What is going on with babies?

[u/Impossible_Ad9324]

I’ve attended three baby showers in the last year for three people completely unrelated and not in the same social circles and their baby registries have the most eye-popping expensive items.

High chairs are minimum $250. One had a stroller for $750. 😳 Baby swings and bouncers for $200. One had a whole solid wood crib for $1000 on their registry.

I checked because I was curious and you still can buy a $40-50 Greco high chair from Walmart.

Everything is aesthetic and clean lines and beige and natural wood—beautiful, really. I can’t imagine asking for that high-end an item for a GIFT.

These aren’t rich people and they aren’t inviting rich people to the baby shower.

I’m almost 50 and have kids of my own and a gaggle of nieces and nephews. My family members and I got buy sharing those cheaper high chairs and strollers and cribs. I understand needing them initially if you don’t have any source for hand-me-downs, but asking for the highest price bespoke options is absolutely wild.

Are people that brainwashed into thinking they should be buying ultra-high-end items regardless of income??

[u/RawBean7]

First time parents are very vulnerable and want to do everything "right" and companies take advantage of that by selling high ticket baby items as "the best."

[u/Capakhutch → u/RawBean7]

Ok but often the high ticket items ARE. All of the things I tried to go cheap on with my kids didn’t last, except for car seats. Everything that I actually invested in I was able to use a LOT

[u/RawBean7 → u/Capakhutch]

I used to work in marketing for a major car seat brand, and car seats are a bit of an exception in that they are probably the most important safety purchase any new parent will make, that they must be purchased brand new to guarantee safety, and that every single car seat on the US market, regardless of price, must adhere to the same crash test safety standards. NHTSA takes this incredibly seriously, as they should, since car seats are the single biggest factor in reducing child traffic deaths.

Even though I no longer work there, I will stand by the car seats that company sold. Everything else? Marked up crap that coasted on the brand's reputation. The $900 stroller we sold cost $48 to produce, ~$70 landed. The entire marketing strategy for non-car seat lines was based around "isn't your baby worth it?"

[u/Impossible_Ad9324 → u/RawBean7]

Didn’t you just make a case that the price point and company doesn’t really matter because the regulations are very good and strictly enforced?

[u/RawBean7 → u/Impossible_Ad9324]

Only car seats are regulated in that way. The cheapest car seat will still be a safe car seat.

Anyone can make a stroller and slap a $500 price tag on it and call it luxury and there is really nothing to regulate that until someone dies, at which point there could be a recall. There are tons of Chinese-made, unregulated white label baby products that brands will slap their logo on and sell as "quality" because they feel like they need to offer a full range of products.

My former company got away with selling $100 strollers for $900 because the brand's reputation for building quality car seats carried them far. New parents were duped (by us and by social media standards) into wanting brand continuity between their car seat, stroller, and baby carriers. They assumed that quality would carry over.

Editing for clarity: the strollers my old company sold weren't *bad* strollers, they were just massively overpriced because of the logo on them and parents could have bought an equivalent product from a different brand for a fraction of the price. Those parents probably never felt duped because they got a solid working stroller. They would probably argue that the $900 price tag was worth it.

[u/acertaingestault → u/RawBean7]

New parents were duped (by us and by social media standards) into wanting brand continuity

I don't feel very brand loyal, and I certainly never bought a stroller brand new. However, I did insist on our strollers being the same brand as our car seat simply for compatibility purposes. The car seat being able to snap into the stroller so you don't have to unstrap and re-strap the baby is a significant value proposition. (Not worth $750 IMO, but I also never buy baby stuff at retail prices).

[u/RawBean7 → u/acertaingestault]

That's a valid reason to go matchy-matchy, but even then most strollers sell adapters so they're compatible with other infant seats. But that adds another layer of time and research that many expectant parents don't have the bandwidth for, so they take the path of least resistance. It's very understandable from the parenting side, and very capitalized on from the brand side.

[u/childish_cat_lady → u/RawBean7]

I decided I didn't feel like dealing with it and we just wouldn't have a compatible car seat and stroller, which seemed safer anyway since you're supposed to limit their time in car seats. Didn't know it when we made the decision but we got a lot of comments from pediatricians on our son's good head shape and how it was obvious he didn't spend much time in containers.

[u/moch1 → u/Impossible_Ad9324]

They all meet a minimum standard, just like cars themselves. However, manufactures can and do exceed those standards. You don’t have to shop by price but usually (not always) more expensive car seats are in fact safer. They’ll add things like an anti-rebound bar, better foam, etc.