. This is the area where you will find the refreshments area and will be able to gain access to the cots and nursery furniture and the car seat areas.

The car seat area houses shelves and shelves full of car seats and accessories and has doors that access the car seat fitting car park outside. You will get the opportunity to be shown how to fit you car seat before you buy it.

Separating the buggies and prams area from the cot and nursery furniture area are some low shelving units with a wide variety of nursery sets, giving you the opportunity to buy matching bedding, wallpaper, moses baskets etcetera.

The cot and nursery furniture area is choc-a-bloc full of everything you will need to furnish your baby's room. The cots and cot beds are in the middle, with the other furniture set up as if in the bedroom already (a bit like in Ikea) on the perimeter. This is great as it allows you to see how your nursery might look before you buy anything. Exit this area down the other end and you will find yourself in the special three wheeler buggy and pram section. I avoided this area as I hate them, but not before the smiling sales person approached me and asked if they could help.

You will find yourself back in the big open buggy space, next to the refreshments area and just up ahead there is the Information and Ordering desk, where you can go to either order your big stuff from the warehouse or get some help in the form of a happy, smiling staff member.

If you keep going straight on you will come back to three aisles with floor to ceiling shelving containing all the smaller items. There is a feeding/changing aisle which is a mishmash of re-usable nappies, moses baskets, monitors, muslin squares, baby baths, changing mats, an aisle with safety equipment, bottle feeding equipment and some baby clothes and an aisle with lots of toys, bedding and baby carriers.

At the end of the aisles you will find the spacious checkout area with six tills and more special offer items at reduced prices.

You are best shopping for the small items first, which you can pick up put in your trolley. Then you can get the bigger items - you will either need to find a member of staff or have to go to the Ordering desk. There you will get a Registration and Warranty sheet on which they will fill out the description and price of the items you want.

Once you have finished shopping take everything to the tills where you can pay for them. They accept all the major credit and debit cards, including both Visa Electron and Solo, cash and cheques (only with guarantee cards and bring ID as they may ask for it). Your smaller items will be packed into bags for you and you will then be sent on to the Collection area.

Hand over your Registration and Warranty sheet with the till receipt now attached and take a seat in their waiting area. They will go into the warehouse and collect your bigger items (flat packed) for you. I've never had to wait longer than five or ten minutes for this. Then head for the exit and fill your car up - you can bring it to one of several spaces for loading up. My only gripe here is you don't get any help at all with carrying any heavy items out to the car, even if you are heavily pregnant.

** RANGE **

If you are looking to go shopping for lots of baby clothes then Kiddicare is probably not the ideal place to go as they are more geared towards providing the big things like furniture for the nursery and all the bits and pieces you might need for feeding and bathing your little one. That is not to say that there are no clothes available, they do have some, just a very limited range.

There are plenty of well known brand names available, you'll find names like Britax, Chicco, Cosatto, Fisher Price, Graco, Lindam, Maclaren, Quinny, Silver Cross, Tiny Love, Tommee Tippee and Tomy to name but a few.

You can get cloth and terry nappies, buggies, travel cots, baby carriers, car seats, three wheelers, travel systems, cribs and moses baskets, cots and cot beds, nursery furniture, mattresses and bedding, nursing chairs with foot rests, play pens, stair gates, monitors, baby swings and bouncers, baby walkers, changing bags, loads of toys, everything you'll need to feed your baby and everything you'll need to bathe and change them too. There is just so much to see that I couldn't fit it all in!

** THE STAFF **

Shopping for your first child can be a somewhat daunting experience. You look at the massive range of equipment available and quiver in fear - which do you buy, how do you choose, how does it work?

Do not fear… a smiling, well presented, knowledgable Kiddicare staff member is here! These wonderful people are strategically dotted around the shop floor, always available to help you make your decision with lots of relevant information.

When I went in to buy my 3-in-1 travel system the customer care was faultless, although I did have to wait a little bit for someone to become available. I asked to be given a demonstration of how to use my chosen system and the lovely lady did not even hesitate. She knew what she was talking about and made it all look (deceptively) easy. When I informed her that I definitely wanted it she accompanied me to the Information and Ordering counter and filled in all the details. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

When I wanted measurements so I could buy sheets for my cot and a mat for my changing table, another staff member went above and beyond the call of duty, locating me a tape measure and getting me a pen and paper so I could keep a note of said measurements.

Till service is quick, and you get the full attention of the person serving you rather than the sullen teenager talking to their 'mates' that I have often encountered. They even help you to pack your bags.

Another massive plus point for Kiddicare!

** PRICES **

If you don't shop at Kiddicare for the wonderful facilities or lovely staff, then you should stop there for the fantastic prices and special offers.

I got my cot, for which I had budgeted one hundred and thirty-five pounds, for a teeny tiny £79.99 including foam mattress and bedding which is a massive saving of £110 off of the recommended retail price. It was a decent cot with three levels and a drop side as well.

My changing table, for which I had budgeted one hundred pounds, came in at a fantastic £34.99. That was fifteen pounds less than any other changing table I had seen anywhere.

My Cortina 3-in-1 travel system with pram, pushchair and car seat attachments was a full £100 cheaper than the recommended price. Most travel systems have savings of between twenty pounds upwards.

Save up to ten pounds on Grobags, leading brand named baby monitors, baby carriers and moses baskets. There are fantastic cribs with over forty pounds off the recommended retail prices. Up to fifty pounds off of travel cots. I could go on forever, absolutely everything is discounted and although savings aren't always huge you are always guaranteed to save at least fifty pence off of the RRP.

You are allowed to try certain items before you buy them which is brilliant - no finding out the car seat or pram that you picked is too big to fit in your car or boot!

There is a full money back guarantee if anything should happen during your pregnancy and, should everything go well, a six month guarantee against any manufacturing faults which starts from your baby's due date rather than from the date of purchase. Just make sure it is unused and in its original packaging or you won't get the refund.


** CONCLUSION **

All in all, shopping at Kiddicare was an absolute pleasure. There were some minor faults which I think they need to take care of like the toilet size and the lack of help getting heavy furniture to your car, but nothing big enough to knock off the full five star rating that I am giving them.

This is my absolute favourite place to shop for all things baby!

Summary: My favourite place to shop for all things baby!