Small Business Startup News
Entrepreneurs Set Out To Change Children's Retail
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 3/29/2010
Two entrepreneurs in the Chicago area are planning to open a game-changing children's retail mega-store.
Venture capitalist Shane Christensen and former Wal-Mart executive Bill Colaianni are hoping to transform the world of retail shopping for children, according to a report from Retail Traffic magazine.
The pair plans to launch WONDER!, a store carrying everything parents need for their children.
The first WONDER! store will be 135,000 square feet in size, and cover a child's supplies from birth up to seven years of age.
With a focus on a convenient and pleasant shopping, the location will also boast a restaurant featuring a coffee bar and bakery, and a 21,000 square foot park. Even more amenities are being planned for the future.
"Out of any retail environment, if there is any that should be completely about passion and creativity and experience, it should be the children's [store]," Christensen told the magazine. "Our intent is to change the course of children's retail, to be a category killer and really knock this industry out of sight."
The first WONDER! store is scheduled to open in Deerfield, Illinois in the fall of 2010, with 19 more stores planned within a five year period.
Popular kids' apparel retailer Gymboree recently released improved fourth quarter figures, saying it expected to beat current quarter predictions as well.
That could be good news for entrepreneurs looking to break into children's retail.
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