From Customer to Entrepreneur: How One Mom Transformed Kids’ Resale shopping
Written by John Pacenti
Photography by Alexis Dominguez
What began as a pleasant memory of a personal shopping experience has blossomed into a thriving business for Francesca Brown.
Now, at 53, Brown owns the only Kid to Kid franchise in the area, transforming the resale of children’s clothes into a community-driven retail experience. She has 12 employees at the 3,900-square-foot store in Palm Beach Gardens that opened in August 2022.
“I just really like the sustainability model of upcycling, and I was also a customer of the store when my children were little (in North Carolina),” she said. “So I thought there was a little bit of a need here in South Florida.”
Brown says the store deals in volume.
“Clothes and shoes, clothes and shoes," she said. Those are the exact items young children burn through as they move up in sizes – as parents can attest – in mere months, if not weeks or days.
But Kid to Kid is not just about clothing. “We do books, toys, hard goods, like strollers, wagons,” Brown said. There are also new items, like socks, because – let’s face it – nobody wants used socks.
Brown’s journey began unexpectedly in one of those fever-dream conversations spouses had during the COVID-19 lockdown. “We're like, ‘Well, wouldn't it be interesting to try and start a business? And you know, see how this works here in South Florida.’”
Her husband, Dave, was all in when it came to getting Kid to Kid off the ground.
I like it a lot,” he said. “It's fun, it's exciting. It’s different every day. I like working with people and dealing with customers and helping them out.”
David Brown said he always thought of South Florida before the family moved there from North Carolina as a place to vacation or retire.
The Browns said their motivation goes beyond profit. “There's such a focus on fast fashion and the huge carbon footprint that it leaves. So this provides a way for perfectly good goods to be used again,” she said. Of course, the idea of any secondhand clothing store is to save customers money and Brown said she is well aware of her clientele.
“It also provides an opportunity for families,” she said.
“Typically, when you have young children, you're at the starting point of your career, and so your salaries aren't as high as they're going to be in the future. So it provides a value shopping location to buy children's items that you might not be able to afford at a mall."
Kid to Kid purchases inventory from the public for cash. Customers can, if they choose, get 20% more for their turned-in item if they convert it to store credit. The store just added digital payouts as well.
Brown has nothing but good things to say about Kid to Kid. “They invest very heavily in the support system for the franchisees, as well as the proprietary software system,” she said.
And their efforts haven't gone unnoticed. “We were just awarded store of the month this past June,” she said.
When asked what she has gotten the most out of Kid to Kid, Brown said it is the relationships with other moms. She has four children, ages 29, 25, 16 and 10.
“We've had women come into our store where they've been given like really bad news about their pregnancy, and they came into our space because our staff knows who they are,” Brown said.
“Maybe they didn't feel like they had a friend to talk to, but they can come into our store, and we know who our customers are, so we have a relationship with them, and we watch their children grow.”
As a result, the store has become a community hub, Brown said.
"Thrifting is also very like in right now. So it's become like a community meeting spot. I love it when parents meet up with each other and they're excited to see each other in the store,” she said.
Frequent customer Christina D'Amore thought her days of baby clothes and tiny shoes were behind her when she ran into Francesca and Dave as they were getting ready for their grand opening. She unloaded boxes of children’s clothes – and then found out she was pregnant with her fourth child.
“So I have been one of their greatest customers,” D’Amore said.
D’Amore said if her family has an event to go to, she will check with Kid to Kid before hitting Macy’s or Nordstrom's. “Because I know it's in good condition. I know it's stain-free. It's going to be like new, but at a secondhand price,” D’Amore said.
And the best part. When she is done with it, D’Amore said she can bring it back to Kid to Kid so the next family can use it.
With ambitious goals, Brown is working towards making Kid to Kid a million-dollar operation. “We're benchmarking our way towards that this year,” she said.
Her parting reflection reveals the heart of her store: "It's not just a business transaction. It's really become like a community place for our staff and myself to connect with other people that live here locally.”
