Sophie’s Closet may be a new store to Saint John’s uptown, but for owner Wanda Morais, selling kids’ clothing on consignment is a well-worn path.
“We’re hoping that [people] come into the shop and have a good experience and get something that they love,” Morais says of her customers at the 162 Princess Street store.
The experience of finding those items you’ve been searching for, and getting them for a reasonable price, is the passion that pushed Morais to open her first children’s consignment shop, Planet Kids, twenty years ago. Running her own business while looking after newborn twins was too big a task to undertake, so Morais let Planet Kids go to focus on her family.
She says that through the years the business kept calling to her but the timing never seemed right to go for it.
“I just love merchandise, I’ve always loved it,” Morais says of the clothing, shoes, toys and books that fill Sophie’s Closet’s walls. “My daughter Taylor would always say ‘you should open a consignment shop’…and then when she was pregnant with Sophie we were looking around for secondhand things and just nothing was hitting us.”
She knew there was a gap in the market for gently used kids’ items and clothing, from infant to size 16, and that she had the expertise to fill it. In August of last year, she took the plunge, opening up on Rothesay Avenue.
But the location wasn’t the best fit. Now housed in the former home of Tommy’s Superette, Morais says she feels like she’s got her finger back on the pulse of the neighbourhood, with lots of foot traffic and curious treasure hunters peeking in to see what she has.
Morais recalls an older gentleman coming to the store and looking into the windows. He saw the Dr. Seuss books on display and decided to pop in and share a memory.
“He said ‘I remember reading those to my children,’” she says with a laugh. “He was just sweet. And he welcomed us to the neighbourhood. It’s been really good.”
Creating that sense of community and understanding is as much a part of Sophie’s Closet as the treasured items for sale themselves.
“I’m a big second-hander, I’ve always shopped second-hand,” Morais says, explaining why this business in particular has intrigued her for so long. “I’m in the same position myself,” Morais says, noting that both she and her daughter are working evening jobs to supplement their incomes and support the store in these early days.
“We know the struggles because we’re struggling ourselves with the prices of everything.”
Morais says what she really wants to provide is an experience that will make everyone happy.
“We had a nice family who were visiting here from Ontario… a husband and wife and little boy who’s six months old, and a girl who’s two or three,” she relates. “The father was sitting in the rocking chair and he was reading a book to his daughter, and the mother had the baby in a pouch on her belly, and she was reading. It was really, really nice.”
The reading and waiting area where kids can amuse themselves while their parents search for that needed item is one of the homey touches Morais has added to the Sophie’s Closet experience.
“It’s just a little corner of the store that we have all the books in,” she says. “We have a little picnic table for the kids to sit and do a puzzle.”
“We also try to remember our customers, and if something comes in that I think one of them will like, I just message them and say ‘Should I hold this for you?’,” she says. “A couple of mothers have had their babies since they came in when they were pregnant. And lots of grandmas come in [to find things] for their grandchildren.”
Finding, categorizing and displaying those items that might be the exact thing a customer is looking for is what makes the job a joy for Morais.
“You won’t take something home and find a hole in it, because we go through things quite diligently,” she says. “We try to keep the prices low. We try to help our consigners because they’ll bring us the merchandise… and we try to make the shoppers happy.”
Alex Graham is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
