Rant! Lack of Baby Changing Tables at TJMaxx.

[Conservative Hippie]

I carry my own changing pad everywhere, so it's no problem to change a baby on the floor if I need to (provided the floor is not absolutely disgusting), but come on, how hard is it to install one of those drop-down-out-of-the-wall changing tables? The reason these were not around 30 years ago is probably just because someone hadn't invented it yet. The Starbucks I frequent has no changing table, but it's a Starbucks - there is no expectation of spending quite a bit of time there with a baby. I once changed a baby in the dressing room at TJ Maxx because there was no changing table, no counters in the bathroom, and the bathroom floor was way too gross.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

ITA!

Our modern day conveniences have really spoiled us. I think of my grandmother who raised 10 children with none of what we have today.

I have two children. Sometimes stores don't have changing areas. Most of them are gross to begin with and I hated using them. I would have found an empty shopping cart, put down her changing pad and changed her in there by the restrooms.

When they were tiny, I have also sat on a toilet or chair and changed my babies on my lap.

I really dislike the attitude that just because someone has a child the world should accommodate them.

And leaving a cart load of clothes for someone to put back and using merchandise which you had no intenion of buying is .

I was trying to figure out how in the world that would work, then I realized you must be taller than 5'!

 

[Toad_Passenger]

I carry my own changing pad everywhere, so it's no problem to change a baby on the floor if I need to (provided the floor is not absolutely disgusting), but come on, how hard is it to install one of those drop-down-out-of-the-wall changing tables? The reason these were not around 30 years ago is probably just because someone hadn't invented it yet. The Starbucks I frequent has no changing table, but it's a Starbucks - there is no expectation of spending quite a bit of time there with a baby. I once changed a baby in the dressing room at TJ Maxx because there was no changing table, no counters in the bathroom, and the bathroom floor was way too gross.

See my previous post. It's not so much installing them, but, in the Men's rooms, it's the constant re-installing of them every time some idiot decides to tear it off the wall.

 

[daughtersrus]

I agree with the last few replies. I can't believe that you would use something that the store was selling to change your baby on. Did you take it into the bathroom or did you change her on the sales floor? It really wasn't that cold out side yesterday so I don't see why changing her in the car would have been an issue. If you call to complain, I hope that you're honest enough to tell them about using their merchandise without paying for it.

Honestly, this thread reminds me of the thread complaining about Fisher Price.

Maybe next time shop at Von Maur instead of TJMax. They have just about everything that you could need including a lounge area in the bathroom as well as changing tables.

 

[gator75]

Why on earth could you not have changed her on the sink with a pad if there was room or out in your warmed up car? I'm sorrry i had a little one once and i would have never done this. I'm not trying to take the i'm better then you attitude but i would have never done it that way.

 

[SaraJayne]

OP, what you did was disgusting. Next time, take the baby to the car or change her in the stroller.

Or another option is to bring along a changing pad (almost every diaper bag comes with one nowadays) and change her on the floor, on the pad.

I don't think your snowflakey behavior is going to win you a whole lot of sympathy.

 

[Tinkermommy]

I was trying to figure out how in the world that would work, then I realized you must be taller than 5'!

I am only 5' 1" by the TJMaxx carts are smaller than regular ones. No way could I do it in a Costco cart. I would fall in!

As someone pointed out it's more than just the cost of a one time purchase and installation. Someone has to clean it (hopefully) and then if it is broken, fix or replace it. Across all TJMaxx stores this could run into a hundred thousand a year or more.

 

[Mkrop]

Wow! Welcome to the world of parenting...um MANY places do not have changing tables so learn NOW to come up with other ways (BESIDES USING STORE MERCHANDISE YOU DID NOT BUY)

I'm sorry but what you did was gross, I would have left DH with the cart and taken my little one out to the car.

Sometime places have changing tables, somtimes they dont, sometimes they are broken or gross. Or you get a little one too big for them so you need to come up with alternatives.

 

[Minnesota!]

There are a million places to change a diaper...a changing table is not a necessity.

I have changed my kids on floors, in my lap, in their stroller, on grassy boulevards (amazing what kind of explosion a kid can have in a confined car seat after being constipated for 5+ days and you switch him back to his old formula...OMG), in my car, in my trunk, on the hood of my car, etc.

What you did - changing on a dog bed AND leaving a cart load is pretty low...and petty. Changing tables are a luxury...not a necessity.

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

You changed your baby in the middle of the store? On an item that the store is trying to sell? I"m sorry, but that's just gross.

Why couldn't you warm up the car and then change the baby in the car? I've changed many diapers in the back of my car when there were no other options.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

I see the OP posted this around midnight then hasn't come back since posting to comment on any responses to her thread. I imagine when she gets up and sees how everybody disagrees with her behavior she is going to be shocked. I am sure she expected all the moms to back her up.

I agree with all the posters, especially the one who suggested if you want nice family friendly facilities try shopping at luxury stores and not a discount retailer like TJ Maxx.

If you write Corporate I would leave out the little part about you sticking your kids defiled naked rear end on their clean, new merchandise for sale and stick to the fact that you think they need changing tables in the restrooms.

And as for you running off and leaving a cart full of clothes for some poor kid to put back....you didn't buy them, but I assure you, someone else will. AT this time of year I am confident you did not hurt their bottom line.

But maybe you will complain like all these folks do when they stub their toe at Disney and they might offer to give you a gift card to their store!! CHA CHING!$!

 

[goofy!]

Okay, so I know the world is not perfect, but this just irritated me.

This evening I was out shopping with my 9 month old daughter and noticed an all too familiar odor coming from her hindquarters. So I grabbed the diaper bag and the baby and headed off to the bathroom. My husband was with me and volunteered to sacrifice his nose for the cause. He took the baby from me and went into the men's room. Less than 30 seconds later he came back. Not completely out of the question, in the past we have been to stores that had no changing table in the men's room. We once again pass the baby and I take her into the women's room. I can't even believe it. There are three stalls, two large enough for wheelchairs and not a changing table in sight. We left the bathroom hallway, and found the manager to be certain the changing tables were not in a "secret location". Nope they don't have any.

So now I am in a retailer, with a huge cart of clothes, and a baby with a dirty diaper. Since it is too cold to change her outside in our car, I changed her on a dog bed in the store. Yes, this is a new low for me as a mommy.

Honestly though, I think if you sell children's products and you make bathrooms available to customers you should have to provide changing tables. TJMaxx has a huge section of children's clothes and toys. I love that they want to sell me children's products, but don't want to provide basic facilities for children.

BTW--we left the entire cart of clothes and didn't buy anything.

That is disgusting.

The entitlement attitude of some people just floors me. Hopefully you at least informed management that you soiled one of their pieces of merchandise. The fact that you thought using a piece of merchandise to change your baby was even remotely ok is beyond belief.

By the way, that is in effect stealing if you did not purchase the dog bed as the store will now have to remove that item from inventory due to possible fecal matter on it.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

What you did - changing on a dog bed AND leaving a cart load is pretty low...and petty. Changing tables are a luxury...not a necessity.

ITA.

It's pretty common in my area for bathrooms in retail stores not to have baby changing tables...I am shocked that you didn't know how to handle that situation without resorting to changing your baby's dirty diaper on store merchandise.

 

[Coconut36]

Stores started putting changing tables in bathrooms around the time our youngest was a baby. I would never use them, yuck. I carried a changing pad and would change the babies on the floor somewhere in the store if necessary or I would just go to the car. A few seconds in the cold never hurt them.

Same here. IMO those changing tables are vile so it never mattered to me if anyplace had them or not.

I actually got a Patemm pad ( http://www.patemm.com/ ) and that thing was so awesome. It holds your supplies in it, folds up nicely and is big enough to keep baby off the floor and provide a decent sized clean surface to change them on.

I am wondering though...changing table seems relatively new..meaning when those of us in say our 30s or 40s were infants they weren't around. Clearly our parents managed to change us in a sanitary manner and many used cloth diapers at the time as well but I am pretty sure they all found a way to change our diapers without using things in a store.

While I get desperation I do not think it is ever OK to use store merchandise like a dog bed to change a diaper on and then just leave it there. How disgusting and unsanitary. I am sure the person who ends up with that bed would be thrilled to know it had diapers changed on it. I find that to be far more offensive and wrong than lack of a changing table.

 

[Christine]

I bet the dog who gets that dog bed is gonna love though, right? Mine would.

 

[Missy1961]

Sorry OP, this one falls completely on YOU.

1. Carry a small blanket or pad in your pad so YOU always have a mobile changing table. Stores are not required to provide anything (who hasn't been in a store with NO bathroom at all at some point??).

2. You changed your kid poopy diaper ON MERCHANDISE??? A new "low" is putting it mildly. Completely unacceptable, rude etc. If you had bought the dog bed I might be sympathetic, but in this case no.

The world does not revolve around you and your baby and is in no way required to provide you with everything you think you need. You are responsible for all of that. And then you left your cart full of stuff behind to prove what? Your indignance? Or were you so mortified that you had to defile merchandise that you just high-tailed it outta there?

Hopefully this is a lesson learned. Carry a blanket or changing pad. Be responsible for your own needs.

Sorry OP, but you were wrong. Retailers do not have to provide you with a changing table. I don't think they have to provide us with bathrooms, that is a courtesy. Warm up the car, or even change the baby in a cold car--I don't think a few minutes in a cold car will cause permanent damage.

And I kinda doubt she informed store management that she used a dog bed as a changing table, and I doubt they saw it since they were probably busy. So someone is buying a soiled doggy bed.

 

[ols386]

I still can't get over that you changed the child in a dog bed. I think that's the worst part of the whole situation. Someone may pick-up the bed, handle it, and it may have feces on it. What were you thinking?

 

[akcire]

Okay people, now that evey one has yelled at me.

First I always have a changing pad in my diaper bag, because public changing tables are disgusting. I did not lay her down directly on any merchandise. Nor do I ever lay her down directly on any surfaces without her changing pad. **Also we don't use a stroller except for trips with vast amounts of walking, so that was not an option.

Second, I properly disposed of her diaper in a garbage can. Now the only garbage can available was tiny and outside of the bathroom (can't figure out why in the heck a retailers bathroom didn't have a trash can--but I digress) and next to a water foutain, but I placed it inside of a plastic bag (yes I carry those too). Not sure how/where someone got the idea that I left it behind in an inappropriate place.

Finally, as for changing my daughter on the dog bed. That was the suggestion of the manager. It came out of his mouth easily, so I am certain it is not the first time he suggested that option. Yes folks, this is the idea of customer service from a retailer I have always loved. To not provide the correct facilities, and then offer up their merchandise as the solution.

Commercial changing tables for bathrooms cost less than $100. If a retailer does not want to make a $100 investment in their smallest customer; but wants to continue to sell high margin baby/children's product I think it speaks volumes.

I can not make TJMaxx change their policy, although I did fire off an email to our state reprepentative, but I can voice my opinion with my dollars. So yes I abandon a cartfull of merchandise the week of Christmas, and yes some employee did have to return that merchandise to the floor. That is part of their job. I know, I had jobs like that for years. You should be more concerned about the lost sales tax revenue and overall impact on the economy than an extra cart of merchandise to reshop.

Ultimately here is my point. Retailers provide bathrooms as a courtsey to their customers. If they provide a bathroom, (by law) they then need to provide a wheelchair accessable bathroom. That all sounds right and fair. Why should they also not need to provide a facility for changing a diaper, if they both offer bathrooms for their customers and sell merchandise for children? There are two ways retailers could address this install changing tables or close all bathrooms to the public. As an indepedent business they would have the choice.

 

[Sunnyt154]

I also agree changing on something you were not planning to purchase is nasty.
I always go to the car or change in the stroller.
TJ Maxx has fitting rooms. Even that would have been a better option with more privacy.

 

[Arielle22]

I have taken babies to stores since my now 28 year old niece was little. Currently I take my 3 year old nephew. We always carried a changing pad with us. Most diaper bags come with them. I would pick the largest stall and used that.

OP, I agree with the other posters that your behavior was wrong. I can't imagine either taking the dog bed into the rest room (unpaid merchandise can't be brought into rest rooms) or changing my baby on the selling floor.

Your defense that since they sell baby items they should have a changing table makes no sense. They sell dog beds so should they allow dogs in the store or have dog runs set up for them?

Since you are so indignant and let a cart full of items, are you never shopping there again? Will you boycott every store without a changing table?

I can't believe your husband didn't stop you from changing your child on a dog bed. My husband would have been mortified and stopped me.