Where to register?

I registered for Macy’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Bloomingdale’s. I went to the store once to scan in person (at Macy’s) and actually prefer doing it online because there’s so many more options. Only thing I scanned in person were bed sheets & towels. I noticed that Macy’s and BBB have a lot of the same items. I ended up scanning them on BBB because it the items were cheaper. BBB also has coupons frequently so I thought that it would be the best option with saving money.

Daughter had two registries: Macy's for her good china, flatware, etc. and she used Kohl's before they discontinued their registry for her more everyday items like linens, cookware, and appliances (you can't really beat Kohl's regular sales, discounts, and coupons...). Macy's worked fine for her, but I felt like the selections were not super extensive. There were options (and, it turned out she found things she liked), but there weren't a ton of them. I'm not as familiar with BBB's shipping policies -- if the "free shipping" threshold is fairly low, I'd probably go ahead and use them or use them in concert with another store. Honestly, I'm ordering pretty much everything I buy, except groceries, these days online because of the convenience and Covid concerns. It's possible your guests might be fine with it too. When shopping from a registry, I don't typically have a need to see the items in person -- I'm mostly shopping by price point and my personal preference (e.g., I prefer to give wedding/shower gifts with long time durability vs. something trendy or short lived), so online shopping is pretty easy for me. Good luck!

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That's a good point, it sounds like BBB will probably still be our best option!

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I actually thought about Kohl's but didn't realize they discontinued the registry option so that's good to know!

That is true! I'm doing a lot of online shopping as well and I'm sure the majority of people are doing the same thing these days. I'm just over thinking it all! Having that store close really threw me off lol!

View Quoted Comment Def browse around the sites and see their products. I did Bloomingdale’s cus a lot of people told me they used it and found that it’s sooooo similar to Macy’s. So maybe mixing up the type of stores will give you a variety of selections you’re looking for.

So I was like you, I wanted the experience of going to a store and working with a bridal consultant the way my mom and dad when they got married. And I really wanted to register at Macy's. We went to our local one - this was in 2019 - and while they used to have a dedicated person to help couples register, they didn't anymore. I don't even know if we were given a scanner gun or not, or if the woman told us to just make one online. It was not what I had been expecting at all. And my experience with BBB was that they were not super "hands on" either. And sooooo much stuff went out of stock between the time we registered and now. For both stores, I was also struck by how little they had in the store compared to online. I went to BBB a couple weeks ago, and they had like...3 patterns of dishes, none of them fine china. Really??

I know I've peddled this idea on these forums 100 times, but what we ended up doing was making a universal registry and registering for items from a million different places, around two thirds of them made in the USA as that was/is very important to us. Some of the items I'm taking a chance on as I haven't been able to touch and feel them, others I have been able to send away for samples of the fabric, a sample fork etc. and I have been very happy with the quality.

Unfortunately as retail declines, it seems like these personalized experiences are going downhill too. I really wanted the traditional experience, but it just wasn't really feasible.

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Yeah, we generally love Kohl's, but their registry left a LOT to be desired.... Mostly daughter had problems with purchased gifts not being updated to the registry (even when people clearly purchased them through the registry), so she ended up with a bunch of duplicates of some items. Even when I knew for a fact that there was an error with a purchase of mine and went to customer service to try to get it fixed, the clerk was like, "Yeah, that happens a lot and there isn't anything we can do manually to fix it...." Clearly, it was an issue Kohl's finally gave up on, as they discontinued their registry service around the time of daughter's wedding in early 2019 -- kind of a bummer because they carry such a wide-range of products and have such great sale prices. Daughter considered Target for the less expensive household goods, but Target's inventory changes SO quickly/frequently, that she read a lot of reviews about how frustrating it was to have stuff on a registry regularly be discontinued.... I'd guess BBB and/or an Amazon/universal registry will come closest to what you need. Good luck!

We registered at Macy's, Crate and Barrel, and IKEA. My husband and I liked getting to actually see the items in person. I saw someone mentioned Target and I personally wouldn't recommend Target unless you want to have to constantly make sure none of the items went out of stock. I am currently pregnant and I was using Target, but items were constantly going out of stuck/being discontinued.

View Quoted Comment I have a feeling I’m going to run into the same thing. That what I used to do when I worked there isn’t the case anymore, especially now I’m having a hard time imaging them even handing out scanners to people. It’s sounding more and more like online is going to be the way to go and that times have changed from the vision we all developed.

We have our registries through Crate & Barrel, Target, and Zola.

Target is a little hit or miss because many of their items go out of stock, and then are in stock 2 days later.

Crate & Barrel is awesome, and we liked how we could go to the store to see everything in person.

Zola is great for guests that prefer to shop online! Many of their items have free shipping as well! Zola is partnered with several brands, including Crate & Barrel, OXO, Kitchenaid etc., and we like how most of our items could be ordered from one site. You also have the ability to make items a 'group gift' which is ideal for your high ticket items! Guests can either donate an amount towards that gift's total, or buy it themselves!

I would not recommend Amazon. All of our friends have had registries through it, and every time I would go to order them something, all of their Amazon items were 'out of stock'.

We did Target, Belk, and Amazon. The Amazon gifts were purchased first. Guests enjoy ordering gifts online because it is easy.

We did Honeyfund, BBB and Macy’s. I liked choosing the physical items in person too. Very pleased with our Macy’s registry! Plus, they often have sales or coupons which help guests.

I recommend registering with Kohl's

We are doing Amazon and Macy’s. I did the Macy’s one online and it’s my more expensive registry because their stuff isn’t cheap!! So I picked the more “luxury” items for that registry and did every day items on Amazon. In my experience in the past most people have done so much online that they look at you funny when you physically go into the store!

Thank you everyone for your tips! After reading everything, it sounds like our best option will still be BBB.