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Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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For the next few days, as the holidays approach, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound region. If you’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.
Best Loved Baby
Address: 4002 S 12th St., Tacoma
On the phone: Ida Simmons, co-owner with her sister Sarah Simmons; mother-in-law Gerene Simmons; and friend Vronwyn Judd.
Please give me a quick description of what your store sells.
We sell mostly natural or organic baby products, for example: Cloth diapers, baby carriers, clothing, bedding, layettes, shampoo and mama care kind of stuff. We also have nursing covers and other pregnancy products – all natural things.
You recently moved, from Proctor Street to S. 12th Street. Why was that?
We just moved here in the beginning of November. On Proctor we were in a small shop in our house, and we wanted to expand because we were growing quite a bit.
How are sales going so far?
They're up a little bit compared to last year, but not quite as much as you would expect because of the economic situation. People are still coming in but they're buying less and being more frugal. They're coming in especially for cloth diapers since there's such a cost-savings compared to disposables. You can spend roughly $600 from birth to potty training for one child with cloth diapers. For disposables, it's about $2,000 roughly until potty training because babies in cloth diapers tend to potty train earlier.
Are you having any sales?
We just finished our Thanksgiving sale and are getting ready for holiday sale, but we're not quite sure what we'll do for that. We hope to roll it out in the next week.
What's the most popular item?
Bumgenius diapers. It's a one-size cloth diaper that fits from birth-potty training. It has velcro that makes it super easy and convenient, and comes with washable liners. It's the most recognizable brand of cloth diaper, so people come in for that brand. Sometimes they end up buying it, and other times they buy other cloth diapers. But it brings people in.
