We had the cutest thing happen in our Collaroy store today, which I just had to share with you.
A mother and her daughter, who looked about three and a bit years old, came in on a very special mission. Our staff had no idea at the time that this was a rather monumental day in both the mother and daughter's lives.
Once entering the store they headed straight towards our babies and children's section of the store. We have a big range of different teddy bears, dress up dolls and various toys, but the daughter went straight up to one of our favourite teddy bears, Rock-A-Bye Bear, which sings and rocks its little baby and kisses it goodnight. This teddy had no idea how much love was about to come its way. The little girl lovingly collected it from the shelf, gently whispered to her mum, and the two of them slowly proceeded to the shop counter.
As the mother opened up her purse to pay for the bear, the little girl delved into her own mini-sized handbag and to our staff's surprise, had a payment of her own. In a tightly sealed, zip-locked plastic bag were two very well-loved dummies.
Adele, our sales assistant, asked the little girl how she would like to pay. She handed the dummies to Adele and stated “here's my dummies because I'm a big girl now.” (oh, melt)
I know it may sound silly but we often have 'special' pieces in the store that we fall in love with. Sometimes it might be an old vintage table or stunning candelabra and sometimes it might just be the cute cuddly teddy bear sitting on the shelf. You can usually tell when a customer has also 'fallen in love' with these items. We will chat to them and find out what they have planned for their desired piece. It's really nice to see the customer leave happy and for us to feel that our favourite item has gone to a good home. Well, today I think teddy hit the jackpot.
I'm sure tonight when it's bed time and there's a few tears over the absent dummies, teddy will do his best to comfort and share his love with his new friend.
It got me thinking of the many trades that have occurred over the years with dummies and baby bottles. (yes, baby bottles, not the bottles of Verve you give up for dry July). I know my little niece gave her dummies to Santa because she was now a 'big girl' and Santa gave them to all the new babies who needed them more.
How did you handle 'dummy exchanges'? Have you got any funny stories or ideas for other mums out there?
I can only imagine how many dummies and bottles the Easter Bunny may end up with again this year.