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Friday, September 16, 2005

chic bust: inconvienient baby shopping at Okaidi and BHV

ok, we'd assume that those who design stores for babies and kids would have their parents in mind as well, right, as we are the ones with the wallets!? not so....the other day in okaidi [next to square trousseau, paris 12th], i had my 3 month old in a baby carrier. i waltzed in to the big chain store to peruse their baby clothes. not only did i have to walk through the entire 'big kids' department, but then i had to go down to the basement to see the baby stuff. a bit annoying with the baby carrier, as this baby is getting heavy! [the first time i went into the store i had the stroller with me, got annoyed that the baby department was downstairs, and left!] this time, once downstairs, i begin to realize that i'm getting a backache looking at the clothes-- and i realize that it's because the baby clothes have all been hung at baby height-- i.e., 2 feet off the ground! --bending constantly while trying to keep your baby from falling out of the baby carrier, not a fun thing. and what kind of baby would be down there looking at clothes him/herself anyway? baby lucie is very fashionable, but it will be a while before she is checkng out the racks herself....

and now on to BHV, which i frequent regularly. BHV is in the midst of a major renovation, moving thier departments all around, renovating others, etc. so yeah, it is harder to get around that usual with the stroller. but not only did they make the special kiddie/nursery bathroom a 'public' bathroom [meaning that there is always a huge line now], they also moved their baby stuff from the 2nd up to the 5th floor! now, i've practiced taking the stroller up the escalator a bunch, but 5 flights is a bit much... and even if i had a child who was walking, it would be tiresome dragging him/her through the entire store.

would the store designers out there think about making things baby/mommy friendly? after all, moms buy for baby and but also for themselves....and goodness knows that we need all the help we can get when trying to drag a baby around the city to go shopping!