Everything 'Kiddi' under one roof!!

On the 20th December the 2 youngest children and myself headed down the M25 to Lakeside. We were off to a bloggers event at the brand new Kiddicare store.

We have been huge fans of Kiddicare for several years so were excited when they started opening stores. Kiddicare Lakeside is the third of ten new superstores to open and at 50,000sq feet it has taken the title of Europe’s biggest baby store from the Kiddicare flagship store in Peterborough.

The store was super easy to find (you could hardly miss the bright, large building though!) and had plenty of parking spaces available.

We arrived just before 12pm and headed in to the 'Hello World' helpdesk where we signed in and were escorted to the fabulous cafe area! The store is very well designed and very pushchair friendly. You can tell that they have really put a lot of thought and effort in to the layout to make sure that parents have a stress free shopping experience.

The in-store café is very spacious with plenty of seating available. You can also get to test some of the high chairs that are available to purchase. There is a 'Nursing Nest' area for private breastfeeding. The café offers a wide, varied selection of food for adults and picnic boxes/snacks for kids, all reasonably priced. There's even Starbucks coffees and cakes available to purchase. As well as this, between 10-11am you can get free tea or coffee! How fab? You can have a free coffee, chat with friends, all whilst the little one has a fun time in the play area before you peruse the store and some of the 3,800 products, which include more than 150 car seats and around 350 prams, buggies and pushchairs.

After a quick drink, a chat with some fellow bloggers and we headed off to a Jo Jingles session in the Community Room. This is a large spacious room where you can hold numerous events and could even have your baby shower there!

We decided to go use the baby change facilities. I always dread baby change areas, especially when on my own and even more so when I have the toddler seat attached to the pram as it makes it quite large. I asked the staff if there was a toilet down in the baby change area and was advised there wasn't. Eeek! It would mean venturing in to the ladies rest room....but I was actually very surprised! They were large and the cubicles had mummy and child toilets and plenty big enough for the pushchair to slot in without being cramped.

After a spot of lunch we had a walk around the store. There is so much to see that you could literally spend all day there. You can test out the various pushchairs on display and as well as the Play Den there is another area in the store where the children can test out other toys. There is even a Wrapping Station to wrap your gift purchases! How fab is that, especially if you're like me and leave gift buying to the last-minute!

Kiddicare Lakeside offers so much more than just a store! It offers parents and families everything under one roof with great ranges, incredible value and brilliant service! Did I mention that their staff are specialists in their area? Well they are! They don't cross over in to different areas, so they literally know everything about their area!

Kiddicare Lakeside offers a whole host of family friendly features:

· “Walk in the Park” buggy test track

· a free dedicated Event Room for customers and the community

· children’s play area

· free and fast customer WiFi

· touch-screen Browse & Order points

· Nursing Nest relaxed environment for quiet feeding and privacy

· spacious and healthy Kiddicafé

· Baby Gift List, complimentary gift registry service

· V.i.B. (Very Important Baby) free personal shopping service

· free car seat fitting and safety checking for all

· pushchair servicing

· mummy-and-me toilet facilities (and daddy-and-me in the gents’ too)!

· try before you buy pushchair track

There is everything you could ever need for a child from birth and beyond in this one store! Everything you see in store is available and in stock. They have amazing electronic price tags which are continuously updated by Head Office to give the customer the customer the correct price and to free up staff members to assist you more!

There is also a clothing section for babies, toddlers and Maternity wear. Need to try something on but worried about the kids? No problem! The changing cubicles are huge and little ones even have their own door :)

I really could go on and on about the fab stuff in Kiddicare Lakeside, but I really recommend that if you are near any of their stores then go and visit them!!

It's a great time to go visit them now as Kiddicare’s Big Sale is now on – there’s up to 80% off hundreds of products!

So what are you waiting for??