Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Meyers.
Hi Jennifer, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
With very little saved for retirement, we decided to roll the dice and open our own business. We looked for a business that matched our environmentalist beliefs as well as being within our funding budget. Kid to Kid was the right fit. After many, many longggggggggggggggg days and nights, and lots of bumps in the road, we were ready for grand opening. April 2020. COVID pretty much cancelled our grand opening. Our determination and type A personalities wouldn’t let us quit. We were our own employees along with another team member for quite awhile working up to 18 hours per day, but word spread and the people in Orem supported us through our trial and errors. 6 years later after more than one bankruptcy scare, we still work in the store ourselves along with our 11 team members.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not a smooth road at all.
Lots of bureaucratic road blocks: Building plans not being approved and having to find an architect to redo them.
Coming in to find a flooded stock room
So many plumbing issues
Funding being cut off prematurely due to COVID and not being open long enough to qualify for any of the government assistance
Learning business tax, insurance, and labor law requirements.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Mark was a network engineer and Jen worked retail for 40 years
We both now work at our store which supports our firmly held beliefs that a business can operate without corporate greed and have a positive impact on the world we live in as well as supporting local families.
We are very proud of:
The thousands and thousands of pounds of textiles we and our team have kept out of the landfill.
The local families that have been able to stretch their budgets, afford a little more, and make some cash in the process by selling and shopping with us.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
With the current economy and state of our environment, thrifting is set to grow exponentially.
The trend towards thrifting has already shifted a great deal in the last couple of years and we think will only become more and more normalized as we learn that new isn’t always better or necessary.
Utahans know how to make a budget stretch and survive the tough times and thrifting supports that culture.
Reuse, recycle, upcycle, and repurpose is rapidly becoming the norm instead of a trendy catch phrase.
Pricing:
- $3 T-shirts
- $5 jeans
- Shoes under $20
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kidtokid.com/location/orem/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KidtoKidOrem
