Is this a good idea?

[_Scottie]

I'm going to abuse my mod powers for this post that should be in the Off Topic, but I need as much input as I can get here.

I'm quite seriously looking at opening a Kid to Kid franchise in Spanish Fork.

For those of you that don't know, Kid to Kid is a used children's clothing retail store. Parents can bring in old clothes, which we will buy or purchased the used clothes.

The concept is to make it a bright, colorful place. I know for me, whenever I leave DI or Salvation Army, I feel like I need to take a shower. We want to make sure that Kid to Kids don't portray that. So, a very large part is mental. Make people want to shop at my store instead of the bargain stores.

I have a partner that will be 50/50 with me. He is fronting the money needed to get the SBA loan.

Advice? Please? Especially from those of you that live in Utah.

[_Infymus]

Way too many Mormons down there. Want better business? Use Mormonism. Hell, Mormons abuse each other for money all the time. Dust an old talk out of the archives, put a fresh spin on it, make sure the racist comments and so forth are gone, and whalla. Put it in a book and sell it at Deseret Book for $19 dollars.

What I'm getting at is that you are in the middle of Mormonism. Kid to Kid wouldn't sound as a good as some other Mormon themed store. Why not call it Mormon Kid to Mormon Kid? lol!

Beyond that, location, location, location. Is your store easy to get to?

Also, competing with the Cult thrift store is going to be very very hard. Hell, I buy clothes for my kids there. Many Mormons support DI simply because it is, Mother Cult. Can you compete with them? Can you get material on hand to sell at the same prices they do? Have you researched what other companies have done that is similar? What were their track records? DI gets their clothing free from Mormons. Can you get donations that will keep you in supply?

The Cult DI advertises on TV, magazines, hell even on the side of buses. What can you do?

Sounds risky to me to open a thrift store for kids in Utah.

[_Yoda]

If there aren't a lot of other places like it near you, I think it's a good idea.

Here in NC, we have a consignment store called "Once Upon A Child" that does very well. With as many babies as people have in Mormonland, it should be pretty popular! ;)

[_Jersey Girl]

I don't know if it's a good idea or not, I'll let others who know the area determine that. I can help with your environment though.

You need to line the lower half of the walls with chalk board. You can either purchase institutional chalk board or make your own by spraying chalkboard paint over plywood. To this attach, buckets of sidewalk chalk. NOT regular chalk. Regular chalk would present a choking hazard and keep watch over the size of the sidewalk chalk pieces that they aren't getting too small.

You can also line walls with shower board to use as a dry erase wall but instead use washable markers. This isn't the best idea since your markers will dry out and the marker tops are also a choking hazard. Just throwing that out though.

You need TWO wall mounted DUPLO (NOT Lego) boards on each wall. Do NOT use Legos, they present a choking hazard to very young children.



If you can afford it, make a train table with wooden trains. I'll try to get you a picture of the kind I'm thinking of. You'll need a 4X8 piece of plywood and something to mount it on. In this, you cut out two big holes so that children can crawl under it, get up in the middle and play with the trains. Picture that in your mind. Children work from inside the middle of the table and also on all 4 sides. Cover it with thin carpeting if you want and attach tracks to that. Picture the tracks in a huge figure 8. The holes are in the middle of each part of the 8. Got it?

Get one of those industrial type air fresherners that are used in restaurant/store restrooms. Make it strawberry or vanilla.

The above will keep children happy while mom sticks around and shops longer. No charge for the consult and please do NOT paint the walls in all primary colors!

Difficultly yours,
Jersey Girl

[_Scottie]

Those are some GREAT tips, Jersey Girl!! I LOVE the train idea.

The chalk might be questionable as I'm not sure if parents would hate their kids getting dirty with chalk dust?

[_harmony]

Those are some GREAT tips, Jersey Girl!! I LOVE the train idea.

The chalk might be questionable as I'm not sure if parents would hate their kids getting dirty with chalk dust?

Good grief, the kids will be crying when they leave the store! Momma, go buy something else, I wanna play with the train!

[_Jersey Girl]

Those are some GREAT tips, Jersey Girl!! I LOVE the train idea.

The chalk might be questionable as I'm not sure if parents would hate their kids getting dirty with chalk dust?

It's what I do, Scottie. :-) People will think the train table is a new and innovative idea when actually it's a VERY OLD idea. In classrooms lucky enough to have them, the train table is attached to the wall with hinges and can be put up when not in use or in your case, when the store is cleaned each night. You can modify the shape into a long rectangle as square footage necessitates so you don't take up too much of your merchandize floor space up for it. Get wooden trains and they'll last just about forever.

As for the chalk dust. Keep a little spray bottle of water around and spray the chalk a couple or three times a day. It will keep the dust down to a minimum but use up the chalk quicker. Sidewalk chalk is dirt cheap though. You can also use sugar water but I wouldn't recommend it in a shop.

Yes, I do have the answer to everything. No applause please.

[_Jersey Girl]

Those are some GREAT tips, Jersey Girl!! I LOVE the train idea.

The chalk might be questionable as I'm not sure if parents would hate their kids getting dirty with chalk dust?

Good grief, the kids will be crying when they leave the store! Momma, go buy something else, I wanna play with the train!

Yup, you got it! These are good ideas for a family play room as well. Good fun doesn't have to cost much.

[_Jersey Girl]

Here's some other stuff for you, Scottie.

If you want to host children in your shop, the best investment you can make is buying yourself a choke tube. Here's one for you to look at. In other words, you're not going to have anything such as marbles, small pieces of chalk or legos in your shop.

http://www.kaplantoys.com/store/trans/productDetailForm.asp?CatID=0%7C0%7C0&PID=80072&area=yahoo&WT.srch=1

You can get these online or try a Discovery Toys consultant to get one from. You DO need to host children if you want mothers to shop and you need to be smart about it.

Put the chalk wall up in sight of the cashier area so staff can keep an eye on it.

Put the train table against another wall.

On another wall, you could put a low shelf and put these on it:

Buy Wal Mart flavored water in 20 ounce bottles. Drink the water if you must, but what you want is the bottles. Use small bottles so that very young children can use them and they can't hurt eachother with them. Inside the bottles you put things such as:

Colored water with shaped sequins.
Colored corn syrup with glitter, beads or whatever.
Cheap shampoo so when you shake it, it makes bubbles.
Cheap shampoo with apple seeds in it.
Salt with objects in it.
Sugar with objects in it.
Rice with objects in it.
Ocean in a bottle: Colored water, oil and objects. (Think fishies, boats :-)

(I can do this forever ya know)

And you hot glue or tacky glue the lids on.

Call it a "discovery shelf. " You can tint rice, salt, sugar and water with food coloring but make sure the dry stuff dries before you bottle it up.

So, there you have ideas for three walls and put some of those wall mounted DUPLO boards around. Spread it around the shop so children don't congregate in one area and so that there is something to do all over the shop while Mom is shopping. Make it a place where mothers LOVE to come!

Edit: I had an afterthought. Since presumably you'll be hosting mothers of young children, you need an area where mom can nurse her baby. A couple of nice comfy rockers in a corner area ought to do it. You also need a changing station in the bathroom. Do you want a picture of that? Get the kind that are mounted on the wall (just get one) and fold down. If diapers are a problem (smell), get a diaper genie. Do you need a picture of that?

p.s. You want the train table for yourself. Admit it. ;-)

[_Scottie]

More great ideas!

I really like the idea of kids saying "I want to go to kid to kid!!"

Plus, I'm thinking of buying a couple of plasma TV's and I'll have one in a walled in play-place playing Baby Einstein and another playinig the latest Disney cartoon.