Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the brand new Kiddicare Merry Hill store for a special blogger event. I have been looking forward to the opening of the new store since I found out back in January that Morrisons had bought 10 Best Buy stores in order to expand the Kiddicare business.
Kiddicare is mainly an online retailer who consider their main rivals to be Amazon and Asda Direct, etc. Now they are taking on the big baby brand stores with 10 new flagship stores around the country, and I think that Mothercare, Babies ‘r’ Us, and Mamas & Papas definitely need to be on the guard because from what we saw at Merry Hill last Friday, Kiddicare are in the game to win. The store was absolutely fantastic, and a completely different shopping experience to anything else you would find at the other big names.
Upon arrival at the store, shoppers are greeted by a friendly Welcome area where they can get a map of the store (and it’s so huge you just might need it!), set up a baby gift list, or find someone who can help them out with a query. To your right as you enter, you can find the large till area (lots of tills = less queuing!) followed by the cafe, which is where we headed first for a catch up with our hostess Jennie and a welcome hot drink.
Our first impressions were very favourable – the store is airy, friendly & bright, with plenty to see without it all being too overwhelming and scary. If you ever visited it as Best Buy you will know it as a sterile, echoey place but Kiddicare have transformed it so completely it feels like a much cosier shop despite it being 40,000 sq ft!
