Let's Make Every Day Earth Day

Earth Day Give-Away Blast off! In honor of Earth Day, GROVE STREET kids has decided to give away one of our newest products at the shop, a Green ToysRocket! All you have to do is go to our Facebook page, "like" us (if you don't already) and then "like" AND "share" this post to your friends... to help spread the word about us! The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Facebook tomorrow evening! BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) It's been well over a year since Alameda County placed a ban on the use of plastic bags in grocery stores or other retail establishments that handle food (ie. Safeway, Target, CVS). Researchers have well-documented the harmful impact to our environment and wildlife caused by one-use plastic bags. Plastic never biodegrades; instead it breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that seep into our soil and water. Paper bags aren’t much better. While recycling has helped, a study by the Environmental Protection Agency found that only 4.3 percent of bags end up being recycled and a single-use paper bag has an even larger greenhouse gas emission than plastic bags. We are happy to say that most of our customers either decline a bag at the time of purchase, or have brought their own. By now, folks seem to have a collection of reusable bags in their car! Consequently, we will no longer be offering bags, either plastic or paper, because it is the right thing to do, especially as a Certified Green Business. Of course, there is always the option of purchasing one of our own two-tone canvas bags while your at the shop! OR, turn in your fully-punchedFrequent Buyer Card with a purchase of $50 or more and get one for free! In other Consignment News... In a world where our society is evermore recycle-saavy and green-conscious, it's always a bit of a surprise to hear about other consignment stores closing their doors. But the truth is, it's not an easy business to run (which ones are?) and to keep up with the ever-changing demands of life and family, a business-owner can be hard-pressed to keep herself afloat! Recently, it was brought to our attention that They Grow So Fast, a Lafayette-based children's consignment shop had closed its doors after over 20 years in business. Not long before that, another Berkeley-Mom owned shop, Apple Pie Maternity shut down after just under two years in business. It's truly unfortunate because the existence of these businesses help GROVE STREETkids, not hurt us. We all have something different to offer and we worked together to help protect our environment. So what does this mean for GROVE STREET kids? It means that, for our customers, there are less options and places to go to buy and sell, and for us it means more consignors and sellers. So we have to be even pickier about what we take in, and more strict about how we take it. So we ask, in fairness to everyone, that you stick to our guidelines when bringing in items to sell or consign: a 2 paper (or reusable) bag limit (in keeping with our desire to eliminate plastic) per visit and, as always, checking our website for the sizes and seasons we are currently accepting. In addition, as mentioned in our previous email, our consignment hours changed to certain days, to accommodate the many schedules of our staff and Anne Marie's treatment. As Summer approaches, and schedules change, we are once again faced with changing our consigning and buying hours at the shop. We will most likely resume our original buying hours (Tuesday thru Friday, 11 am to 2 pm) sometime in May. We hope this doesn't cause too much inconvenience for anyone, and we certainly have appreciated your ongoing patronage and support.