Babies and children bring joy, laughter, and promising futures to families nationwide, but the financial cost to raise a child can put a strain on household budgets. For families living in Peoria, the average price for groceries rose more than 2% last year. Meantime, the average price to purchase a home in Peoria is more than $130,000. In today’s economic climate, The Baby Shoppe has become a lifeline for many parents trying to stretch their dollars while offering gently used clothing for babies and growing children.

Brad Heid, owner of The Baby Shoppe for fifteen years, seems to understand the financial pressures facing local families.

“Life is hard. There’s a lot of parents who are struggling, especially young parents that don’t have anything,” said Brad. “Just knowing that we’re helping parents save money, and putting clothing on their kids’ backs is just an amazing feeling. It’s one of the reasons I like coming to work every day.”

A plan to help parents

As the father of six children, Brad says he knows firsthand how quickly infants and toddlers outgrow their clothing.

“We were young parents,” recalled Brad. “We had a child and they outgrew their clothes in 2 or 3 months. Children go through all stages. We were buying new clothes, while throwing out the old ones.”

“When we had our second daughter, and after we had gotten rid of everything, my wife said to me one day, ‘Hey, I’m going to go to garage sales and try to find some stuff for the kids,’” said Brad. “That’s when it kind of clicked. I was like, ‘We just threw that stuff away. Where is all of it going?’”

The realization was eye-opening, especially as Brad noticed the higher costs of new baby clothes and accessories.

“All of this stuff is really expensive in the stores,” explained Brad. “We threw everything out, then we ended up pregnant again. So, we found ourselves at garage sales thinking, ‘How can we get this stuff back again and for cheap?’

“I just thought this would be a great business,” said Brad. “We could just recycle a lot of this stuff. Babies don’t use it for very long, and people do literally throw the stuff in the garbage after they’ve used it for three months and they’ve spent $100 bucks on it.”

The turning point for Brad came when he said he serendipitously stumbled upon an unexpected opportunity. While driving one day near downtown Peoria, Brad and his wife spotted a “For-Sale” sign outside a business by the name of Old Noon In Between on Knoxville Road.

“My wife had already asked me to go in there several times,” noted Brad.

Inside, they discovered a mix of antiques and, surprisingly a second floor full of used children’s clothing.

“As my wife went upstairs looking for children’s clothes, I went downstairs and found the owner. I was like, ‘Hey! Is this place for sale? What are you asking for it?’ The owner told me that it had been for sale for two years, and she was about to close the doors for good. It almost seemed like it was like divine intervention. By the time we left, I had made a deal with a $5,000 deposit to sign a contract for the deed.”

At first, Brad had to juggle running his new shop alongside his job as a restaurant manager where he was working 55 hours a week.

“For the first few months, it was still just like an antique shop,” admitted Brad. “Then, I started thinking there was a niche for kid stuff and that people were throwing stuff away. We learned all the garbage routes. So, for the first six months of the business, we drove around every night and I would find a baby swing or brand new saucers, toys, and tennis rackets. We just started filling the place up with kids toys and anything we could find in the garbage.”

Brad’s store took shape without a new name until he bumped into a customer one day and was asked if he owned “the baby shop” down the road. Brad said he was so taken by the fact that a customer identified his store as selling baby items that he went home to his wife and told her that he would be changing the name of the store from Old Noon In Between to The Baby Shoppe.

It took time, hard work, and patience, according to Brad, to make sure families knew he was in business to help them save money providing for their children.

“I knew that I had to have the best quality clothing I could get for the cheapest possible price,” explained Brad. “Once people started buying into the program, realizing that it worked, it just caught on.”

Saving big bucks at The Baby Shoppe

The Baby Shoppe is all about simple pricing for its customers. Just about all the clothes in the store are sold for $3 dollars.

“We just sat down, did the math, and just seemed to make sense if everything was $3 in the store, it’s going to save me a ton of time, and it’s just going to be easier for everybody to understand.

“We simply save you money. That’s, kind of our motto. I’ve been using it the last ten years, and it’s because of the simplified pricing system,” said Brad explaining his money saving system. “All the car seats are sold for $29.99. All the high chairs, I sell for $29.99. Strollers for $29.99, and double strollers are $40. Everything has a set price.”

In the meantime, customers have the option of trading in their own clothing through the store’s innovative “Baby Bucks.” Brad developed the program so families can easily replace old baby clothes and have credit in the store to buy what they need, and often without having to open their wallets.

“You can bring in clothing and trade it in. Let’s say we gave you $30 for the clothing you bring in. We put the $30 in the Baby Bucks account. You can use it that day on anything in the store, or you can save it. You can build it up.

“Some people will have a grandmother who drops clothing off and puts the Baby Bucks credits on her daughter’s account. Now, the daughter has $300 in store credit Baby Bucks in the system. It just helps her. It’s a way for them to pay it forward,” Brad noted while also pointing out that Baby Bucks never expire at The Baby Shoppe.

“All the clothing that you bring in to trade in for store credit is 50 cents an item. If you have a two-piece infant outfit, you’re going to get a dollar store credit for it. So, if you have a garbage bag or a tote, it adds up really quick,” said Brad with a smile. “You can get to $100 Baby Bucks credit, and that’s a lot of clothing for someone to walk out of here with.”

The Baby Shoppe accepts quality clothing regardless of brand, but Brad is selective about the condition of trade-ins.

“As long as it’s a nice piece of clothing with no holes, no stains, no rips, and no baby spit up, it’s fine,” explained Brad.

“We accept any season of clothing. Any time. Newborn up to teenage sizes seven days a week. You wake up and say, ‘Is Baby Shoppe taking clothing today?’ Yes, we are,” added Brad with a laugh.

To keep the shopping experience fresh, Brad said he is constantly swapping out and moving inventory.

“No one wants to see the same swing I’m trying to sell for $50, and they’ve come in three times in a month,” explained Brad. “I always want make the shop look fresh. So, when people come in, it looks and different all the time.”

The shop itself is not the only place customers can find a bargain. Brad told us he purchases large volumes of overstock clothing on the internet, and opens a warehouse in downtown Peoria for customers to shop on special occasions.

“We’ll have a public warehouse sale,” said Brad. “Sometimes we’ll sell all the clothing for two bucks there while it’s $3 back at The Baby Shoppe.”

At the end of the day, Brad said he is in business to make sure parents do not financially struggle to afford clothing for their children.

“They know I’m not trying to make a ton of money off them, observed Brad. “They see it in the pricing. They come in, and people walk out happy that their kids have the things that they need.

“There’s kids that can get things they wouldn’t ordinarily have if it wasn’t for us.”

Finding a niche

Brad told us he is proud of what he has created in Peoria and believes that retailers need to offer a unique product or experience in order to achieve success.

“If you do stick with it, and work hard, you can connect with people.

“I would tell somebody who is going to open a retail business to be persistent,” said Brad. “Don’t be all over the place. Find a niche. I have a niche. They know (with my store), that it’s a baby shop. That’s what customers are going to get.”

Brad has built his business based on independence and purpose.

“It’s given me an opportunity to build a business and a life, with some freedom,” reflected Brad. “Not financial freedom, but I have freedom in my life. My kids can come to work with me. It’s given me an opportunity to build something for myself. I am really proud of what I’ve built because it’s great for the community.”