Happy New Year!

Our Sizzlin' Summer Windows

Well, it will be a New Year for us, anyway – our 8th year– beginning July 18th! GROVE STREET kids will celebrate 7 years in business, and we'd like to thank you for your continued support and patronage, and hope you will visit us any time between July15-31 to receive 40% off of any non-sale or already discounted item! Just mention  that you received this email, no need to print it out!* 

And as is customary for us, the shop will be closed in early July for some refreshing and reorganization, not to mention a little recuperation as well. This year we've closed for a couple of extra days to give Anne Marie a little more time to recuperate after finishing her treatments. 

Anne Marie, one day after finishing treatment

As a result, GROVE STREET kids will be closed from July 1st thru the 14th. We apologize for the inconvenience, but appreciate your continued support and understanding. Anne Marie is excited to reopen the shop, recouped and refreshed and with this most difficult time behind her!


One final thank you, to those who voted in Parents Press Magazine's Best of the East Bay 2014 and made us one of the Top Picks for Best Place to Buy Resale Children's Clothing. It means a lot to us and tells us that we are doing something right, despite the difficulties of the recent past! Thank you again for your continued support!

We look forward to seeing you in our New Year!

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.

New Buying & Consignment Hours

Spring is just around the corner!

And with that we have started to transition into Spring Merchandise. So, get your short sleeves, sundresses and swimwear together! Items should be freshly washed, free of stains, pet hair, missing buttons and broken zippers, and limited to 2 paper or reusable bags (no plastic please). Remember to check our policies and guidelines for the best resale and consigning experience!

Spring also intimates new, and on the heals of visiting the San Francisco International Gift Fair, we will have lots of new, fun and exciting products coming into the shop The pictures above are a sneak peek into what you can expect to see in the  next month. New items from  Sassafrass, Sigg, Uncle Goose and more! We will still carry our tried and true gift items, including our leather bracelets and watches, but we will also have new styles of those to choose from as well!

Update on Anne Marie

If you missed the last email blast, I had shared the unfortunate news that I was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Again, there is no easy way to communicate this. Since that emailing, I have begun my treatment. Though I plan to be at the shop as much as possible, there will be days that I just can't make it in. And to accommodate the many schedules of the GSK staff on the days I can't be at the shop, Buying and Consignment Hours will change to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday only. However, you may now bring your items in at any point during the day. This change will remain in effect until further notice. As always, we recommend checking our website or giving a call before making the trip down.

Secondly, as part of my treatment, the success of my recovery requires that I not be unnecessarily exposed to any illness of any kind. So I, along with my staff, respectfully ask that you not bring any children, or yourselves, to the shop with even the slightest sniffle. Thank you in advance for your consideration. 

Many customers have emailed me and shown tremendous support already, and I can't tell you how much it means to me. While I don't look forward to this process, I do relish the time when I can be back at the shop without hindrance to either myself, my co-workers, or my customers. Thank you for your continued kindness, support and patronage.

Better Late Than Never!

Winter finally seems to be upon us! And according to Groundhog Phil, the world's most famous furry forecaster, we can expect another 6 weeks of it. Phil saw his shadow at around 7:25 a.m (EST) this morning in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pa., amidst mostly overcast skies and temperatures in the mid-30s. Thousands of revelers showed up for the folksy celebration.

According to legend, if it's cloudy when the groundhog emerges, Phil will leave his burrow, signifying that winter will end soon. If it's sunny out, the groundhog will supposedly see his shadow and, frightened, retreat back into his burrow while winter drags on for six more weeks.

So what does that mean for us? Well, for a couple of weeks we've been struggling to tell folks what kind of clothing we're in need of (snow gear? swim suits?) given it's felt more like June than January... so we've stuck to transitional pieces, light layering and the basics. Folks are still looking for bibs, boots and gloves in hopes of a ski weekend down the road, and the good news is there is rain - and therefore, snow - in the forecast! And we still have some cold weather items in stock. However, since the weather can change on a dime, please check our website before heading down with your items to sell or consign.

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Love is in the air! We love Valentine's Day and love to dress the windows accordingly! Inspired by my youth, when I had to wear a blue and white uniform there wasn't a day that I looked forward to more... every year my dad bought me a beautiful Valentine's Day dress. Come on down to the shop to see our selection!

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On a final, and decidedly somber note, those of you who are our more frequent customers may have seen some changes around GROVE STREET kids in the last couple of months. We have some new faces behind the counter that are providing coverage for me while I have been getting treatment for Breast Cancer. There is no easy way to communicate this. But I want to thank those customers whom have already shown their support and patronage during this challenging time.

I am encouraged for a complete recovery, though I expect it will institute some unusual, yet necessary boundaries for me at the shop. I want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation for your patience and understanding as I navigate and establish what those boundaries are.

Thank you again for your continued support of GROVE STREET kids. We look forward to seeing you throughout 2014.

Instagram = Instasales?

Who knew?

I'm not really sure when I started using Instagram for business. I do know that I started long enough ago that I had forgotten I had already set up a business page for Grove Street Kids, and then had to create a new one... But I guess the more important question is... why did I start using it for business?

At our former home on MLK Jr. Way (old Grove Street) GSk was located in an old style, quintessential Berkeley building that had two lovely bay windows on either side of the front entrance. Those of you who have been "following" us before Instagram even existed, knew us for our windows and the photos we posted to our website. Each week, after the window dressings were changed or a new theme was presented, many photos were taken on the store camera (what's that?), downloaded to the computer, edited in Photoshop and then uploaded to our website and/or Facebook, so our customers could get a glimpse of what our shop looked like or what was coming into the shop that week.

When we moved to our new location, though excited for the new bigger and brighter space, the windows, though many, lacked the same "charm" shall we say, and thus we were presented with some challenges as to how to continue our reputation....

I imagine that I must have seen a photo posted to a "friends" Facebook page, in the format of a square with some sort of cool filter. It intrigued me, and upon some investigation, I discovered that the photo was taken with a program, or better known as an "App" that could take the photo, format, filter and frame it all in one shot! Not only that, it could be uploaded to Facebook at the same time!

The multi-tasker in me was elated! Oh, the time it would save! "Time" being that ever-elusive thing that most folks, (especially business owners!) never seems to have enough of.... right? So, I downloaded the App and started snapping away. During the move, I documented the progress and the buzz and excitement it generated thru our Facebook page was incredible! From the "Insights" tab on our administrators page I could see in the weeks that followed just how much activity our pictures were generating... it was pretty exciting.

But comments and "likes" were coming, of course from folks who were already "following" us either on Instagram or Facebook already. Of course, what we really wanted was to generate more "likes," and more "followers." But how did we get to be one of those pages, you know, the ones with the little "k" after the number because they have so many?

Well, I would be kidding myself to think we'd ever get that many likes or followers, but I was hopeful we would get more than a couple dozen, which was where we were at just a few months ago. But just posting the pictures wasn't enough, so how to get more? It was my 12 y.o. daughter who enlightened me to the concept of the "hashtag." I didn't quite get it at first, thinking that hashtagging was something that one "tweeted" or whatever, and GSK was not on Twitter. "No," she grunted, with the rolling of the eyes that can often accompany any conversation with a tween... "hashtagging a photo will allow others who don't follow you to see your photos, and if they like them, they can start following you!"

Brilliant! I thought. More "followers" on Instagram would translate to more "likes" on our Facebook page, which would then translate to more business! (The long story of that is that, supposedly, the more interaction folks have between our website and social media pages, the higher up in the search engines we get when someone searches for "kids resale" or "used children's clothing" and the like....). So there it was, the answer to my advertising problem, and so I started "hashtagging" away on our "New in the Shop" photos... #gymboree #janieandjack, #miniboden...#teacollection.

Not too many hours had passed that I started getting notifications from Instagram on my phone... "chloes_mommy likes your photo"..."didianddot likes your photo"... and so on. Within an hour of the most recent post, we had 8new followers on Instagram and 5 new page likes on Facebook! This was historical! And so exciting! Then, notifications like "Size?", "Price?" and "Do you ship?" followed shortly.

Pause.

Do we ship? Well, no, we hadn't since no one had ever asked. So, I thought, "Should we?" And so I posted responses to their questions like "Please email us your interests at info@grovestreetkids.com." And they came. From New Jersy. From Minnesota. From British Columbia. I kid you not. Emails and phone calls from moms across the country.... as close as San Jose and as far as Washington, DC. or Philadelphia, it went on. And on. One gal, a former customer of mine, went thru all of our photo albums on Facebook and made a list of the items she was interested in, that topped 65 items! Turned out we still had about 20 left. So did I ship them? Sure enough!

But then I started getting requests, not just for shipping, but for more photos! "Can you take photos of anything in size 3T and email them to me?" Some of the requests got a bit out of hand, enough so that I started to stress and lose sleep. The reason being is that I wanted to accommodate folks, but I could only do so much. I was trying to still run my shop, after all. Why didn't they understand this? I had changed our profile "about us" to say that items were available for purchase in our shop - translate: we do not ship. But still week after week I still get the comment "Do you ship?"

One of the gals who contacted me, came into the shop to purchase the items she had asked me to hold, and explained it all. Turns out Instagram is now the alternative to eBay for buying and selling... that there are groups on Facebook for the same, and once your photos get "tagged" then your photo gets clicked on and the questions and comments get posted. Which explained why people were asking about photos I uploaded weeks ago, let alone days... and not seeing the info "about us" - they weren't actually going to our Instagram page, but rather following photos in a feed under that now infamous "hashtag."

In the end, though we have more than tripled our number of followers in just a few weeks, I have decided to let go of the idea of trying to please the many around the country, and focus solely on the many that are local and "regulars"to our pages and our shop. I will continue to use Instagram as the app it was originally intended, as a photo-sharing site, that we can share with Facebook to generate interest in our new arrivals each week. We hope that, if you don't already, you will follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook so you too, can be the first in the know. And if you have any questions about an item that you like or see on either page, please just drop us an email with your interests to info@grovestreetkids.com!

What to be for Halloween, A hobo or a bride? A witch or scary goblin, Its not easy to decide.

Originally published in October of 2010, our feelings haven't changed....

Halloween is undoubtedly the favorite time of year at GROVE STREET kids. The windows are particularly fun to decorate and the folks that are drawn in by them are so excited to see what awaits beyond our store front displays. GROVE STREET kids likes to offer a wide range of costumes but, as well, bits and bobs so that the creative soul (pun intended!) has the opportunity to come to life!

And a HUGE thanks to Red Tricycle, for mentioning us in their article "15 Great Shops to Score Halloween Costumes" - scroll down to see us in the East Bay section...

Or visit our Facebook album Back to Ghoul! for a few ideas!

Be sure and post pictures of your kiddos in their GSK costumes on Facebook starting in Novemeber for a chance to win a $20 gift certificate!

GROVE STREET kids has once again been nominated in Red Tricycle's Totally Awesome Awards as the "Most Awesome Kids Consignment and Resale Shop" in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Yes, we have won this award before (2012) and other awards (thanks to all of you and your support). But what does it get us besides a piece of paper to frame and put on our wall? The short answer is, advertising.... that's free. For small businesses, this is an invaluable tool. In this case, Red Tricycle will:

• send out a dedicated email to it's over 500,000 readers on September 1st. (That's a lot of exposure!) 
• The winners will be listed on their site throughout the year with a link back to the winners’ websites. 
• Each winner will receive a Q&A profile published on redtri.com that highlights their business and what makes them totally awesome.
• Each winner will receive one free Hot List listing. Red Tricycle's Hot List is distributed once per month and details sales and deals in each local market, respectively. 

These are but a few of the advantages of winning this kind of award. Which translates into sales, which then sustains our business! So if you think we're "totally awesome," we hope you will take a moment to vote for us (by clicking the link above or the badge below) - and then let us know! Send us an email by simply replying to this message, telling us you voted, and we will enter your email address into our drawing for one of three gift certificates worth $25! Winners will be announced on our Facebook page (and notified by email) following the announcement of the Red Tricycle Winners (whether we win or not) on or around September 1st. We really do appreciate your support and patronage, and think you are "totally awesome" too.