It stinks in here!
“It stinks in here,” I loudly proclaimed to furniture store full of shoppers and aghast, furniture store employees. As I turned indignantly on my heel to leave the furniture store with its dangerous varnish fumes, I should have recognized that I had already changed as a consumer. I had no shame declaring what was an unacceptable shopping experience for my growing fetus and I. In the coming months there would be many more changes and I would not be the same consumer I was pre-conception. There would be more shameless declarations of dissatisfaction and an increasing use of the Internet and social media for my shopping needs.
Not all moms may be affected the same way I am. They are also probably the moms who walk up to unyielding doors and navigate their strollers through with ease while I bump my stroller into the doorframe a couple times before I get my child and my clumsy ass through as a couple strangers stare at me (btw-thanks to the many strangers who grab the door for me before my clumsy display has a chance to begin). Or maybe it is because I am a new mom and I am hyper-aware of things that I will take in stride after a few months. Either way, I get the feeling I’m not alone. There are others whose consumer needs are changing. According to M2moms.com’s fast facts approximately 4 million babies are born in the United States each year and 40% of them are new moms. A few of those moms must be in the same boat I’m in.
When I walked into that furniture store, I still thought life was going to be pretty much the same as it had always been. I would do everything I did before but there would be a really short person with me. Now I know there is no way anyone could have prepared me for what was to come. I am the same person with the same passions but I definitely have a whole new set of situations to negotiate in a whole new way. I could never have anticipated all of this. Being a mom brings a new set of problems to solve, but I also have a little extra baby weight to throw around.
My body knew before I did how protective I would be of my child and how important safe and reputable products would become. As a parent, I am no longer shopping just for myself. As I shop for my child, I am very concerned about the safety of a product and I often comb through blogs and message boards for the opinions of other moms.
Holly Buchanan, who specializes in marketing to women online and co-authored The Soccer Mom Myth, says, “Women, and moms especially, value their reputation highly.” I trust that other moms won’t steer me wrong because I believe they, like me, value children in general, as well as their reputation. I also want to hear why a product worked or didn’t work for them in their real lives because I, like other moms, have my own set of priorities and needs. Their reasons for liking or disliking a product may lead me to a different conclusion. And the nice thing about blogs and other forms of social media is that I don’t have to listen to them say I told you so if I don’t take their advice.
Brand reputation is important. I want to know that moms found that a product lived up to its expectations based on the product claim. And if it didn’t live up to the claim, I want to know what the company did about it. Buchanan says moms have a different filter through which they look through life. They are not just looking at how they view an advertisement but also how it affects their children.
Before I was faced with the actual cost of having a baby, I never went trolling the Internet looking for a good deal. Coupon …ha! I thought coupons were a lot of work to save very little. Plus, I usually ended up buying something I didn’t really want or need just because it was a good deal. As a woman without a kid it seemed like a silly waste of time. But now there are things that I both want and need, like formula and diapers, that I can get deals on through proper coupon usage.
Reading coupon-savvy mom blogs will ensure I have these things that my baby and I want and need. Getting the heads up on deals means I also don’t miss out on double coupon days, making those coupons worth even more. There are plenty of other deals to be had through my newfound shopping skills. I was able to get a brand new breast pump from an authorized dealer $100 less than retail by watching mom message boards. Moms aren’t stingy with their information on deals and $100 buys quite a few diapers, especially if I have a coupon.
Before baby, I would look away, embarrassed for people with their screaming children and wonder why they didn’t just go home. They could always come back and do their shopping later. Yeah, well, now I know how much work it took that parent to get to the store and how they are definitely not leaving the store without picking up what they came for. A parent has precious little time as it is, without adding in a second trip to the store for the same item.
I remember one early trip to the store to pick up my groceries, ordered online, that ended in me being very short with the grocery store’s employees. I had ordered online because my newborn was what the doctor described as “sensitive.” She became easily overwhelmed, making a full shopping trip impossible. I thought online ordering was well worth the extra expense. To make a long story short, the grocery store lost my order and I spent half an hour waiting outside the store with a screaming child. This was not much more pleasant than walking through the store with a screaming child as the windows reverberated her screams. What may have been an honest mistake to someone who does not have a child became a huge deal to my sleep-deprived ass. I will never be ashamed to yell at someone for a rational reason after my few irrational outbursts.
If I make it to the store and my child is on her best behavior cooing at every stranger that walks by, I’m still not totally focused on shopping. She is my number one priority, no matter what. I am trying to make sure she is enjoying her trip out into the world. And even though I might have asked the salesperson for help on a product, my focus isn’t totally on them. It’s child first then the four stopwatches counting down in the back of my brain. One is counting down to the child’s “this has become too much to tolerate meltdown.” The second is counting down to when her next feeding will be. The third is counting down to naptime. The fourth is counting down how long I can look away from her before she needs a reassuring smile to remind her that she is number one.
After all this, I am catching every fourth or fifth word the salesperson actually says. Consequently, it really pays if I can get my information at home on my own time. While she is sleeping or otherwise occupied at home I can focus and really choose what is best. According to m2moms.com, 80% of moms say they go online to do their research. It is really easy to get my research done that way instead of in the store. Plus, there won’t be a salesperson distracted by my daughter, who has recently found her voice that sounds like a dolphin being beaten with a broom.
Who knows if these changes in my shopping habits are here to stay or how many changes are to come as my priorities and life evolve through a lifetime. Through pregnancy and the first few months of parenting, I have learned that every parent’s experience is unique, exciting and filled with its own set of obstacles. I was nauseous my entire pregnancy while everyone kept telling me in a few weeks it was “normal” for the nausea would go away and my pregnant best friend happily ate whatever she wanted.
According to m2moms.com, Only 20 % of mothers said that advertisers were doing a good job connecting with mothers. Another 70 % said that marketers are not focused on moms in their advertising and 30 % said that they see ads that offend them. I am nervous to admit I am different than I was before because I don’t want to be treated like a mom is all I am but maybe advertisers would understand me better as a consumer if they understood my needs are in flux. Although, I am not the same consumer I was before I had a baby and there is nothing that stinks about recognizing my well-earned and well-deserved set of changed priorities.
