Now that he's famous from LAX to LA Harbor, I hope celebrity dad-to-be Dan Paik doesn't forget us little people. Paik is well-known in Manhattan Beach as "the guy who loves his Bugaboo even though the kid's not coming until January."
So if you see a guy pushing a Bugaboo through Manhattan Village mall, go ask him if he's that guy from Daddy Types who became all famous and what not.
Oh, and giant tank-sized strollers covered with shopping bags are a menace to the pedestrian world. yadda yadda.
Bigger, better baby buggies [dailybreeze.com]
Previously: the first hint of the Daily Breeze's journalistic genius
...and people wonder why so many folks in LA are bitter and/or in therapy?
Yes, it's true people, buying "nice stuff" doesn't make you happy.
That kid will be in therapy by age the age of four, no doubt.
[or at least on the waitlist for the must-have therapist... -ed.]
what? i'm offended. his first session is already scheduled with his therapist for when he's 2.
Dan.
[well, if you think it's alright to wait that long... -ed.]
I was at a Bugaboo sales seminar and when a Bugaboo sales rep was asked "So how do people in NYC get down the subway stairs with this?" The rep replied, "Well, we at Bugaboo feel that if you can afford to buy a Bugaboo, you probably don't take the subway. So it's not designed with that kind of a user in mind." In other words, their parent either drives everywhere in NYC with they're own car or only takes cabs. Or I guess it's also for the parent that ONLY walks in New York, but is there such a person?
So when you talk about what it means to own one and what that does or does not say about you; just know that the good people at Bugaboo know exactly what kind of person they wish to sell to.
And once you know that, that Bugaboo is designing for the elite rather then the masses, does that change how you view yourself? You might not think of yourself that way, but they do.
[so it's designed for people too poor to take the subway? Perhaps our subway-riding billionaire mayor will buy Bugaboos for every kid in the city as part of his re-election campaign? But anyway, this sounds more like a car-bound LA Westsider's understanding of New York City; as any New Yorker knows, the real subway challenge isn't the stairs; it's jamming your way onto a packed train. And the rugged Bugaboo's intimidation factor handles that pretty well. -ed.]
In response to the comment above, I drive a 7 pound Maclaren Volo and I still only take it into the subway under extreme duress. Essentially, it is only used for walking excursions from our apartment, around the neighborhood and back. I think this is pretty typical in NYC, the walkability of which is one of its number one draws.
And P.S. I see plenty of Bugaboos on the subway, maybe one every other day. If nothing else, New Yorkers are resourceful.
Actually, many New Yorkers are very nice and are more than happy to help you carry the Bugaboo up and down stairs in the subway. I take my baby to the daycare everyday in a Bugaboo. Fortunately the stations I use have elevators that are working most of the time. On those occassions when the elevators were not working, more often than not, at the bottom of the staircase, a passerby would offer to help me take the stroller upstairs.
I'm just glad that most people did not decide whether to help me or not by the stroller I push. They just saw a woman with a stroller needing help . And I'm thankful for that.
[yeah, that's how they sell them in NYC. They tell the guys, "what are you, a wimp? These things are so light even your wife can pick it up." and they tell the women, "no problem, someone will always carry it up the stairs for you." -ed.]
I actually work for a high end retailer in New York City that sells them, sorry folks I'm not from LA. I'm just telling you what they told us when they were training us to sell it.
how do people carry other strollers down the stairs in the NY subways? e.g. peg perego venezia or p3 or dynamico?
[doesn't the dynamico have a motor? You can just drive it up the stairs. -ed.]
I wasn't accusing YOU of being from LA, Anon, just the subway POV you relayed. Anyway, "so L.A." here is a synonym for "not realistic"; taken on its face, the statement just doesn't hold up:
1) no train means you walk or you drive/are driven.
2) walk means staying in a 15-20 block radius, max, and frankly Bugaboo had the "people who never leave the UES " market locked up in early 2004.
3) driving yourself on a daily basis in the city means loading/unloading, sure, but it also means parking. While it's true that people who churn through $1,500/mo parking around the city would think nothing of dropping $900 on a stroller, they would also think little about a stroller, since the nanny or the nightnurse or the weekend nanny would be the users nos. 1-3.
4) so that leaves being driven. If you take taxis or car services or some other non-dedicated vehicle, you need a car seat. Or is the Bugaboo rep saying no, you don't need one? Or are they saying only use a car seat adapter? I doubt it.
Which means their target market in NYC is only people with a car and a driver (and a car seat). Considering there are probably a hundred Bug drivers in the city for each chauffeured family, I'd have to say Bugaboo would be ignoring their actual customers. And if these pampered plutocrats ARE the only intended NYC customers for Bugs, though, you can relax; because they truly and deeply don't care what you think.
Net net: the subway thing must either be some pep talk that should be taken with a grain of salt, or maybe it reflects the aspirational mindset of the people who DO buy a Bugaboo, the over-committed, ambitious yuppies who WISH they had a driver instead of a Metrocard. Or maybe it means, "If you buy a Bugaboo, you have to give up riding the subway for a year to pay for it."
Jeeze, Greg, have a glass of Sherry and calm down...
[sorry, you can take the boy out of strategy consulting... -ed.]