50% off all Toys - Store is still Full of great items

South Berwick's Little Hat shifts to online sales only; store closes Sunday

By JASON CLAFFEY
jclaffey@fosters.com


Saturday, May 30, 2009
SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — A 5-year-old girl was in The Little Hat Company Thursday when she overheard a conversation between her mother and owner Jen Houghton about how the store is closing.

The girl started crying.

"No! The Little Hat Company can't close," Houghton recalled the sobbing child as saying.

Houghton herself was nearly brought to tears.

After nearly three years in downtown South Berwick, The Little Hat Company is shuttering its storefront due to slumping sales caused in part by the recession. The company will live on, however, as it will retain its website, www.thelittlehatcompany.com. Only hats will be sold on the site — unlike the store, which sold a variety of toys and crafts.

Houghton sees it as returning to the company's roots. She opened the store in November 2006, exclusively selling children's hats made by stay-at-home moms.

"That's how we started," she said. "Our goal is to focus on the hats to build the brand and the company back up."

The store's last day will be Sunday. Currently, everything is being sold half-off.

"It's sad. But I had to do this," Houghton said.

Sales began plummeting last August, as customers cut spending when the recession took hold. Another factor was a federal lead testing law for children's products that was scheduled to go into effect February.

Houghton, like many small crafters across the country, couldn't afford to pay for the testing, so she held a fire sale to get rid of her children's products. A federal commission then issued a last-minute reprieve and delayed enforcing the law, but the damage had been done.

"It's just hard times," Houghton said.

The company's website will be redesigned June 8 and feature eight new hat styles.

Houghton said she's determined to turn Little Hat into a "national brand," especially after seeing the young girl cry.

"It made me sad but it also made me more determined to make it work," she said.