Disgruntled Baby Shop customer (you all know which store I am referring to!)

yep, the apples are soft anyway, so it's not really necessary. and once baby starts to chew, then you don't need to blend it at all.

in case you're wondering, you can add a little brown sugar and you have the pie filling for an apple pie, the base for apple crisp/crumble, or apple sauce to go with roast pork.
 
By the way, you can get Infacol in local pharmacies. The tiny hole-in-the-wall pharmacy in Happy Valley opposite Wellcome has EVERYTHING. (It's like the Tardis).
 
Thanks for your posts everyone. I am starting to feel like I am the only one who hates that store!

The other point I would make is that infacol, baby food etc can all be replaced by an alternative or can just not be given to a baby. It is not going to have detrimental impact on them.

With baby formula from B2B, you have no alternative places to buy it, you have no substitues... your only option is to change brand (which we are advised against) or let your baby starve!

It is like going to a supermarket and being told... "sorry we have no food left, our ordering systems and tracking of purchases is really poor so we did not order enough food to feed people!"
 
happy, while i understand and sympathise with your situation, i don't know why you didn't switch to an easier to obtain formula?

my kids always took which ever formula was on sale (except stuff from china). they never had a problem. of course, we tried to limit the number of different kinds we tried, but they really didn't have a problem with trying out a different type.

i hope you have found something a little easier to obtain for your little one now.
 
Now, don't I feel silly. In fairness to me I did try my local places for infacol and got no joy... and it was early baby days...

Lesson learned, should've posted on Geobaby and asked all you guys! :-)

LisainHK, if only there was Dragons Den, Hong Kong, not sure they'd have me with my mother-brain though.... ;-)
 
BabyHappy said:
With baby formula from B2B, you have no alternative places to buy it, you have no substitues... your only option is to change brand (which we are advised against) or let your baby starve!

It is like going to a supermarket and being told... "sorry we have no food left, our ordering systems and tracking of purchases is really poor so we did not order enough food to feed people!"
Click to expand...


Just curious which brand you are using that is only at B2B?
 
totally agree with the others - if this formula brand is so hard to come by, just switch brands to one more readily available! no harm at all in that. sounds like it would save you a lot of grief.
 
BabyHappy, if you have your heart set on a particular brand for your baby- now you know that you need to reserve it when the next shipment comes and ask them to call you. Keep x amount of boxes in the house etc. I was lucky that I learnt my lesson while I was still breastfeeding and when wanted to introduce formula- they did not have stock for a week. B2B is just very disorganized- they keep running out of all kinds of stuff- it is very annoying. I haven't quite understood why are they the only "all in one" baby store in town- why they don't have more competition?
 
I don't think it's only a problem with B2B, like someone else said earlier, it happens very often in a lot of shops... it happened with Eugene too, ParknShop, 360, and City Super... The problem can also come from suppliers, shipment, strikes, mistakes in the order....
 
Yes, and the less consumed / available a product is the lower it would be on the priority list for suppliers and stockists both.

we have two local pharmacies in our neighbourhood and they regularly run out of pamper-premiums (never the normal pampers). thankfully they are easily available at mannings / watsons or the likes.
 
360 is a good alternative to B2B for some formula brands eg: Hipp Organic. Fortunately we have not got stuck on one brand as our toddler is not fussy on which to have. I have found B2B sold out of Hipp formula for a few weeks. Seems that a lot of stores have the same problem with their orders ... we went through a stage where we couldn't get Tommee Tippee nappy bin liners anyway - Mothercare, B2B sold out. Also XXL Huggies nappies - drives me mad!!

In terms of service, I don't find them so bad but their shelf prices are often different (ie less) than what is scanned at the register which frustrates me. Makes you feel ripped off when you have to check everything. Now on customer service ... don't even get me started on Eugene!
 
I must say that I have some frustrating experiences with them too.
- I order something and never get a call, next time I go to the store, I see it in stock already. This has happened quite a number of times.
- I got a babybush infant carrier, asked them if they could check that we can order the rain visor through them, they never came back.
- I was pushing around LO in the stroller and I was the one that had to get out of the way as they were shelfing up the stocks, and was not even said a word about it. ( Hey isn't it a baby store?)

But, I don't think it is because the lack of competence of the vendors, they are quite helpful and had many good experience and decision making advises. I think it's the problem of the management. Early this week, I went there to get a couple of items including a potty trainer. They were in the middle of stock control so this big caucasian male manager was around. I asked one of the ladies, "is this a good one?" and as soon as she tried to open her mouth, the manager cut in saying, "yeah it's a good one." I asked "how different is it from other potty trainers?" and basically the answer I got was written on the box. So I insisted, "so, in real life, what are the good points compared to the others? Any experiences?" and then that's when he started getting cross with the tone, look lady, just get the @********* thing.

I have noticed that every time I go there when the managers are there, the managers are always middle aged gentlemen, and they are pretty controlling of the ladies working there. Does this have anything to do?
 
I've noticed that too.. or maybe it's the same guy? Of the women working there some are great, some not so much. If I get someone that isn't very helpful I tend to do a circuit and find someone else to ask.

I don't know, of course as I'm just speculating about the inner workings of baby shops but even if the staff want to be super helpful and efficient they need a forum to be able to tell the management things like "people have been complaining about this" or "six people came in today to ask about x product". I suspect that forum isn't there. As for things like like shelf pricing being wrong and not calling back, I think that's all about poor systems which is down to shoddy management as well.

But, as many people have pointed out, many of these issues, especially supply is a Hong Kong wide problem not limited to baby shops!
 
i've shopped at bumps to babes a lot and have always found them to be very helpful. as you say yourself they stock many things that you can't find elsewhere in hk and i am thankful that they do as otherwise we would not be able to get hold of them at all. if something i would like has been out of stock they have reserved one for me and contacted me when it arrives - i have no problem with this approach, when things have to come such long distances it is understandable that there are some times when they can't accurately predict what stock levels they need far in advance.

it is possible to raise a baby in hong kong without ever buying any formula milk, ready made baby food jars, or disposable nappies at all ;-)
 
agree with others... my baby has never had formula milk or ready made baby food. he moved to cow's milk from bf and always had home made food. which doesnt mean we don't have hitches on the way :) our p'n's runs out of pura fresh milk once in a while (though we would ideally like to give him ONLY pura fresh). they sometimes run out of white US eggs (another whim of mine). so we adjust :)

guess when you are raising a baby it's best to be a bit flexible... as long as it's harmless adjustments.
 
Wow riseandshine. You have never used a disposable nappy?? How long does it take you to do that washing??? My boy does 5 poos a day still! :/
 
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