Just let Us stroll in!
Retailers take note – stroller-friendly store access is critical to get the business of moms! Sounds obvious, I know, but I never truly appreciated the importance of this until now that I am a stroller-pushing mom. These days as we go out for our daily walks I will only enter a store if it has easy access. That means not more than one step leading up to it, the door looks like it’s easy to push in (wheelchair access is a huge bonus) and the store doesn’t look too cramped, like I will hit everything along my path as I walk around.
The perfect case in point was yesterday when I finally got organized to go to a French bookstore in Corktown in Toronto. I’d been dreaming for days of picking up a French novel in order to work on my quickly rusting language skills. This was the perfect afternoon outing. I would spend some time picking out a book, and when Clara got fussy or needed to eat, I would hit the coffee shop. Clara fell asleep on my walk over there – perfect, all going according to plan. My disappointment was phenomenal, then, when I arrived at Champlain Bookstore only to see five steps leading up to it, a small door, and behind it a small landing area after which was a turnstile. I knew that pulling the stroller up the steps would inevitably wake Clara up and couldn’t imagine how I would manage the door and the turnstile with my new appendage. Feeling too guilty about not having allowed my baby to have her nap in her crib already, I moved along and let her sleep instead. C’est dommage. We’ll shelf the French project until I return with a baby carrier.
A walk around Corktown’s strip of gorgeous designer furniture stores made it clear why there are no other strollers in this neighbourhood. Not one store was easily accessible, according to my criteria. I was busy eyeing good breastfeeding locations and when Clara woke up I beelined for the nearest Starbucks. As much as I despise their coffee I have found Starbucks coffee shops to be easily accessible and places where I usually don’t feel self-conscious about breastfeeding. This one, alas, was small and had large windows everywhere. I would have felt like I was on display. I settled for a cozy restaurant that I remembered had booths and, surprise, they happened to have easy access too. Great! So I achieved my first successful breastfeeding at a restaurant by myself! Not a waste of an afternoon, after all.
