Once Upon A Child in Longmont, Colorado, at 700 Ken Pratt Boulevard, Suite 214, helps local parents stretch their budgets by buying and selling gently used kids clothing, toys, gear, and equipment in one convenient stop. Ken Pratt Boulevard is one of Longmont’s main east-west commercial arteries, lined with shopping centers and everyday retail, and the store’s location there makes it an easy addition to a parent’s regular errand run rather than a special separate trip. The shop is open seven days a week, with hours running Monday through Saturday from 9 in the morning until 8 at night and Sunday from 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening, giving working families a wide window to shop or sell around school pickups, naps, and weekend plans.
The store’s model is straightforward: parents bring in clothing, shoes, toys, books, and baby gear their children have outgrown, staff evaluate the items on the spot for condition and current demand, and sellers walk away with cash immediately rather than waiting on a consignment split or an online sale. On the buying side, the same items go back out at a fraction of original retail prices, letting other families outfit fast growing kids without paying full price for clothing or equipment that may only fit for a season or two. This cycle of buying and reselling is especially useful for bulky big-ticket items like cribs, strollers, high chairs, and car seats, alongside the constant churn of kids clothing across sizes that most families cycle through multiple times before a child even reaches school age.
The Longmont store also runs a Baby Club program that rewards new and expecting parents with free books, along with recurring promotions such as Tuesday discounts on apparel and periodic tote bag deals offering a percentage off a full wardrobe purchase, incentives aimed at making frequent shopping trips even more worthwhile for regular customers. These kinds of promotions are common across the broader resale model the store operates under, one built specifically around the idea that children’s clothing and gear should not have to be bought new every time a child grows another size, a message that resonates strongly with budget-conscious households in a fast growing city like Longmont, at the northern edge of the Denver-Boulder metro area.
Because kids outgrow clothes and gear so quickly, the secondhand model also serves an environmental purpose, keeping usable items in circulation rather than sending them to a landfill after only months of use, a point increasingly important to families along Colorado’s Front Range who care about sustainable consumption. Whether a parent is clearing out a closet full of clothes a toddler has outgrown, hunting for an affordable winter coat before a Colorado cold snap, or furnishing a nursery on a tight budget, the Longmont store offers a practical, community-oriented alternative to big box baby retail. Once Upon A Child on Ken Pratt Boulevard is Longmont’s neighborhood destination for buying and selling gently used children’s clothing, toys, and gear seven days a week.
