In 2007, when Monica Rzepka’s second child was born, so was the idea for Kidzown Boutiques – a one-stop baby store at Guildford Town Centre that specializes in products made by moms for moms.
Rzepka’s second child was a boy, so all the girl’s clothes and baby things she had kept needed to go. Advertising on Craigslist, she turned her Surrey living room into a temporaryswap shop. Many of the moms she met were running their own home-based businesses.
“I started to hear this term, which was ‘mompreneur,’” Rzepka said. These stay-at-home moms had developed products and services for other moms and their babies. They had some great products, Rzepka said, but few people knew about them because they were only available online or at baby fairs.
She learned that more than 3,000 babies were born in B.C. in 2007 and that parents typically spend $700 just in the first two months after finding out they are expecting. She realized there was a market for the mom-made products – all they needed was some “bricks and mortar.”
Going to baby fairs, Rzepka recruited 13 businessmoms to join her in a new venture: a one-stop maternity store that would showcase mompreneur products and services.
“I thought it was a great idea. I knew there were other moms like me who just wanted a piece of a store,” said Catherine Clutchey of Bouncing Babies, which sells reusable diapers and accessories.
“A lot of the moms go into it so they can spend more time at home – run their business and take care of their children and not have to be out working,” said Tami Main, founder of Taslie Skin Care.
Rzepka’s store gets a percentage of the mompreneurs’ sales, and the women take an active role in the store itself.
“It’s not just putting your stuff on a shelf,” Rzepka said. “They’re also involved in the business, as well.”
Rzepka opened Kidzown Boutiques in January 2010 in Whalley. It flopped.
She had chosen Whalley because the rent was low and she could afford more space. She thought the store’s concept was strong enough to counter the district’s reputation as a high-crime area.
“The stigma was more powerful than the concept,” Rzepka concluded.
She decided to take a gamble and, just one year after she opened the original store in Whalley, she reopened at Guildford Town Centre. It paid off instantly, she said.
The space is smaller and the rent higher, but so is the number of customers coming through the door – about eight times higher. Being located right next to Wal-mart probably doesn’t hurt.
“Our sales have confirmed that it wasn’t our business – it was simply the location,” Rzepka said.
Realizing that the key to success would be distinguishing Kidzown Boutiques from other maternity stores, Rzepka decided to follow certain principles.
One is the one-stop-shopping approach. The store sells everything an expecting mother needs, except baby food.
The boutique also provides a range of services, such as breast pump rentals, birthing classes taught by a maternity nurse or photography specializing in maternity and baby photos.
As for the retail aspect of the store, there is a heavy emphasis on green and organic products, like Taslie Skin Care.
After her daughter was born six years ago, Main said she found it hard to find natural baby products she could really trust, so she made her own.
Working with a chemist at Precision Laboratories in Surrey, she came up with a range of all-natural products, like head-to-toe wash, and sells them through a variety of baby boutiques, like Kidzown. What started as a part-time venture is now a full-time job.
Despite Kidzown’s emphasis on green and organic products, Rzepka said she tries to avoid the really pricey brands.
“We are a boutique, but we’re sensibly priced,” Rzepka. “I take the approach, ‘Would I buy an $80 sleeper?’ Probably not. So why would I have it in my store?”