Washington, D.C. Nation's capital presents microcosm of U.S.

By Kay Anderson, -- Kids Today, 10/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Kids Today

* Great Beginnings
* Baby-2-Teen
* Kids Habitat
* Pier 1 Kids
* Buybuybaby

By Kay Anderson,
Kids Today

WASHINGTON — Home to the nation’s capital and spreading into West Virginia as well as Virginia and Maryland, the Washington D.C. metro area presents a microcosm of the nation itself, with enclaves of both extreme wealth and extreme poverty, as well as a diverse mix of races and ethnicity and education.

The metro area has more than twice the percentage of black and Asian households than the nation as a whole, and about half the percentage of Hispanic households.

During the five years between 2004 and 2009, the D.C. metro area is expected to increase its population of children between the ages of 0 and 5 by 5%, while the teen population is expected to increase even more, up 11%. Projections for kids product spending are slightly slower than for the nation as a whole.

Overall, in 2004 the D.C. metro area ranked fourth in the nation in terms of median household income, and fifth in its population with graduate degrees.

Important to kids retailers, it ranked seventh among the nation’s 934 metropolitan and micropolitan areas (metro areas have a core urban area of 50,000 or more while the core area of a micropolitan area is under 50,000) in sales of infant nightwear and loungewear, as well as in the sale of toys, dolls and games, and it ranked eighth in infant accessory sales. It was in the top 20% in sales of both infant furniture and gear, as well as youth furniture.

Great Beginnings offers innovative programs

The extensive stroller area is manned by dedicated employees who can walk customers through the more than 200 makes and models on the floor.

By Jane Kitchen

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — This 80,000-square-foot independent superstore has been operating in the Washington D.C. metro area for 15 years with a single store.

Owner Jim Streight said he wanted an open, airy feeling when customers walk in the store, and he’s succeeded at that. With 22-foot ceilings, the store features neat, open room settings arranged by manufacturer, with 120 crib vignettes and 50 teen vignettes on the floor.

Cribs range from $200 to $1,800, and include manufacturers like Ragazzi, Pali, Munire and Natart. The teen section includes offerings from Ragazzi, Flexa, Rumble Tuff, EG and Morigeau.

Around the perimeter, different sections feature apparel, feeding and safety, toys and developmental products, gear, artwork and child-size furniture, making the store easy to travel.

The apparel area includes brands such as Kushies and kissy kissy, and the buying is done by Jim’s wife, Wendy, along with a former Nordstrom clothing buyer. General Manager Brian Green said the department focuses on boutique brands with more of a European flavor and quality fabrics.

Streight and Green work with several local artists who have painted murals throughout the store in exchange for referrals to customers — a win-win situation for artist, owner and customer. The latest mural, which towers over the stroller section, features a Victorian park setting and adds mood to the store’s tall walls.

The stroller and carseat area is manned by one part-time and three full-time employees who are dedicated to that section — something that becomes important when you have 220 strollers on display. “We show models in every color,” Green said. “If you show it, you sell it.”

The gear section has been a success for Great Beginnings, which has both installed carseats and conducted carseat checks for the past 10 years. The store is very involved in the community, and Holy Cross hospital has an office in the back of the store where Lamaze classes and babysitter certification classes are held.

Also in the back of the store: the Bored Husbands’ Lounge, which features leather sofas, a copper ceiling reminiscent of old-time bars, and CNN on the television. Streight pays attention to details; no expense has been spared on the women’s restroom, which features Italian tile, granite countertops, toddler-sized toilets and a nursing lounge with leather chairs. The store also employs a full-time housekeeper to keep the place looking good.

Like most independent specialty operators, Green and Streight talk about customer service, but at Great Beginnings, hand-held service is the name of the game. The store offers personal shopping on Wednesday and Thursday nights, where customers can set up appointments to walk through the store with Green or another manager to pick products for registries. Appointments are booked up six weeks in advance.

He provides the customers with his own suggestion list of must-have products in each category, and explains his choices. For items like strollers, he talks to the customers about their lifestyle and needs and then helps them make their choice. The whole process takes about an hour and a half, depending on the customer, and Green said it helps tremendously with inventory, return rates and damage rates.

For customers who want to keep the gender of their baby a surprise, Great Beginnings offers an innovative program where the parents pick the merchandise for both sexes, and then the store finds out from the doctor what the sex of the baby is and orders the appropriate pieces, so they’re ready to be delivered after the baby arrives.

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Name says it all at family-owned Baby-2-Teen

This dramatic red crib from A.P. Inds. adds flair on the showroom floor.

By Jane Kitchen

MANASSAS, Va. — This 28,000-square-foot warehouse store draws customers from all over the D.C. metro area, mostly by word of mouth. With very little advertising, Baby-2-Teen brings customers in to what owner Susie Woomer calls a “destination store” with a wide range of furniture and bedding styles, along with gear, accessories and baby products.

“If you bring in quality, they’ll recognize it,” said Woomer. “You need a mixture of everything.”

Although Woomer considers herself primarily in the furniture and accessories business, a variety of strollers and carseats are available, and items from companies such as Baby Björn, Mustela, Tiny Love and Prince Lionheart round out the mix in this NINFRA store.

Baby-2-Teen has been in this Manassas warehouse location for 15 years, but the family-owned business has been around for 21 years. “We started smaller,” explained Woomer. Today, there are two Baby-2-Teen stores in the Washington metro area; a second store in Fredericksburg, Va., is around 12,000 square feet.

Infant furniture vendors include Chanderic, Young America, Pali, Baby’s Dream, Legacy, EG, A.P. Inds., Morigeau-Lepine and Berg, with youth offerings from companies such as Young America, University Loft, Barn Door, Flexa and A.P. Inds. showcased as well. An area featuring A.P. Inds. includes signage for the manufacturer, and cribs and youth beds displayed side-by-side illustrates how the pieces can grow over a child’s lifetime.

Baby-2-Teen features bedding from Cotton Tale, Brandee Danielle, Kimberly Grant and Luv Stuff, and Woomer said the store does a good bit of business with custom orders — something that sets her apart from other area juvenile stores. Customer service, knowledgeable employees and follow-through care are also pluses that keep customers raving.

Lately, Woomer said she has seen consumers get a lot more daring when it comes to nursery décor, venturing into black furniture, brighter colors and contemporary, more sophisticated styles. Whatever their tastes, they’re sure to find something to please them.

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Kids Habitat concentrates on youth market

Each vignette in the store features its own paint style and bedding theme.

By Jane Kitchen

FAIRFAX, Va. — Nestled in the Fair Lakes Shopping Center here among Starbucks, Applebees, Petsmart and World Market is Kids Habitat, a 3,300-square-foot kids furniture specialty store. Another Kids Habitat is in Rockville, Md.

The store focuses on kids furniture, with no baby items yet, and concentrates price points at the heart of the market; twin beds open at $249 and top out at around $699. Items are aimed at younger kids rather than teens, with lines from manufacturers like Lea Inds. and American Woodcrafters on the floor.

Washington-area consumers hear about Kids Habitat through mailers and advertising in local papers.
The store is set up in vignettes, with different looks for each bedroom set, including walls painted in different colors and themes.

New owner Donna Moschetti, on board since last September, is planning a remodel, which will feature a larger display of accessories and a focus on selling a whole room package, said Regional Manager Raluca Angelescu.

Part of the remodel means showing boy and girl vignettes side-by-side, so customers can see how a vignette can change with different accessories, Angelescu said. Pictures showing vignettes with different accessory combinations will help customers to visualize the possibilities even further.

The store has been open since 1998 and for a time was known as the “all-natural store,” Angelescu said. Today, the store offers a variety of finishes and styles for both girls and boys in bunks, lofts, twin and full, with lofts being particularly popular and full-size beds gaining in popularity.

“We try to have something for everybody,” said store manager John Curneal. “We want to sell to 80% of the people, not 20%.”

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Bedding, finishing touches key at Pier 1 Kids

Pier 1 Kids offers customers a coordinated look, including furniture, bedding and accessories.

By Jane Kitchen

TYSONS CORNER, Va. — Located in a strip mall next to a mainline Pier 1 store, this Pier 1 Kids was one of the first to undergo the name change from Cargo Kids last year.

The store has the feel of a Pier 1 — about the same size, with track lighting, Pergo flooring, upbeat music and furniture and accessories mixed in around the store.

There are four Pier 1 Kids stores in the Washington metro area, including other locations in Sterling, Va.; Fredericksburg, Va.; and Gaithersburg, Md. Washington-area customers hear about Pier 1 Kids through advertising in the Washington Post and local parenting magazines, as well as mailings to the company’s customer base and e-mail blasts for special promotions like back-to-school.

The store features Classic, Chocolate and white finished furniture, split with girls’ selections in white on one side and boys’ groups on the other. Bedding choices are fun, upbeat trendy looks like pink and chocolate leopard prints, ballerinas, denim, surf, vintage sports and a varsity plaid called Nantucket.

Like mainline Pier 1 stores, Pier 1 Kids focuses a good bit on accessory items and features displays of themed and color-coordinated merchandise. Fun, fur-covered lamps were on display in the girls’ area, along with colored lanterns hung from the ceiling and coordinated frames. On the boys’ side, a display of sports-themed accessories showed a complete look and provided easy pick-up pieces.
Accessories change seasonally twice a year, said assistant store manager Dan Laskoyski, and new furniture styles are brought in throughout the year.

Pier 1 Kids offers monthly promotions; a back-to-school sale will include bedding, desks and bookcases, and twice a year beds are on sale.

A Pier 1 Kids credit card offers customers the incentive of 12 months with no interest, plus 10% off their first purchase of $100 or more, and the company recently joined forces with its mainline store credit cards, so now cards can be used in either store — a great opportunity for cross-promotion for the company.

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BuybuyBaby offers impressive range of items

The buybuyBaby store in Rockville, Md., is two levels and offers a large selection of everything for baby.

By Jane Kitchen

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Situated in Congressional Plaza, a suburban strip mall with muted pastel facades and stores like The Children’s Place, Whole Foods and Osh Kosh, is one of Washington D.C.’s two area buybuyBaby stores (the other is in Springfield, Va.).

Officials from buybuyBaby declined to speak to Kids Today or authorize in-store photos for this feature, but I visited the Rockville store for an up-close look at what this specialist has to offer.

The layout of the store has a similar feel to Bed, Bath and Beyond — not surprising, since it was started by the sons of Bed, Bath and Beyond’s CEO and founder, Leonard Feinstein.

The Rockville store is two levels, and customers enter on the top level, where they can easily find the gift registry just inside the door, along with plenty of seasonal items on display in the aisles. As it was early July when I visited, summer items such as sunscreen, swimsuits and beach toys were highlighted.

A horseshoe-shaped aisle takes customers around the store, which is broken into departments, beginning with apparel and layette organized by age. Merchandise is stacked on high walls and each area is labeled with overhead signage that tells customers what they can find. For example, a “Closet and Bath” area featured hampers, organizers, child-sized hangers, towels and baby laundry detergent like Dreft and Oxiclean Baby.

The stroller and carseat area sported an impressive array of brands, including Maclaren, Silver Cross, Inglesina, Britax, Chicco, Bob, In Step, Zooper, Mountain Buggy, Compass, Safety 1st, Evenflo and Bugaboo. The number of strollers on display from each manufacturer was equally impressive — more than 30 Maclaren models were on the floor.

Downstairs I found furniture, bedding, mattresses and glider rockers. Cribs ranged from a $159 Delta crib to an $1,199 Art for Kids model, with other brands like Young America, Natart, Dutailer/EG, Bambino Reale, Berg, Sorelle, Baby’s Dream, Legacy and Bonavita filling out the middle.

Crib bedding sets were displayed not only on the cribs but also along the walls, where I counted 86 sets hung so customers can see a bumper, coverlet and valance, with prices and manufacturers clearly marked and barcodes for easy registry scanning. Packaged sets were available underneath for purchase.

Bedding brands included KidsLine, Brandee Danielle, Pine Creek, Nava’s Designs, Sozo, Sleeping Partners, Wamsutta Baby, Blueberry Lane, CoCaLo, Laura Ashley, BananaFish, Patchkraft, Glenna Jean, Baby’s Dream and Carters, along with a line of bb basics — the store’s own brand in assorted colored jersey knit sheets for crib, cradle and bassinet. Prices for four-piece sets ranged from $99.99 for Carter’s to $899 for Nava’s Designs.

The floor also featured mattresses from Colgate; gliders from Dutailier, Little Castle and Best Chairs; and accessory furniture from KidKraft and Levels of Discovery. A clearance center in the back corner offered marked-down merchandise.

Back upstairs (accessible by staircase or elevator, for moms with strollers), a drink cooler offered healthy choices of bottled water or juice, and an area near the front check-out counters featured gift items such as frames, baby books and book ends, along with a selection of wrapping paper and gift bags.