Big W shoppers are furious after the popular department store quietly changed the layout of its children’s clothing department.
The Australian retailer has revamped all 177 stores by rearranging shelves by size and age rather than gender.
Stores have grouped sizes 1-7 and 8-16, with many parents claiming there is no clear distinction between ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ offerings.
The decision has frustrated parents who now find it ‘almost impossible’ to quickly find items their children prefer to wear.
‘Can I just say that the new children’s clothing layout is terrible! Some girls clothes, some boys clothes and then a mix,” one shopper wrote on Facebook.
‘I hate it! I mean, my girls often wore “boy clothes” because they liked dinosaurs and the like, and never really liked girly things like fairies and princesses. But at least I knew where to find them. Mixing them up is annoying and only done to appease a minority,” another mother wrote.
“This is especially frustrating because girls’ clothes are traditionally sized slightly smaller, so if they go this way the sizing needs to be revised so it fits,” one person added.
The Australian retailer has updated all 177 store layouts by rearranging shelves based on size and age compared to gender and size. Stores have grouped sizes 1-7 and 8-16, but many parents also claim there is no clear distinction between the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ range
The decision has spurned parents who say it makes shopping difficult to find certain items for their children
However, others said they preferred the new layouts because their children were not “stereotypical” in their clothing preferences.
‘I love it! As someone who shops for both genders, everything is in one place and much more accessible,” one person wrote.
‘It’s great. He has worn my son’s girls’ shirts his entire life. Sometimes it’s hard to find cats and specific characters he likes in boys and now he doesn’t have to feel awkward looking at them or checking with me again. Pink is not a girl’s color like the boys at school tell him,” said another mother.
Despite the backlash, a Big W spokesperson told FEMAIL that the change was made after listening to customer feedback.
“We recently changed our navigation signs in some stores to make it easier for families to shop for children’s clothing,” the spokesperson said.
‘Our children’s clothing is still sorted by gender, but we have introduced age groups so that a customer looking for clothing for a child aged 1 to 7 can search in one place.
‘We made this change in response to customer feedback about their favorite way to shop. We are always listening and learning and continue to welcome feedback.”