How Many People Does It Take To Fold Down A Stroller?

Today will forever go down in history, as the day of the stroller incident.

We had some money saved. We needed a stroller. Put two and two together, today we shall buy a stroller!
We had a fair idea of what we wanted/needed in one by now, nothing like those early days of buggy panic in baby city. We wanted a 3 wheeled one, that could go on outdoorsy walks, that could reverse the seat so we could see baby, that reclined in multiple positions to fit baby as it grew, that had storage space and an adjustable handle - a must for tiny me -, that was in our budget (roughly $300) and most of all, one that was simple to use.

Seeing a department store was having another wonderful sale, we decided casually that we would check out their baby range. I had a baby brained moment and almost walked into a wall before getting on the wrong escalator, but we did manage to safely make it into the well stocked baby department.

So much to see!
"Look at this!" "Oh this is cute!" "I hope someone will buy this for us!" "What is this for?"
We were immediately sucked off track, looking at tiny clothes and hats and nappy bins, even a high chair appeared in the mix...although I don't know how.

It took a while for us to refocus on our ultimate goal. STROLLER!
They had a good range in here, and we started pulling some out to play with. Some had awesome adjustable handles, but no reversing seat. Others had everything we wanted, but four wheels not three. Then we saw it.

The magical stroller of our dreams.

It literally had everything we needed.

And at 40% off - we could even afford it!

We started to play with it. Within minutes we had figured out how to adjust the handles, recline the seat, remove the seat, reverse the seat, lock the wheels and attach the rain cover. All without having to look at the instructions. It was perfect!

That is,

 until we tried to collapse it.

For ten minutes we tried every button, pully, lever, twisty nob, non twisty nob, slidey thing that we could find. Nothing worked. The stroller was still fully open.

I buzzed a handily placed buzzer for assistance. She (hereafter store clerk 1) came to our aid super speedily, but alas, was also unable to figure it out despite having even turned it upside down.

Without missing a beat, SC1 called the store manager. Because (as she eloquently put it), managers know everything.

This proved inaccurate however, as 15 minutes later, neither the manager nor SC1 had succeeded in collapsing the stroller. I found this all highly amusing, as both Husband and I stood watching this now high level drama unfold before our eyes. It was clear that they weren't going to give up until they had succeeded in collapsing this god damn stroller! ('scuse my language)

Before long, we had four store clerks, a still in it's box buggy, and it's accompanying instruction booklet   , all working like crazy people to collapse it. But all to NO AVAIL!

That was about when they realised that the stroller and instruction manual they had gone to great effort to bring out of the back room was in fact...not for the stroller we were now desperately trying to dissemble. A similar model yes, but just different enough to have FOOLED US ALL!

Cue - 3 store clerks, one manager, one now beat up display model, one opened and incorrect model buggy and now the correct model still in it's box, complete with instructions on how to collapse.

Which we then discovered, where in fact on the side of the stroller.

But (thankfully) which still didn't help us.

So none of us felt too bad.


All up, it took an hour for all 6 of us to figure out how to collapse the child transporter. I couldn't stop giggling at the ridiculousness of it all. Even hubby was grinning. He managed to set up and collapse the 'in the box' model multiple times with ease. I had a go, and also had little trouble. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I mentioned that it's a good thing we weren't mystery shoppers, but that they were pretty lucky that they had got a whole hours worth of paid training with real life customers, and that I had now become so bonded with the stroller, I could hardly leave the store without buying it!

The store clerks (who asked to remain nameless) were extremely relieved, all grinning, and no doubt keen for a lunch break after all that - perhaps even some wine (or something stronger).  I was feeling like after all that, I should probably go buy them all lunch!

So we bought it.
But I am keeping the receipt!

And that, dear readers, is the answer to the question.
It takes 6 people to put down a display model stroller.
But only one to put down the in the box model.