April 2, 2004

Little Things Boutique changes hands

By Carol Rosen
Editor

For the past 12 years, Jenny Strouss has owned and managed Little Things Boutique at 1337 Lincoln Avenue. At the same time, she has been a foster parent taking care of more than 150 newborns. She also has raised four children, who all went to Willow Glen schools.

Strouss has lived in Willow Glen for 29 years, and she’s been doing foster care for more than 15 of them. Recently, she began getting medically fragile infants. So she decided to sell her shop, which offers new and gently used infant, baby and toddler clothes and children’s haircuts. However, she isn’t totally leaving. She sold it to Stephanie Phillips, an employee at Little Things for five years who has been friends with Strouss for the past 34 years.

Strouss’ success with an annual used clothing and baby equipment sale led her to open the store. “It was very successful. Most moms are on a limited budget and a consignment store is helpful. They can recycle their children’s clothes and get credit for new clothes, gifts or even jewelry for their children.”

Phillips recently moved from Willow Glen to the Cambrian Park area with her husband and two daughters. She bought the store to help pay her oldest daughter’s medical bills. Julie, who turns 8 years old this month, has Cystic Fibrosis and with it large medical bills for surgery and medications. Phillips’ plans for the business aren’t drastic; she will continue to take in consignment clothing and everything will stay pretty much the same as it’s been for the last 12 years—except for a few things.

More new clothes
“I plan to add more new clothes, and I’m going to expand the used clothing for trade,” said Phillips. “I just got in three cases of new shoes. I’ll be expanding new clothes, shoes, socks, toys and adding clothing over size 6X for both boys and girls. I’m also selling jewelry [some of which she makes] for moms and their daughters. People who bring in gently used clothing now can get paid outright or use it for trade for anything but hair.”

For the past 11 years, Strouss has been cutting children’s hair. ”I’ve been a beautician for 35 years. Every six weeks, mothers would bring their kids to Willow Glen to get their hair cut and I’d get to watch the kids grow up,” she said.

During the changeover phase, both Strouss and Phillips were worried that the salon part of the store would close. That changed when Bunny Cuts in Los Gatos closed. May Talai and Kerri Garcia moved to the salon portion of the boutique. Besides serving children from the Willow Glen and Cambrian areas, lots of Los Gatos mothers are now bringing their children to Little Things for haircuts. Both Talia, who used to live in Willow Glen, and Garcia have been cutting children’s hair for 14 years.

Phillips does hope to redo the store’s decor. “I’ll probably have a grand re-opening in May sometime,” she said. She’s also contemplating opening on Sunday afternoons, but hadn’t determined when and what the hours will be at press time.

While Strouss won’t be in the store every day, she doesn’t plan to totally bow out. Instead she plans to help in the shop, go to clothing shows with Phillips and in general help Phillips out when she needs it, “I have no interest in cutting the chord,” she commented.

Little Things Boutique is located at 1337 Lincoln Avenue and open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, phone (408) 298-1844.