Kidstock Children's Resale
What our Future Holds
When we took over the store in May of 2010, it was boarded up and its contents about to be disposed of. The previous proprietor left a giant pile, stretching over two storefronts, that needed to be cleaned up. The owner of the property granted us some extra time to clean up the mess and get a proper store up and running.
That was six years ago, and since then we've been having a great time buying and selling gently used kids' items.
But times have changed and we are moving on. Kidstock has been a lot of fun, but Melna is ready to retire and Leslie can't see working at Kidstock without Melna, so go we must.
Every time this store has changed hands in the last 20 years, it's been with a customer. We've had a lot of current customer interest in Kidstock, but no one has come forward, ready to take the leap of faith that's required to own a small business. We are sad about having to close down, but that's the direction we must take at this time. Should an offer materialize in the next few months, we will gladly report better news to you.
While we hope for the best, the fact is that within the last two years, two West LA resale shops have closed and the remaining store in Santa Monica is eliminating its children's section. Since we've been in business, we've only heard about brick and mortar kids resale stores closing down, not opening up. The storefront resale movement is alive and well in Southbay, trendy East LA, and many other points north, but West Los Angeles will be left with only a few stores next year.
Our current plan -- which is always subject to change! -- is to remain open through the end of December. We will not be accepting clothing during this time as we have a two-year backlog of stored clothing available. We will be hanging clothing, as we do every day, through December. We will accept toys -- only toys! -- through November. In another unexpected logistical hiccup, our two current employees are leaving us this month to continue their education elsewhere. We will do our best to stay open full time between the two of us, but we do already anticipate having to be closed for several days during October and November.
For those of you with store credit, we will of course honor the credit until our doors close. We'd encourage you to use it within the next five months, though! We are offering a fun coupon for August, so we hope you take advantage of that.
It's been a great ride and we can honestly say we've loved being here. We will miss our customers and we will miss our contribution to the recycle, reduce, reuse movement. We encourage you to continue resale shopping at the few remaining stores in the area.
Again, should any of this change, we will of course alert you ASAP. Please stay tuned to the pages of our newsletter for the latest breaking information.
Goodbye, Kidstock....
