Simple enough, right?

Melissa and Doug Drawing Coloring Pad Create-a-Face ON SALE $2.50

Melissa and Doug Baby Doll Mine to Love Juliana ON SALE $14.99

Melissa and Doug Magnetic Animals in a Box ON SALE $6.00

Melissa and Doug Sticker Collection - Fashion Dress Up Dolls ON SALE $2.50

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Place your order for Melissa & Doug toys and arts & crafts supplies, and receive your order by Friday, December 24th GUARANTEED*!!!

In addition to the BIG 30% OFF SALE, all Melissa & Doug items are discounted 15% through the end of 2010.

Items will not be restocked after they sell out. This is the last chance to get the toys and arts & crafts supplies at a HUGE discount.

30% OFFEVERYTHING IN THE STORE

Now through December 6th December 13th DECEMBER 19TH, all items in the store will be 30% off MSRP including all Melissa & Doug toys, while supplies last!

30% off every order placed now through December 19th
coupon code below

*USPS Priority Mail must be selected as your shipping method upon checkout to guarantee delivery by Friday, December 24th.
INTERNATIONAL SHIPMENTS CAN NO LONGER BE GUARANTEED FOR ARRIVAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

Visit our Specials page for up-to-date sales and coupons.

Follow @goodforthekids on Twitter for updates on new items & Twitter-only discounts.

COUPON

~ holiday2010 ~

30% off all orders

Sale through Sunday, December 19th
coupon valid on future orders only

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30% OFF
EVERYTHING IN THE STORE

Now through December 6th, all items in the store will be 30% off MSRP including all Melissa & Doug toys, while supplies last!

30% off every order placed now through December 6th (coupon code below)

Visit our Specials page for up-to-date sales and coupons.

Follow @goodforthekids on Twitter for updates on new items & Twitter-only discounts.

COUPON

~ holiday2010 ~

30% off all orders
Sale through Monday, December 6th

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But I’m already seeing the sales, discounts, and “MAKE THAT GIFT LIST” promotions for Christmas.

I KNOW.

Having a store that has toys for kids means I have to join in the retail game of “HOORAY IT’S CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TIME, EVEN THOUGH IT’S SEPTEMBER!”

I’m not happy about it either, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t start putting out the sales.

Lucky you!

One of my girls’ favorite activities is coloring. Right now, I have in stock a variety of great coloring and drawing pads from Melissa & Doug. It’s a great gift for your own kids or relative kids or birthday kids or yourself if you’re the coloring type.

To make the deal sweet, use coupon code SEPTEMBER20 for 20% off any order placed now through September 30th.

To make the deal even sweeter, share this discount with your blog readers, Twitter followers, and/or your Facebook friends, and I’ll send you a 25% off coupon to use through the end of September.

Leave a comment below letting me know where you shared this sale, and I’ll email your 25% off discount code directly to you.

Super sweet, eh?

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On March 16th, I was interviewed for a news piece for ABC World News with Diane Sawyer about Middle Class families having financial struggles. You can read about it more on my personal blog, A Whole Lot of Nothing.

Way back in 2006, my husband and I decided it would be best for our family for me to stay home with our two young girls, 2 and 6 months old at the time. My teacher’s salary, even with the extra pay for having earned a Master’s Degree, was barely more than daycare costs for our two young girls. We still needed a few extra dollars a month to make ends meet, so I began selling maternity & baby clothes on eBay. I got the bug for selling after I started making extra cash on my own. I felt proud of the little accomplishments in sales I was making.

After having completed a few sales on eBay, I found I needed some Nuby replacement spouts for my girls’ sippy cups, and like anything else, I figured I could buy them on eBay. A few sellers had some spouts listed on eBay, and seeing as I was an up-and-coming entrepreneur, I found out where I, too, could buy and resell the spouts.

Really, it was a massive success. I found my online-selling niche in little silicone parts for sippy cups.

The next step was to start my own web store. I would be selling all of the Nuby spouts that the US distributor was selling out of their office, but didn’t have available online, nor were they advertising the availability of the spouts to consumers.

Total SCORE for me. Next up? World domination.

I started finding other products that were either hard-to-find or created by mom-owned small businesses. The business was growing every month, and I was spending more and more time doing something I could be proud of.

It was not unusual for the store to have 20+ orders a day. Less than 20 orders a day, and I was worried. Every month was better than the last.

My business was successful.

Until the Fall of 2008.

I was naïve to think I was immune because I was doing so well the 2 years previous. I was naïve to think that I could pay off the debt I had created that I was steadily paying down in my success.

I had been supporting small businesses, I was helping parents purchase products they needed at an affordable price, and I had a growing return-customer base.

But the damage had been done. Consumer confidence immediately dropped as news reports increased about cutting back on personal spending. I didn’t even need to watch the news reports and see the statistics to know that people were holding on to their money much more closely than they had just the month before.

Yes, people were losing their jobs at an astonishing rate.
Yes, people were becoming more conscious of how they spent their money.
And yes, consumers stopped buying “extras” for themselves and their kids.

This happened seemingly overnight.

I can see the drop-off in my own business’ financial statements.

Where I once had the confidence to be a successful and responsible small business owner, that confidence was now replaced with mounting debt, skyrocketing interest rates, and the inability to help support my family.

Near failure.

I have had to drastically change how I market my business by basically slashing my prices, offering deep discounts, and depend on word-of-mouth marketing.

To be honest and fair, I’ve not treated my customers with the attention they deserve. It now takes me longer to ship orders out, I have shut off my business phone (partly because the hours of operation were not respected and I was receiving calls at 1am), and I am not as quick to answer customer emails.

I wish I could do better for my customers, but because the web store is not bringing in the money that it used to, I have had to take on other writing jobs to make extra money. That additional work has taken away from my store’s time, and it has left me playing catch-up with my customers and their needs. For that, I am deeply apologetic.

My sincere hope is that my customers (and potential customers) will see this article and understand that supporting small businesses, even in the smallest capacity, helps our economy. I, too, have not been doing my full part in supporting fellow small businesses, but when I can, I will.

I am making a concentrated effort to focus more on my customers.
I am selling off most of my inventory to focus on a smaller product line.
I am telling the world about my struggles.
I am hoping for a miracle.

My family and I are struggling.

We need help.
We don’t need handouts.
We need the powers of the internet to guide us and help us with my mom-owned, woman-owned, small internet-based retail business.

If you have a blog or a website, I would love to have my store’s badge up on your site (it’s over <—- there all coded and ready).
If you Twitter, please tell your followers about my store.
If you email (and I know you do), please subscribe to my newsletter (below).
If you feel you can, please tell your blog readers, friends, and family about my store.

The support I’ve received from my friends online so far has been overwhelming. People are calling me “brave” and “courageous” for coming out of the shadows of debt and sharing our story.

I’m not doing this for the attention.
I’m doing this because I am no different than so many of you.

My 3-second piece on the national news has given me an opening to be able to share our struggles and to ask for help.

Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support that has been extended already, and thank you to those of you considering extending a few minutes of your time, and possibly a few dollars, to help me and my business.

You are truly appreciated.
Thank you,
Angie

_______________________________________________________________

Giveaway (because you stuck through all of that)

Leave a simple comment letting me know the name of your favorite item in the store.

I’ll pick a random winner from the comments left between now and Wednesday, March 24th, at 8:59pm EST to win a $50 Gift Certificate to Good for the Kids.

If you Twitter about the contest, leave a link to the tweet in the comments for an additional entry.

Two total comments allowed per person, per day.
(One out of the two comments must be a tweet.)

_______

Updated: Jill is our winner and has been contacted!

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First off, I want to extend a HUGE Thank You to all of my customers who ordered in January. After returning from vacation, then kids back to school, I ended the month with a nasty stomach flu that put me behind on shipping orders. I assure you, they are shipping this week!

I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “Why is this company talking in the first person? Aren’t companies supposed to be conglomerates of never-ending employees?”

Yeah, well, not this one. Good for the Kids is owned and operated solely by myself, making it a mom-owned company. Yup. One person does everything from home. Albeit a messy, kid-filled home, but a home nonetheless.

So, when I get sick, or one of my girls gets sick, packages unfortunately become delayed in shipping. For that, I apologize, and hope you understand that my family comes first, as does yours with you.

As my big huge THANK YOU for supporting a woman-owned small business, I’m extending a 25% off discount through the end of this week.

Visit our Specials page for up-to-date sales and coupons.

Follow @goodforthekids on Twitter for updates on new items & Twitter-only discounts.

Use coupon code feb3blog for 25% off your orders through Sunday, February 7th.

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Back in the olden days of our parent’s and grandparent’s youth, toys were either wooden or tin. Ever since the government thankfully removed all those harmful metals and verybadthings, most of the throwback toys in our kid’s generation are made of wood.

Wooden toys are durable, wood toys are safe, and wood is attractive. Melissa & Doug recognizes this and develops toys made of lightweight, safe wood with safe paints free of toxins.

Wooden toys are available and are inexpensive from Good for the Kids. As a Melissa & Doug authorized retailer, you can find a variety of wooden toys in stock, ready to ship to your kids.

Safety of the wooden toys is important to parents and children alike. The safety of Melissa & Doug’s toys is their number one policy as they sign their own names to every toy they manufacture.

Once you go wood, you never go back.
(Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about kid’s toys here. sheesh)

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Let’s be really honest here. Most kids don’t like watching sports on TV. My girls may say they want to watch hockey with their daddy (they’re good kids like that), but really, they’d rather watch Star Wars or play with new toys.

The next month or so in our house will be spent watching the Olympics (U-S-A!) and the day-long Super Bowl commercial-fest.

When Mama watches her Olympics, the kiddies need toys and activities.

For your convenience, and the sanity of those around you, get your kiddies some toys with which to be entertained. I’m all about win/win situations and new wooden toys.

Order now for the toys to arrive in time for the Opening Ceremonies on February 12th.

Visit our Specials page for up-to-date sales and coupons.

Follow @goodforthekids on Twitter for updates on new items & Twitter-only discounts.

20% off ALL orders placed through Sunday, February 7th

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During the winter months when the snow is piling outside and your kid’s fingers turn into fleshcicles, you tend to stay indoors in the warmth. Staying indoors with little kids means OH MY HECK, WHAT WILL I DO WITH THESE KIDS ALL DAY?

Good for the Kids is here to save your endless days of coloring books & watching Nemo on a loop!

Brand new in the store are the best Melissa & Doug All-in-One, Decorate-Your-Own crafts.

All are available under $10, which you’ll know, is crazy-cheap, but with the Melissa & Doug quality, is super awesome.

We’re stocked up on the best cups and bottles from Nuby:

Visit our Specials page for up-to-date sales and coupons.

Follow @goodforthekids on Twitter for updates on new items & Twitter-only discounts.

COUPON

10% off ALL orders placed through Sunday, January 24th
Promo code jan15blog

5% of sales will be donated to the RedCross
5% of sales will be donated to Friends of Maddie

We are committed to providing our customers with the best of what is good for your kids.

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Back to reality.
Back to the routine. Back to the rigmarole of daily life. Back to houses without blinking lights and blow-up reindeer in the yard.

And please tell me I’m not the only one excited to have the kids back in school.

Back to normal means back into stocking up on what you need for your kiddos. Nuby spouts, baby bottles, sippy cups, and replacement parts for your kid’s cups.

We’re stocked up on the best cups and bottles from Nuby:

Did you run low on arts & crafts supplies over the holidays? Stock up with Melissa & Doug’s incredibly-valued, high-quality supplies:

Visit our Specials page for up-to-date sales and coupons.

Follow @goodforthekids on Twitter for updates on new items & Twitter-only discounts.

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