Once Upon A Child Ballwin, MO — Local services in Ballwin

I have been coming to this specific location for 10 years. I have 6 kids, we have pretty much exclusively shopped here and loved it. Unfortunately, we won't be taking our money here anymore. I'm not a disgruntled customer, so I really hope the owners take my comments to heart. For someone who has spent THOUSANDS here over the years and watched it change owners many times, I feel I know what I'm talking about. The biggest problem I have are the prices. I understand inflation, having to pay employees more, etc. But that shouldn't change the percentage you pay out. Not only have the prices gone up, some even five fold. Literally what used to be a pair of $1 leggings before or a T-shirt is now $8. But also, when you bring your clothes in for selling, they pay you almost nothing. Now, again, I've been coming here for years and years and am very familiar with what the prices and buy outs have been. Now I bring my clothes in, and half of them are taken, only to get $30??? That's called a scam. And they don't ever show you what they are buying and act incredibly shady about it. . So if you're going to charge more, make sure you're paying fair buy outs! Also, the buys take 6-8 hours, no joke! Next, the employees are extremely rude. I'm talking, I walked in with my kids one day and I'm looking at clothes while they look at toys... We were there for maybe one minute and my kids hadn't done anything wrong and a lady comes up and tells me I need to be watching them and they need to pick up the toys. I said ok, but come on, don't put toys on the shelves at kids height of you don't want them looking and playing with them. Put them up high. THEN, I walked over to the bikes and the same lady came and told my kids to get off the bike we were wanting to buy. Like I said, I know this store well, and now every single employee is horrible. I used to buy coats, shoes, sports shoes, clothing, toys, baby items etc. I was probably their biggest customer. But now this store is honestly not worth my time, effort, or money. I hope the owners take this comment to heart. Lower prices, give fair buy outs, and fire rude employees. I will not be shopping here anymore and will take my business somewhere else like old navy or Marshalls where I can get new clothing for the same price and not have angry women yelling at my very well...

I genuinely love going to the different once upon a child locations. Typically, most of the clothes, baby items, and toys are in decent shape and look nice, especially for babies and toddlers who grow quickly and need to swap sizes out frequently. This location is mostly nice with their setup, especially clothes and large baby items. Their toy section is atrocious on the other hand. It's nice that the kids are allowed to look at the toys, and test some of the noisy toys, and stay distracted while shopping, BUT it is so unorganized and messy, they could designate toys that kids are allowed to play with, but they don't. Children are able to ruin puzzles (pieces are scattered throughout bins and shelves), open plastic toy bags, and have pieces that were once part of sets separated. They also sell leapfrog leapstart readers, books to go with those readers, and potentially the needed cartridges. Instead of keeping all three of these organized and together (the books need the cartridges for certain leapfrog leapstart readers in order for them to work properly), they're scattered throughout the shelves of toys and the employees expect us customers to sort through everything in order to find everything to make the readers worth buying or to make the books work properly. The shelves are also completely overflowing with toys, which is a hazard; large and hard toys will be either carelessly stacked on other toys or sliding off the shelves. There are small children reaching for these toys off the shelf and potentially going to hurt themselves from falling toys because another toy will slide down and could hit them. I understand the store receives a lot of toys, and kids will be kids and open items by accident. I'm sure they could figure out a less dangerous way of storing the toys, considering Arnold and the Kirkwood locations are able to keep their toy areas organized and nice-looking. The two stars are just for the fact this location is so large and they have a great clothing selection, but until the toy area needs to be...

I was treated with the utmost disrespect at the Ballwin, Mo location. Their policy for buying clothes is on first come first serve no appointment needed basis, but they will hold off on larger orders rather than finish them in a timely fashion. I arrived at 9:23 am, the store opened at 9. I ended up being there for 2 hours waiting on them to inspect one bag of clothing. After 2 hours, I was told they would only give me $26.00 for about 10-12 gap, Carter’s, and Ralph Lauren polo items. I was rushed out of the store after asking how much longer my buyback would be after being there an hour and a half already. No customer appreciation was shown or extended to me as a return customer as it was extended to other customers in line before me. I called the store after i left to try to speak with a manager. I was told that only “key holders” were present. I asked for a corporate number, and was told that the store is franchise owned, there are no managers, but the store owner would call me. I was presented with a very condescending tones and attitudes by an individual named Kaitlin(?). The owner Lauren called me the next day and tried to express how apologetic she was for the treatment in the store. All she did was make excuses as to why i was in the store so long and how they price their items. She said their behavior would be addressed, but there was no extension of an Olive branch for me to return to this location. This is the closest location to my house, but I’d rather go an extra 20 miles to St. Peter’s, or even take my children’s old clothes to the GoodWill rather than come to this location and be treated the way...