Once Upon A Child

What to expect when you’re expecting: you’ll be broke. A significant portion of income once allotted for fun time now disappears down the black hole of ‘baby gear.’
Welcome to your future for the next 18 years.
Infants grow like weeds and toddlers need 27 pairs of pants to get through the week. Those jeans you cuffed last week are now pegged ankle crops on your now leggy son or daughter. The cashiers in Target smile when you trudge through the door to load up your cart with yet more clothes, when the last load barely made it through the wash twice before Dearest Darling outgrew them.
Here’s a secret though: you can take your gently used baby stuff and kid’s clothes to Once Upon a Child; and you can purchase them too at a fraction of what you’d pay in the store. OUAC is an offshoot of Plato’s Closet, where all the savvy juniors shop, and their rarer to find but upscale sister, Clothes Mentor. They have many stores around metro Detroit, but this ranks among the best due to its size and selection.
OUAC accepts all kinds of clothes and shoes, accessories, winter coats, toys, and larger baby gear like bouncers, strollers, and carseats. Let this be the place to offload all those swings and rockers you accumulated for the brief period when your baby was smaller than a breadbox.
The store is roughly divided into girls and boys sections, as determined by a pink or blue label. I know, shocking. These further split into preemie up to teenage sizes, arranged on tight racks according to garment type (shirts, pants/​shorts, dresses, coats) and roughly by colour. Specialty or seasonal items tend to float around on end caps, and the perimeter holds toys, gear, books, and more. OUAC’s structure works for zeroing in on the 2T boys shirts or 6M girl’s onesies. Girls have a serious advantage; the boys section seems pretty scanty by comparison. Use a cart (or stroller) to hold onto different outfits to save your sanity and be aware, going in, the aisles are pretty tight. And always check labels! It’s common to find 18M in the 24M section or 3T lurking among 2Ts.
Labels run from Carters to Janie and Jack. Persistence is key here. I’ve scored awesome deals for expensive sweaters and pants, and a snowsuit, with a bit of digging. OUAC failed to deliver on a basic pair of suit pants or a jacket on my last visit.
It also goes without saying prime time on weekends is a madhouse. Phone to find out best hours for consigning items, as the staff is happy to notify when they’re swamped or quiet. I’ve not used the consignment function of OUAC very often, so cannot comment well on how fair the percentage earned per item is. Be realistic about items you purchased nearly new or with tags on could probably sell for more on Ebay or at a mom-​to-​mom sale.
Verdict: 3.5 stars. Decent prices and great selection keep my baby budget low.
Note: the store moved in December 2015 from its location next to Tuesday Morning/​DSW to a shopping mall on Canton Center Road. I visited on ¹²⁄₂₆ and they had not moved into their final storefront.

Love this place!!! Can’t believe ppl say it’s to pricey. Don’t like it? Go to the justice store and pay 3 x as much then

This place has been my go to place for my boys clothing. If you are patient and are willing to take time and look through the racks, you’ll find some awesome deals.
HOWEVER there’s two reasons I knocked off two stars:
1) I have had ZERO luck selling them clothes. I know they are picky so I make sure to pick out the clothes that are just about in mint condition and every single time I try to sell, they barely take a thing. However as I’m looking through the racks, I’m constantly finding clothing that should’ve never passed their inspection.
2) the place is a mess. It’s overwhelming trying to find things. It’s always busy and they have clothes and items piled up so high at times. The toy section is a mess too.

Once upon a child is a great store to ship at for your little one. For one, it smells good-​like laundry detergent. Any who, they have a huge selection of items for boys and girls starting at NB up to… idk maybe preteen. They also carry baby gear such as bf pillows & conceiling covers, bathtubs, carriers, strollers, bassinets-​you name it, they got it. I even found a pack of cloth diapers once. The prices are very good as well and they run promotions often. The employees are nice as well and very helpful. So what more could you ask for?

I have been both on the buying and the selling end of this OUAC. Usually we went to the Novi location because it was closer to us but now that store is closed. I would imagine that would mean that the Canton store gets a lot more traffic. One thing that people seem to grumble about is how little money OUAC offers for your used baby stuff. I have a very different take on this. When I sell back my son’s used clothes or toys, I do it with the idea of knowing that I won’t be making a ton of money back. The clothes are used, they’re old, and someone is doing all the leg work to sell it for me. If I paid $ 7.00 for a shirt at Target (but let’s be reasonable… I actually probably bought it on clearance for $ 4.50) and they need to sell it for $ 3.00, it doesn’t really make sense that they would give me a lot of money for it. After all, they need to make a profit too. If someone really thinks their puked-​on onsies deserve a lot of money, maybe they need to go to a consignment store, or sell it themselves on ebay/​craigslist or have a garage sale?
Like any other OUAC, it makes the most sense to try to sell when things are quiet. Weekends are a little crazy so be prepared to wait a little bit. I usually take the in-​store credit instead of the cash because you get a higher percentage back. That gives me time to browse. If my son is with me, he can either play with all the toys that are being sold (the store isn’t really strict about that and we try to put everything back when we’re done) or they have this little makeshift dungeon that they made with some toy cars that could probably hold two kids, tops.
The store itself is pretty well organized. Racks are divided by size, and then by color. One thing that is kind of nice is that (unlike other stores), they seem to have all the seasons. I now live in Massachusetts but went to Michigan for a wedding in August. As ridiculous as this sounds, we took a side trip to this location (after we drove over to the Novi one and found it closed) to look for winter sweaters and pants. In the Boston area, used clothing stores are generally higher end places and my son is in a phase where I find clumps of wood chips and mud in his pockets… usually AFTER I’ve already run the washing machine. We ended up buying a bunch of sweaters and pants, most of them averaging about $ 4.00. We found a few super cheap books too. We gleefully stuffed our bulging carry-​on luggage with our treasures knowing that this was a much better deal than we could probably expect here.
I would like to make this very clear. I may not be your typical reviewer when it comes to kids resell shops. I had a child, knowing full well that it was going to be an expensive investment. I keep this in mind when I try to sell them stuff (in some cases, clothes that I’ve bought from them and are practically getting the same price back for what I paid). I am not selling back to make a profit and I know that I’m getting a decent amount of credit to use for my son’s next season of clothes.

This place is a rip off. I have brought things to be sold here 3 or 4 times. I keep thinking maybe the next time will be better. Most of my items are new with tags or never been worn/​used and in perfect condition. I figured I would get a fair amount of money back. The amount they offer me never seems fair. Especially when browsing through the store it seems like the majority of their stuff is not in great condition.

I went to this store while in town visiting family — my sister has been a customer for some time. Before arriving, my sister purchased an activity mat and boppy pillow here for me to use during my visit. The cost for both was not more than about $ 30 and both were invaluable during my stay. I bought a ton of clothing when I shopped here — the prices were great, in my opinion, but the selection was awesome (in the 3 – 6 month and 6 – 9 month sizes anyway.) My sister says the larger sizes have less selection, but I didn’t look. I returned a few items a few days after purchase because they didn’t fit my daughter and had no issue. Overall, I’d say it was a successful shopping trip and I’ll definitely come back when I’m in town.

I’ve never been on the buying end at Once Upon a Child, so I can’t comment on that.
But this place is AMAZING for selling old kids’ clothing and toys! We have sold boxes upon boxes of things here from when my siblings and I were kids, and it’s so simple! They pay very little for what they get, but it’s such a better option than just donating or dealing with the hassle that is eBay or a garage sale. You can just drop off your stuff and come back an hour later or so for the money and whatever they didn’t buy! They are very selective with what they buy, but I consider that to be a good thing, since the buyers are only selecting from the best merchandise that comes through the doors.
P. S. Whoever said they only buy on certain days is wrong. They buy every day of the week– just be sure to come at least an hour or so before closing.

I was in the parking lot early on Saturday waiting for Tuesday Morning to open when I witnessed something I had never thought to see. It looked like a scene from «The Grapes of Wrath», as caravans of minivans arrived to unload their plastic bins into the store. I could only imagine what was inside those bins. I certainly wasn’t going to walk in front of the herd and get run over!
If you are planning to buy something from Once Upon a Child, I’d recommend coming during the week to avoid the chaos!

Although I’m basically anti-​chain, I have to say this store had a lot of merchandise nicely displayed. Their prices are a little higher than some stores but I’m sure the stripmall location and number of employees to cover the store add onto their overhead. You’d have to be looking for something pretty unusual or highly popular as to be out of stock to not find what you were looking for in here. I might not make this my only source of clothes and equipment but I would certainly include it in my rounds if I had a child outgrowing his stuff everytime I turned around. They also buy but only certain days so check what those are before trekking over.