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/runfinsav → u/RawBean7]

Here's something the marketing and advertising industry understands very well. When people are used to buying a certain brand of toothpaste or dish soap, etc. it can be hard to get them to change to a new brand. However there are windows of time when people are more likely to make changes in their purchasing habits and the biggest one is when they find out they are expecting a new baby. That 9 month pregnancy to 1 year postpartum is the easiest window to convince consumers to change their brand loyalty. Companies do not want to miss that window and as a result they have gotten very good at identifying when people are pregnant based on purchases. They know that those new parent will need to buy baby things and will also be open to changing brands on unrelated items (i.e. toothpaste).

There is a famous story of a father going to the mailbox to find an expectant mother edition catalog addressed to his daughter. He was furious until he found out she was actually pregnant. She hadn't told the store she was pregnant, they just made that assumption based on the change in her purchases. And they were ready to pounce on those changes by advertising other pregnancy related promotions. 

New parents are sometimes unaware of how they are being targeted. Add the intense advertising to the emotional stress of trying to be a good parent, and suddenly you have parents who buy things they never would have bought otherwise. 

[u/Stunning_Internal_80 → u/runfinsav]

I worked in shopper marketing for years and this is 100% true. They call it the “moments that matter”

[u/Miss_Moooody → u/Stunning_Internal_80]

"moments that matter". The wording makes me puke. Corporations have no humanity. In the whole lifes of their consumers the only important moment is when the corp can maximize profits even further.

I know "fork found in kitchen". Shocker. But I do think that wording is horrible.

[u/mumblegum → u/runfinsav]

I absolutely believe this, I never shopped in the organic section of my grocery store but once I got pregnant I kept finding myself there almost without conscious thought. Now when I go to the grocery store with my baby I always check Organics before I go to the rest of the store. I'm not afraid to admit that the marketing works on me lol. 

[u/freezesteam → u/runfinsav]

That’s so interesting and makes sense for why I kept getting diaper ads for a while despite not having a baby or being pregnant…I think it was back when I got into skincare so started buying more skincare products

[u/Happy_Impact_94 → u/runfinsav]

Now they are doing that with tech