Mothercare, Early Learning Centre (ELC)

[ryansrs1]

Does anyone know of any happenings with the above, noticed on the Swansea council website that the ELC store in Swansea has it's lease up for sale-4 years early.

[Steve2507]

Does anyone know of any happenings with the above, noticed on the Swansea council website that the ELC store in Swansea has it's lease up for sale-4 years early.I think Mothercare are taking more ELC inhouse and so sales are moving to the Mmothercares. Does Swansea have a Mothercare near the ELC? If i does it could be simply ELC is going inside the Mothercare store.

[ADW]

The Mothercare store in Swansea does have a range of ELC stuff already but also has far better parking and plenty of room. They have an upper level that is not used at all. Would make sense really as there is often quite bulky items sold in ELC and it would be a pain trying to get from a mid city centre store to your car with your hands so full. They also often have a concession in Debenhams as an alternative site.

[ryansrs1]

Mothercare just around corner from ELC in Swansea, i have had a look on the site thats selling the lease and on the page it says-ON ORDERS OF MOTHERCARE PLC(mite be ltd), CONFIDENTUAL-STAFF UNAWARE.

Mmmmmmmm, sounds like something goin on there. If just re locating why not tell the staff????

Anyone know of any other ELC/Mothercare stores doing the same

[ADW]

Mothercare would already be fully staffed so it would all be hush hush as the exisiting ELC staff will be surplus to requirements.

[ELC-employee]

I work in the ELC, and can tell you all that the staff ARE aware, and are not happy as we were informed by a customer. The 'confidential' message appeared on the website after we asked our area manager what was happening. We have been told NOTHING by our head office, and are rather irritated about being kept in the dark when their "confidential" advertisment is on a public website. They might have expected someone to inform us, however Mothercare are apparently happy to leave our questions about our jobs unanswered. Make of that what you will.

[.Spiralling.]

The lease for the old Tescos in Mansfield was up on a website with the same confidentiality message. In that case, I have no idea why, because it was common knowledge that it was closing and a much bigger one was opening just up the road, where far more staff were needed.

[Steve2507]

I work in the ELC, and can tell you all that the staff ARE aware, and are not happy as we were informed by a customer. The 'confidential' message appeared on the website after we asked our area manager what was happening. We have been told NOTHING by our head office, and are rather irritated about being kept in the dark when their "confidential" advertisment is on a public website. They might have expected someone to inform us, however Mothercare are apparently happy to leave our questions about our jobs unanswered. Make of that what you will.That is disgusting and I feel sorry you have been left in no mans land.

I am not surprised Mothercare are combining the businesses, especially when most of the Mothercares are big retail park affairs whilst the ELCs are small shops (at least in our area). What does surprise me is that Mothercare seem to be willing to lose the expertise of ELC staff.

We shop in Mothercare and ELC, Mothercare for clothes and what I call hardware (pushchairs etc) and ELC for software (games and toys). I have found that the Mothercare staff are very knowledgable about clothing and pushchairs but ask them about any of the games and you get blank faces.

I hope it works out for you.

[ELC-employee]

Thanks Steve. I think that as most of the shop-in-shops are relatively new, the staff haven't had enough time to learn about the products, also I suppose the new staff hired to deal with ELC stock lack the benefit of beginning with an ELC team who can answer product-related questions. Hopefully they'll get better as time goes on, but I believe that in Swansea Mothercare there are no staff who deal _solely_ with ELC stock - they have to work in different areas. (I can't say this is definitely correct.) Anyway, I guess we'll see how things turn out.