Cotton Babies, a retailer of cloth diapers and other environmentally-friendly baby products such as natural and organic fiber clothing, strollers and battery-free toys, has closed its Vancouver store.
Located in the Grant Central Shopping Center at 106 Grand Boulevard, the Vancouver Cotton Babies was the Missouri-based company’s only brick-and-mortar store outside of St. Louis.
Owner Jenn Labit said the store location was simply too big, with not enough foot traffic to sustain overhead costs.
“Knowing that we needed to lower the cost basis, we attempted to renegotiate a new lower lease rate that the store could sustain given the foot traffic in the center. The landlord responded with a rate that was still unsustainable,” Labit said in a letter to customers. “We considered a move to a new location, but, after giving it a lot of thought, we finally decided that it would be wise to take a step back and completely rethink our local retail strategy. We know that we’re not the only brick-and-mortar retailer working hard to make it work in a world where Amazon has changed the way all of us shop. It would be foolish to continue trying to work a local model that is clearly not working.”
Cotton Babies had been open in Vancouver since 2010.
