Where is the stuff?

[psophia17]

I've been in Canada for almost two months now, and I'm still figuring out where baby stuff is sold...so far I have been to:

Canadian Tire
Ikea
TJ's Kiddies Store
Toys R Us
Zellers
Sears

Are there any other not-so-obvious places I could be checking out to get baby stuff? Specifically, car seats, baby proofing supplies, and bargains.

Thanks in advance!

-Petra

DS - Nathan, 12/29/03

[jujucb]

I lived in North Van. about 10yrs ago. So WAY before kids!

Isn't the The Bay department store out there?

Here are a couple of links to some stores out your way that I have heard about:

http://www.crocodilebaby.com/

http://www.hipbaby.com/

[darby24]

This is what I can think of at this moment. I'll edit later if I can think of more.

It's A Baby's World - #6-1300 Woolridge, Coquitlam (near Ikea and Toysrus)
http://www.itsababysworld.com/

Soothers - 2556 Barnet Highway, Coquitlam
http://soothers.xplorex.com

Crocodile - 1946 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver
http://www.crocodilebaby.com/

Hip Baby - 2110 West 4th Ave., Vancouver
http://www.hipbaby.com/

Baby's First Years (I think this is a baby store) - Brentwood mall, Burnaby

Discount Diapers -130-3031 Beckman Place, Richmond and there's a second store on west 10th Ave, Vancouver.

Boomers & Echoes (some new, but mostly consignment store) - Lonsdale Ave, North Vancouver (near London Drugs)


the regular department/grocery stores that carry baby items:

The Bay
http://www.hbc.com

Real Canadian Superstore

Walmart

London Drugs
http://www.londondrugs.com

Winners
http://www.winners.ca/en/index.asp

ETA more stores.

edit again
Have you seen BC Parent around? It's often in baby stores. if you do pick it up, there is usually lots of store ads and listings. And of course, I googled it and found their site. Plenty of listings for you:

http://www.bcparent.com/resources/retail_services.html

[smiliedds]

You've already got most places from the previous postings. I just want to add that for baby proofing stuffs, you can try the safety station at the BC's Children's Hosp. Here is their website:
http://www.cw.bc.ca/safetystation/

TJs and It's a Baby's World are the big ones. That's where you will find the most car seat selections. Crocodile baby is a nice but small baby specialty store - where Bugaboo is. Winners is where you will find bargins from time to time - mostly clothings and toys.

If you have a specific item you are searching for, I'm sure I can point you to the specific stores. (I've been baby shopping non-stop here in Vancouver for the last while!!)

Rebecca

[darby24]

I haven't been to Baby's World lately, but was at Toysrus (the one nearby in Coquitlam) a month ago and was impressed with their selection. Nice and remodelled with a bigger baby area. True they didn't have any Graco Cargo's, but they did have the Marathon in stock.

It's funny, but we usually find our deals at Superstore. Not the place I was expecting. Now that my oldest nephew is 2, I don't need to buy the main baby purchases (same with my sister.) So maybe not a big help to anyone else (presidents choice organic baby food is great though.)

We've had problems with TJ's and won't go back.

Winners is great for books - I have a number of John Lithgow's in my closet waiting for Christmas. Superstore sells DK board books at a great deal, I have a number of those as well. If I recall correct, London Drugs has good prices on Avent stuff (when on sale, which was fairly often.)

Since my sister uses cloth diaper and supplements with seventh generation, I often don't buy 'regular' diapers. Usually Walmart (or rarely Superstore) has the best deal on Pampers I've found though. Looks like Whole Foods now has the best price on seventh generation.

Thanks for the hospital link - looks handy.

[psophia17]

Thanks for the tips!

What happened at TJs? I had really good luck there in their stroller section about a month ago, and was planning to go back this weekend. I'll also be going to Superstore with my MIL tomorrow - it was against my will, but now I'm looking forward to it :-)

Thanks again,
Petra

DS - Nathan, 12/29/03

[psophia17]

Thanks!!!

It'll take me some time to get through all of these, but I'll do my best!

-Petra

DS - Nathan, 12/29/03

[psophia17]

The safety website looks great - right now I'm mostly looking for safety gates and stuff like that, as DS learned to crawl and cruise in less than 10 days. Split-level houses need a lot of baby gates!

Thanks!

-Petra

[darby24]

Nothing bomb shelling big, just frustration over time. Basically all due to customer service. We either found the staff pushy or non existent. Nothing in the middle. I can only remember two examples, but I thought there was more.

Started with driving out of our way to one particular TJ's because only they have the stroller my sister wanted in stock. They wouldn't ship it to the other stores either. Got there (close to 2 hour one way drive) bring the stroller out, scanned it on the register and it was more expensive than expected. Come to a closer look and it's not the right stroller, they were wrong they didn't have it after all. My sister ended up buying her stroller through a store in Edmonton.

And finally TJ's is (or was at least) Zoopers Canadian service department. Following some problems with my sisters stroller (Edmonton one), I called in. Was treated very unprofessionally, was told that what had happened couldn't have happened, I must be lying and that I was at fault for every issue. I tried to contact Zooper through the US but the phone number didn't work and they have never returned my 4 emails from over a year ago. Needless to say, NO more Zoopers for this family!

Friends have also had major problems with their registry at TJ's. And I won't say how many times I've heard wrong carseat advice from the staff.

Again nothing big, but enough to tick us off and choose not to deal with them again.

Can't help you with your gate issue as no one in the family has stairs! And I hope I haven't got your hopes up too much over superstore so that it becomes a letdown!

[smiliedds]

In case you are looking at the Kidco Center Gateway and need the extensions, the bareware.ca has it on sale.

http://www.bareware.ca/gates.htm

They also have a few other Kidco safety items on clearance too.

Rebecca