Winter 2006
Oh Baby! By Emily Lambert

Twin Reasons to Stock Baby

For women 35 to 39 years old, the birth rate from 2003 to 2004 rose 4 percent*. That's an important shift, because as more women wait to bear children, couples are likely to have more disposable income when they reach parenthood.

Baby boomers are becoming grandparents. Their grandchildren could be the beneficiaries of their enormous spending power—to the tune of $2 trillion a year**.

*National Center for Health Statistics
**The Boomer Project, Richmond, VA

Milwaukee’s Gaga Over goo goo gaa gaa

Ginny Gerczak remembers shopping around for a perfect name for her baby store. “I wanted something that screamed ‘Baby,’ and just couldn’t find anything for a while,” she says. “Then one day, I was reading to the kids and came across this phrase, ‘goo goo gaa gaa,’ and I thought, ‘Perfect,'” Gerczak laughs.

The baby store, goo goo gaa gaa, was born in Milwaukee in November 2004. Ginny and her husband, Tom, had some prior experience in retail, and decided to open the store after a lot of careful market research showed the area could use an upscale baby store like theirs.

Gerczak differentiates the store from the competition by placing emphasis on carrying “cutting-edge everything.” Baby Jak blankies, Bratt decor and Caden Lane and OiOi diaper bags are a small sampling of the selection in her 2,000-square-foot store. Gerczak says she has many customers who come in looking for one-of-a-kind gifts, and she and her staff help them make their selections. One of the more popular items is the whimsical Pee-Pee Teepee, a small, cotton teepee used during baby boys’ diaper changes.

Whether fellow retailers are looking to delve into baby big time or would simply like to add to their baby collections, Gerczak has one word of advice for them: presentation. Goo goo gaa gaa places special emphasis on store decor, with most areas designed to look like little nurseries in upscale homes. Gerczak even uses baby powder perfume at the entrance of the store to create an ideal shopping setting.

The Gerczaks’ children, 6-year-old Josh and 7-year-old Abbie, love the store and even have their own green aprons, just like the nine store employees. “But we never have them [the children] around during store hours; it’s just too much,” Ginny Gerczak laughs.

The Gerczaks have discovered that baby can be a lucrative business. As for why they decided to get into the baby business in the first place, the Gerczaks realized that there were many couples around the country just like them—having children late in life and with disposable income to spend. “We are one of those couples who spend more on their children than on themselves,” Gerczak says.