Mothercare to close UK stores – Our Mothercare experience

High street retailer Mothercare, is closing around 110 of its UK stores during the next two years.

A drop in profits partially blamed on increased competition from online retailers and supermarkets, will see the number of stores drop to 266 with an expected loss of 250 jobs.

Mothercare expects some staff to be re-deployed and is still recruiting more than 40 jobs nationwide on the Reed website, including those for a new store in Peterborough.

Mothercare CEO Ben Gordon said: “UK retailing is going through a real revolution at the moment, particularly in the high street. Trade is being taken by out-of-town stores and by the Internet, so there’s just fewer people shopping in town. At the same time there’s a consumer downturn.”

But consumers have their own ideas about why the Mothercare brand may be failing, with users discussing their bad experiences on parenting forums.

Marketing Director of website BabyChild.org.uk, Andy Barr believes the brand is in a ‘state of limbo with the parenting community’. He says: “Whilst Mothercare’s decision to reduce its high street presence is a huge shock to retail analysts it is no surprise to parents. The store struggles to compete price wise with supermarkets who have gradually increased their parenting and baby ranges and the shopping experience and customer service does not compete against some of the higher quality chains such as Mamas and Papas.”

But a staff member at Chopsy Baby highlights general incompetence. She says: “I wanted to buy a high chair they had on display in one of their Bristol stores. It was reduced  because it was the display model and there were a few dents in the soft wood.

“The shop assistant said she had to go off and serve somebody at the tills and would then come back to help.

“As time passed, I realised she wasn’t going to come back. She wasn’t serving on the tills, just loitering down there. Eventually, somebody else stepped in to help me and she went off to get the person who was originally helping me but had decided not to come back.

“The assistant told me if I wanted the chair, I had to buy it now and take it now. I couldn’t buy it and leave it in the store to collect tomorrow as there was no storage space. Fair enough. But then they told me even though I could buy the chair, I couldn’t take the chair because it didn’t have the instructions. They couldn’t sell it without the instructions and they didn’t have the instructions because it was standard practice for them to throw away the instructions for products popped out on display.

“I was left in the position where they could sell me the chair, but I couldn’t take the chair with me but also couldn’t leave the high chair at the shop. This is why I now shop next door in Boots.”

As well as the standard of service and common-sense lacking in some cases, quality is also becoming an issue. Sadly, the Chopsy Baby mascot Nellie didn’t make it: http://chopsybaby.com/magazine/?p=12276