Non-parent owners of children’s stores

In these pages, we often profile the real-life Mom and/or Pop behind a local mom-and-pop store catering to youngsters. But Allison MacCullough, who opened Bundle in Soho last November, is just one of a growing number of offspringless proprietors among New York’s shops for tots. “I get asked every day if I have children,” she says, adding that her current schedule isn’t family-friendly. “Starting a business means working late!” Grace Kang, owner of the two Pink Olive outposts, agrees that customers assume running a baby-gear chain must be a labor of parental love. “That’s one question I always get,” Kang says. “‘Do you have a baby?’”

So, what draws child-free entrepreneurs to the kid biz? For many, dressing tiny mannequins wasn’t their first dream. MacCullough once yearned for an Intermix-style boutique, but the MBA graduate and former Lehman Brothers exec determined that the hip-womenswear market was oversaturated. “Now I can be the only shop in Soho selling Splendid for kids,” she says. Following her instincts has paid off: Bundle’s mix of hard-to-find brands—including vintage-inspired Acoustic and winsome Velvet & Tweed—attracts high-profile parents like Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman.

Andrea Simoneau, founder of discount children’s wear depot Firefly in Park Slope and at the South Street Seaport, originally planned to open a lingerie emporium. Then the ex–Wall Streeter and aunt of 24 nieces and nephews—she has six siblings—discovered that it’s more fun to fulfill children’s needs than adults’. “They keep me young and don’t come in carrying a lot of baggage,” she says of her littlest customers.

Becoming an aunt has nudged other shop owners along their career paths. Ania Goclowska, of Euro-chic e-tailer zababoutique.com, a spin-off of the recently shuttered Tribeca flagship for bambinos, traded stilettos for baby booties when her sister (and business partner) Gosia got pregnant in 2005. “Fashion is in my blood,” says Ania, whose parents ran a women’s boutique in Poland, “but I never expected kids’ stuff to be so well designed. Little Marc became just as exciting to me as Marc Jacobs after my niece was born. I saw an opportunity and went for it.”

Pink Olive’s Kang, the proud aunt of eight-year-old Katie, is bewildered by parents lacking business experience who go into retail. “I come across parents with a know-it-all attitude—which is not smart in the business world.” A former buyer for Bloomingdale’s and Barneys Co-op, even she struggled at first with the burden of being the sole merchandiser, HR manager and janitor. Kang says she’s thankful she got her project off the ground before starting a family: “Right now, my stores are my kids.”

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