Babyland to close today (Pittsburgh, Penn Hills: how much, closing, living in)

[joco]

from the PG

Longtime East Liberty business Babyland to close and move - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[Evergrey]

No... I love Babyland

[dissident]

It will now be next to impossible to give directions in East Liberty, Friendship or Shadyside. Thanks a lot Babyland!

[FreightTrainRunning]

Originally Posted by dissident

It will now be next to impossible to give directions in East Liberty, Friendship or Shadyside. Thanks a lot Babyland!

It's easy, just make a left were Babyland used to be.

[gg]

Yeah, that area just isn't going to have the same birthrates now, due to such a drastic change in who is living around there. So many younger people and just very different. The people moving in will have way less children and most won't have any during their years living in that area.

Kind of sad to see something like that go. It sure had a great run with the tons of children needing pretty much everything. Times and the area are changing. Wonder if they will look at Penn Hills for a new location?

[BrianTH]

For us, Babyland couldn't compete with Internet shopping.

[gg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

For us, Babyland couldn't compete with Internet shopping.

Wow that is a shame you don't support the local places. No wonder all the shopping places in Pittsburgh are closing. It is all driven by a Chinese import warehouse via the web. Oh well, no more personal service and vacant buildings everywhere. Hope someday that kind of stuff is made in the US.

[BrianTH]

Babyland offered the same manufacturers as we found online, just at higher prices and with less (much less) selection. And we also found it a lot easier to research and compare products online.

The Internet is to local retail like Babyland as the car was to horse stables. And no amount of trying to "support local places" was going to keep all the local horse stables in business.

[gg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Babyland offered the same manufacturers as we found online, just at higher prices and with less (much less) selection.

If true, Babyland wasn't a very good store. There are lots of local businesses that have better prices than online shopping in my experience. Many times they actually beat the prices online. Also, you need to inspect quality, or at least I do. Sounds like Babyland was for the low end shopper and given its location, that is what it would get. That is changing and Babyland might consider a move to Penn Hills.

[selltheburgh]

For a glider and a car seat their prices were the same as or better than big box stores and online companies because of shipping costs. They were also helpful. They should have had an online presence to compete, especially given how much retail space they weren't using. They fell behind with the modern times.