Enkore Kids: Helping You Make Ends Meet

I think most everyone is worried about the economy these days. We haven't seen times like these since the 1970's. Unemployment is rising, credit is tight, and no one knows quite what to expect.

Enkore Kids can help you earn money in three ways:

1. Buy Out-Right:
   We buy most kid-related items for cash or twice the amount in store credit upfront at the time of your appointment. This is an important distinction from typical consignment stores because it allows you to turn around and buy the things your kids need now, without having to wait for your items to sell.
2. Consignment:
   For items we can't buy outright, we sell on consignment where you receive 40% in cash after it sells or 50% in store credit. We list our consigned items in our on-line store or our eBay store to maximize it's selling price for you.
3. eBay Instruction:
   As we specialize only in kid-related items, I'm sure there are items you may no longer need, but just don't know how to get the most for them. We can help you sell your non-kid related stuff as well with eBay.
   
   As Maryland's only Certified Education Specialist trained by eBay, I am uniquely qualified to help you sell on eBay. Who knows, maybe you can join the 1.3 million eBay members that earn their living on eBay. Our next class will be held on January 15 & 22 (3 hours each day). Space is limited, so please register now by clicking here.

Enkore Kids can also help you save money.

1. Wish List:
   Planning ahead can save you big. Many of our popular items come and go within a matter of days. Unless you have the time to stop in daily, you'll miss out on a lot of great stuff. So let us know what you're looking for and we'll call you when it comes in. Our wish list isn't perfect, as some items sell before we've had a chance to call everyone on the list, but it will give you a better chance of catching that unique item you've been looking for.
2. Email:
   By giving us your current email address, you'll get notified of current sales, receive email-only coupons, and find out about new items.
3. On-Line:
   Shopping on-line can save you time and after all time is money. You can select for in-store pickup at no charge if you're local. And if you'd rather pickup your items from Frederick, we can arrange for that as well at no charge.
4. Every Day Great Deals:
   Our prices on our new items are among the lowest in the area and our new-to-you items are generally priced at least 1/2 off of new.

So while the economy may be uncertain and many people are putting off every expense possible, you don't need to have your kids do without. Enkore Kids can help you find money in your no-longer needed items and stretch your dollar further when you make your next purchase.

Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy
www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com
Posted by Enkore Kids, LLC

Grand Re-Opening Sept 6 & 7, Plus Boonsboro Days!

I know it's been a while since I've posted. If I had remembered to bring my camera's memory reader today, I'd be able to show you why. I guess you'll just have to stop by the store and see for yourself! :-)

Since opening the front half of our store on June 25th, we've been hard at work getting the back room ready and preparing to fill the huge space. Well, it's finally open and we'll be celebrating big with our new town of Boonsboro during Boonsboro Days Sept 6 & 7 (Sat & Sun). Rain or shine!

We'll be featuring Cecil the Cycling Clown on Saturday afternoon and a Fun 4 Hours Bounce House on Sunday from 12-4pm.

Both days, we'll have free popcorn and a prize wheel in addition to our Double Rewards Special, Basket Sale, and other specials. See www.EnkoreKids.com for details. For your safety, we now have opened our back entrance, so please park in the back. Due to the activity of Boonsboro Days, parking will be for customers only.

Yes, there are still some minor details to finish up, but I hope you'll agree it's been worth the wait. One thing that still needs finishing it our children's play area. It'll be almost three times as large as our old store's play area (in keeping with our larger selling area). We hope to have the child-safe play area finishing by mid-September.

Our newly remodeled changing area will give you plenty of room for expecting moms and your children to try on clothes. Yes, we now carry maternity!

We have also expanded our hours, starting Sept 4, we're now open Monday thru Saturday 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday from 12-4 pm. We can't wait to see you and show you around the new store!

Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy
www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com

Now Open in Boonsboro!

It was a lot of hard work and late nights, but we managed to move our remaining Frederick store products and computers and finish our major front room projects in time to open today at 146 S. Main St, Boonsboro, MD!

We're especially proud of our checkout and display counters, carefully designed from 5 years of experience to serve you better.

You'll find much of the same type of items as our Frederick store for now: New items from Webkinz, Melissa & Doug, Finishing Touches Hair Bows (now self-serve and not behind our front counter!), Radian Car Seats, Ergos (more due in next Wednesday!) and Cloth Diapers (more due in soon); and "new to you" items including clothing sized newborn to 8/10, toys, and related equipment.

We're still working on our back room, but once that's open, we'll be expanding our assortment of "new to you" items to include kid-clothing up to size 14, maternity, and outdoor toys. We're also looking at additional new lines, so please tell us your thoughts on what you'd like to find at Enkore Kids!

If you have items you'd like to find a new home for, give us a call at 301-668-0837 to set up an appointment! Find out how we process your offer by clicking here.

Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy
www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com

Count Down to Moving Day!

Only a few more days until our Frederick store is closed and a couple days after that till we open the front portion of our Boonsboro store!

June 22nd is the last day for Frederick. Be sure to stop in now for 50% off everything remaining in the store! Offer is valid only on items in the store and cannot be applied to previous purchases.

We'll be opening the front portion of our Boonsboro store on June 25th. The deck is finally done, but as this is the first deck we've built, it took quite a bit longer than anticipated and so our backroom is not ready yet. We are proud to say, though, that we have two neighbors who are contractors who have both said it's the best deck they've ever seen!

Since we've promised we'll be worth the drive (with over 3x the space of our Frederick Store), we'll be offering 10% to all customers in our Boonsboro store who mention this blog post! (Not combinable with other offers. Maximum discount is $10. Offer expires July 31st.)

We plan to have the back room open in time for our Grand Re-Opening, currently scheduled for August 30.

Until the back room is open, please park in front as parking in the rear will require you to walk around the building.

Jennifer Guenther

Enkore Kids, LLC

CEO/Mommy

http://www.enkorekids.com/

http://www.enkorestuff.com/

Working on the Deck

We've been saying all along that taking the trip to Boonsboro would be well worth the drive. We'll have three times the space inside the store in Boonsboro than we currently have in Frederick. With the addition of the deck, we're adding another 440 square feet for displaying outdoor toys and strollers!

In addition to giving us more room for great stuff, it'll also serve as our rear entrance for our off-street parking behind our building.

As this turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated, we're moving back our closing date in Frederick from June 15 to June 22. So you'll now have an extra week to enjoy our clearance sales. See www.EnkoreKids.com for more details.

For more pictures, check out our slide show!




Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy
www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com

The Cows Come Home

A nice diversion from the work, we experienced something that would never happen at the Westview Promenade: a small herd of cows walking through our backyard!

The owners came along shortly thereafter in their truck trying to guide them back home. I wish they would have let them graze a bit more since it would have saved us from having to mow the lawn!

Back inside, the work is coming along nicely, though of course everything takes longer than you wish it would. At this point it looks like it'll still be a while before we can officially start being open in Boonsboro. In the meantime, get your Enkore "fix" in Frederick and save big with our Moving Sales! See www.enkorekids.com for details!

Jennifer Guenther

Enkore Kids, LLC

CEO/Mommy

www.enkorekids.com

www.enkorestuff.com

Check out the New Store Front!

Wow, what a difference a few windows make!

We ran out of siding so the front is not quite finished, but it will be by this weekend. It was quite a task, but among my husband, my nephew, Susan and myself we managed to completely reframe the front wall, remove the old windows and door, and install the new windows (which we got a great deal on at an auction) and door all without breaking anything including (and most importantly) ourselves!

The other major project this week was installing a door for our new rear entrance (replacing the existing window). This is one of the few projects we've sub'ed out as it involved cutting through 13 inches of brick wall that opens out to a five foot drop. Mike Kisner, resident of Boonsboro, was our contractor and did a great job. The saw we rented for the job was so incredibly heavy, I'm amazed that it was even possible to make a straight line through that much brick.

The finished product will offer a rear entrance from our off-street parking behind our building and will open onto a huge deck. That project will be waiting on warmer/dryer weather, though!

Kevin got into the swing of things, and with a few useful tips from Mike (and a new tool to cut the groove for the saw to follow), he had his hand with the brick-cutting saw as well.

The poncho is needed because those saws require water to keep cool (and also helps keep down the dust). It looked like the Ammityville Horror movie after he was done cutting the wider opening for our bathroom, with all the red brick dust mixing with the water and sprayed over everything! Luckily all fingers and toes were accounted for.

A lot more changes are coming, so continue looking back for more updates and feel free to stop by the new store at 146 S. Main St in Boonsboro to see for yourself. We're there rather randomly during the week, but almost all hours on Friday and Saturday.

Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy
www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We've been very hip on trying to find new homes for the reuseable stuff we no longer have a need of in our new store: the carpet, tile, and two radiators have all found new homes through Freecycle.

So when we're looking for items we are in need of, of course the first thing we think of is can we find it used? We did this with refinishing our wood floor instead of buying a new one. And the additional fixtures we'll be needing we searched for on the internet and found some in great condition down in Rockville.

We also found some great deals at Value City. While we hate seeing any business close, we spent our weekend taking down awnings and lighting fixtures that will find a new home in our Boonsboro store. It was a lot of work, but it pays off in lower prices for you and less perfectly usable stuff in our landfills.

Some additional items we're still looking for include computers with Windows XP and an ethernet card. They don't need to have any bells and whistles, just able to connect to the internet. They'll be used for our eBay classes that will be starting up this summer. For donations, we'll be happy to exchange a free eBay class! Payment in store credit can also be arranged after we've evaluated it's use for our needs.

Let us know if you'd like to bring your old computer in by emailing me directly at enkorekids@enkorekids.com or calling me at 240-674-1859. Thanks!


Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy
www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com

Where's the Tylenol?

I have sore muscles I never knew I had!

We've been very busy since my last post. Susan is here coordinating a Freecycle pickup for our lovely gray carpet that just isn't right for us. The amount of glue used was incredible! Though it only took a day or two to rip up the carpet and find it new homes, it took a good additional week of hard work scraping, sanding, and using adhesive remover to get the glue and tar (yes, tar!) off our wood floor.

Here's the hidden gem being reveiled:

And fully scrubbed:

We're still working on the staining and polyurethaning. So stay tuned for more pictures of our beautifully restored wood floor (in the true tradition of Enkore!).

And the garage/storage has undergone a similar transformation:

This is our newly-painted beige floor. Makes it much cheerier!

And here's our under construction wall. Susan and I are particularly proud of how level and square it is considering the brick behind is often neither level or square!

This is it freshly painted and our pallet racks starting to be put up:

And this is Susan taking a nap:

Kevin, my husband, has had his projects as well, such as demolishing the old small office:

And installing the garage door opener:

Not to mention the being the brains behind installing fixtures and the technical assistance for pallet rack and wall building.

This is Angel, our nephew, visiting from California and helping us get the new store ready: He's been a great help in moving stuff, cutting wood, and painting.

We'll, I'm wore out. I'm going to go find the Tylenol, get some sleep, and get ready for the next week. I'll post more later, stay tuned...!

Jennifer Guenther

Enkore Kids, LLC

CEO/Mommy

www.enkorekids.com

www.enkorestuff.com

The Work Begins...

The building is really in good structural shape, especially considering it was first built in 1924!

It has been rebuilt, added on to, and modified over the years and before Enkore Kids takes over, we'll be adding our own special touches.


First to go is the small office in the back:
With the apartment upstairs, we'll have plenty of room for offices (and our children's play rooms). Plus, we'll be installing a door where the window is currently to allow access from the parking area in the back.









Next, we've got to do something about the garage floor and lighting. While it's primary use will be storage, I'll be spending a lot of my time there as it'll serve double-duty as our internet shipping area. The front half will serve as our offer receiving area. So we'll be sprucing it up a bit.









And the carpet, nice shade of gray that it is, will also be going. Susan and I envision wood floors in the front half (we've been told there is a nice wood floor under there somewhere) and, with the help of Kevin, my husband, we'll be adding tile to the back half as it's directly on concrete.

Stay tuned for more updates and photos as work progresses!



Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy

Announcing the Enkore Kids Blog

Enkore Kids has just announced that we'll be moving from the Westview Promenade to our own (and much larger) building in Boonsboro. We've set up this blog to keep those interested in following our progress posted without unduly filling everyone's email box with the details.

We are very excited about the move and the new partnership with Susan McCarthy (associate with Enkore Kids for almost 4 years) that made this possible. Though the building (146 South Main St in Boonsboro) is in excellent condition, we still have a lot of work ahead of us to make it the new home of Enkore Kids. We'll be continuing to operate out of our current location at the Westview Promenade until at least the end of May, 2008. However, we will be limiting appointments for accepting items as we get closer to the end as we don't want to have move it all! Along the same lines, look for great sales to help us limit the amount of items we have to move.

We plan to start taking appointments in Boonsboro in April or May.

The retail space for Boonsboro will be roughly twice the size of our current store at nearly 1700 square feet. Plus, we'll have on-site storage of over 1000 square feet. If that wasn't enough to get you excited, we'll also have an upstairs for meetings, parties, and classes!

Some of the plans we have for the Boonsboro location include:

• Expanding our selection of new-to-you outdoor toys
• Expanding our clothing selection
• Initiating a Founder's Club to provide discounts to for our customers that help get us founded in our new town.
• Holding eBay classes
• Hosting Mom's Club meetings
• Hosting Party Sales (ie: Tupperware, Partylite, MaryKay, etc)
• Hosting Birthday parties

Details on all this to follow, but for anyone interested in learning more or booking space now, please email me at store@enkorekids.com.

I'll be trying to post daily to let you know what is going on, so be sure to check back often.

Jennifer Guenther
Enkore Kids, LLC
CEO/Mommy

www.enkorekids.com
www.enkorestuff.com