H&M — Local services in London

As a pregnant woman you already expect society to treat you like you don't exist. So you think a brand like H&M, which is a Swedish brand (one of the most maternity-friendly countries in the world), and has a dedicated line of maternity wear, is going to be different and make pregnant women feel good about themselves for a change. It turns out that is not the case. After an initial attempt to buy clothes at the Lisbon store and a really poor selection available, you try again in the London Oxford Circus flagship store. After browsing a few floors you ask someone where the maternity clothes are - there are none in the whole 5 floors of the store. They are in Regent Street a 5min walk away. Fine. So you walk to Regent Street. You look at the floor plan: Floor 1 Women, Ground floor Women, Basement Men, Children and Babies. You sort of see where this is going but you browse the two women's floors because you ARE a woman after all still, even if society treats you like a child, right? Wrong. After two floors, you ask someone - it's in the basement. Confirmed - you're not a woman, you're a baby now. Don't get me wrong, I get the marketing of putting maternity wear next to cute baby clothes but a bit of proper signage would be nice? So you go to the basement, through all the men's clothes, and look around the children's clothes. You ask someone again because you can't see anything. They point to the corner. You walk to the corner and halfway there you spot some larger clothes sandwiched between baby stuff and 1.5-2 y.o. No sign. There is a photo of a pregnant woman on a shelf so this must be it. The selection is appalling even though there are plenty of options online, to make quite a few clothes fit in only a few shelves they are all mixed up on top of each other, several different models per rack that you need to browse through to find the right model and size. It looks a bit last a last minute sale at poundland rather than the well organised display from the rest of the store, kids' clothes included and close enough to stand in stark contrast. You still pick things to try because - you have no choice, almost no brands have jeans that fit and you are down to one pair of trousers in your wardrobe. So next comes fitting. Only a few fitting rooms in the kids' section and a few families with kids around so you drag yourself all the way upstairs. Clothes don't all fit. So all the way across the ground floor, down the stairs, crossing the entire basement to the corner where the poor excuse for a maternity section is. And you drag everything upstairs again with your back starting to hurt. You don't even look at the baby clothes because at this point you're just pissed off. You'd think that a brand that makes an effort to have a maternity line would make the additional little bit of effort to treat women with enough dignity to a) have proper signs that identify them as women (or at least say "maternity"), b) have a proper selection of maternity clothes and c) have maternity clothes in the women's section closer to the fitting room? During the 5-10 minutes I was browsing clothes there (I didn't want to stick around as I felt deflated and humiliated), another 3 pregnant women showed up. More than the number of people looking for kids' clothes in that entire time - the same two families that were occupying the fitting rooms for a while. Clearly this is something pregnant women need - why can't brands treat us with a tiny bit of dignity? The staff were generally polite when I complained but did not seem to see the issue. I asked to talk to the manager who was nice and apologetic and claimed they were changing the displays, but I am not sure anything will change. When an omission is this glaring (in their flagship stores too), it makes it sound like it's company policy to be maternity friendly on paper but not...

I shopped in the Regent Street H&M Home last night. I was a bit lost with where to find certain items I had seen online. I asked a sales associate for some help. I was looking for a certain candle which was not found in store. However, Rachel advised me that she would go downstairs and check the Stockroom to try and find these for me. as she was heading off the sales floor, another lady I believe to be the manager in charge asked where was she was going, Rachel replied “to find some candles for this gentlemen, the Green dinner candles” of which the manager in my opinion wasn’t best pleased she was leaving the floor and simply said “erm may be” (kind of eye rolling) Anyway, Rachel found my products which were sold out online and not available on the shop-floor she gave me two of them as I requested which made me very happy. Rachel also helped me to find several other items within the store that I wasn’t able to. Rachel also served me at the till point making sure I knew about my H&M app and even showed me where I could save £3 in vouchers that I didn’t know I had towards my sale. Honestly, it’s not mentioned enough when you get a good service in stores people tend to just focus on the negative. Rachel is a credit to that store and had she not of been there I would’ve walked out empty-handed. She is a breath of fresh air in a very busy retail environment but she made time for me and made me feel I was a valued customer and friend. Well done Rachel!! I’ll be back...

Why are there zero staff on the first floor? Popped in to collect an online order, which was quick and painless. I was then looking to see if another item was in stock and showed it (on my phone) to a member of staff on the ground floor. He responded by saying "It's Divided". When I didn't know what to do with that information, he repeated "It's Divided, it's upstairs" and turned away. Like, sorry sir, but it isn't my job to know where you keep things. Try giving a whole answer instead of a clipped, half response. I went upstairs and was still having trouble tracking down the item, so looked for a member of staff. Not a single one to be found on the shop floor. Fearing a repeat of the attitude I'd already experienced if I went back downstairs, I didn't bother. I did try on some other items in the first floor fitting rooms. Here I found the only member of staff on that floor, alone and flustered to the point where she was barking instructions at customers in an attempt to control flow into the busy fitting room. Once we had time to speak, she was helpful so I think it was the fact she was overrun that was the issue. H&M, please do better. Distribute your staff properly and train them how to speak to customers...