FAMILY BUSINESSDeiane Landis Hackett
Summer is still simmering but the back to school letter has arrived just the same. I’m not talking about the much anticipated "which teacher did I get?" letter either. This is the "fifth grade back to school shopping list" letter. The, please can we buy new supplies and clothes, please Mom, letter.
I remember the excitement of choosing that perfect book cover that I believed defined me to the world or those totally cool Levi jeans everyone was wearing. Who am I to deny my children that opportunity? I am also painfully aware that our closets are full of clothes that still fit and we own plain yellow pencils with erasers. But darn it, this is a new beginning! September is almost here and my shopping gene spurs me onward.
I just dread the thought of driving to Route 1 and wandering the impersonal aisles of those big box stores.
Right on cue, our ten year old neighbor runs into the house, "Are you going to WalMart to get your school supplies?’ she asks hopefully.
"Absolutely not." I exclaim.
"We’re shopping locally," I say beginning to formulate a plan.
Her face falls. "That’s what my mom said too."
"Was there something at Walmart you wanted?" I asked sensing the distress.
Yes, she replied. Turns out she had already seen a new line of school supplies that a friend had gotten there and it was "way cool."
Well, that did it. I was on a mission to shop for that "way cool" school stuff right here in Princeton. Clothes and all!
So, the next morning, I had a brief preparatory discussion with my two daughters, one seven the other ten.
"Do you know why we are shopping in local stores?" I prompted.
My ten-year-old replied, "It’s good to support local stores. There are not many of them and they are better than say, McDonalds. The non-local places are getting bigger and bigger and they are taking over." I gave her a satisfied nod and turned to my spirited new-clothes-loving seven year old.
"I don’t really get it. I just want to shop for school stuff," she said as she hopped up and down in sheer pre-purchase exhilaration.
Hmmm, enough said. What we needed now was action. So, we mapped out our route into Princeton, hopped on our bikes and rode to town.
Our first stop was Morning Glory. That kitchy pre-teen hot spot on Nassau Street stuffed with everything from pens with tiny filled coke bottles on top to Superman staplers and fashion sunglasses. This place is heaven on earth to my two girls.
My almost fifth grader checked her list. We discussed a number of the items we saw. A huge calculator for what seemed to be the seeing impaired? (I loved it).
"Too big," she said.
A three ring binder with an indistinguishable but darling animal on the cover? "Maybe, yes, maybe, no," she equivocated.
Squishy banana stickers?
"Not on the list," she stated clearly.
Then our eyes settled on the erasers. Erasers were definitely on the list. And there were a lot of erasers. There were strawberry milkshake-shaped erasers and little pieces of fruit, chocolate cake erasers and of course, sushi and sashimi erasers. There were also scented erasers - the grape and soda smelled the best.
"Too distracting," my ten year old declared authoritatively. Then, she picked up a large plain white eraser in a cute little wrapper.
"Ms Mills says these are the best kind," she said. She placed it in the little pink plastic basket that had been politely provided to us for our goodies. Ms. Mills is their art teacher.
Next, she carefully chose an orange shaped eraser with a little green leaf, a sashimi eraser and four colorful pencils. Her sister found a pencil case with words all over it and a pen with doo-dads hanging off the top. On the way to the counter, I laid eyes on some nail polish in a bottle shaped like an ice cream cone and I couldn’t resist.
Total sale: $13.50. So far, so good.
As we left the shop and took two steps toward our trusty bikes, I saw the sign in the next window that read 50 percent off. I had wanted to go in Tippy Toes for some time. We pushed open the door and were warmly greeted by the owners Joy Chung and her husband, John and rows of brightly colored kids shoes (up to size 6) with sparkles, patterns, buckles and more.
The girl’s gravitated toward the clothes at the back of the store. My oldest chose a cute simple dress that was so soft she asked to wear it to bed that night. I chose for my younger daughter, a little organic cotton outfit with leggings, which, it turns out, was not on sale, but is hers now anyway. Along with the purchase came a lovely chat with the two new entrepreneurs who are obviously thrilled to be in business.
Total sale: $119.
Oops more than I meant to spend, but hey, the owners are lovely, the clothes are good quality and the dollars stay in the Princeton area, rather than fly off to some big headquarters office in middle America, right?
It has been almost two hours and we have not left the single block where we began. Obviously, this little adventure will need to extend into another day so we can fit in Hinksons The Office Store and the Salty Dog on Spring Street and Jordan’s Cards and Gifts in the Princeton Shopping Center and maybe the Princeton Public Library gift shop, and the Princeton University gift shop as well for the rest of the "cool" school supplies. Oh, and we will also have to visit Incredible Me at the Princeton Shopping Center, whose clothing sales are fantastic.
Before biking home, we decide to stop at one more little store.
Milk Money, on Tulane Street, opened two and a half years ago and owner Gina D’Adamo, remembers faces, names and even children’s style preferences. And, you can sell your clothes and toys there and receive credit off your next purchase. This is definitely guilt-free shopping and recycling at its most ingenious.
Ms. D’Adamo greets us with smiles and kisses and we quickly get to work combing the racks. We end up with three very chic shirts, and an adorable dress with the tags still attached.
Total purchase: $32. I can live with that.
We peddle home down the beautiful tree lined Princeton streets with a warm wind at our backs.
We are planning our next outing. It will be another day out on bikes and another opportunity to buy from the people and stores that make this community unique. I’m actually happy that the back to school letter arrived so early.
There are so many more independent and interesting businesses and time left to discover them all.
Diane Landis Hackett’s Family Business column appears monthly in Princeton Business Journal.

