Despite its name, the story of West Coast Kids actually begins in the Prairies. Founder Marsha Dashefsky launched her first children's store (originally named Friendly Bears, later changed to E-Children) in Winnipeg, Manitoba back in 1974 when she was pregnant with her first child. Today, Marsha's youngest child, Robyn Moar, runs her family's business operations across Canada.
“At the time, it was all catalogue buying," Robyn says of the retail environment in which her mother started her first store. "If you wanted a crib, you had to pick one out of the Sears catalogue and wait. It all began because my mum was having difficulty finding unique and beautiful products for her first child.”
What started as new mother's vision has blossomed into a successful family business with seven retail locations across Canada. When West Coast Kids opened its first West Coast location in Richmond, B.C. in 2007, Robyn moved to Vancouver to run the store.
In February 2015, Robyn helped launch a second B.C. location for West Coast Kids on Vancouver's burgeoning Main Street strip. “We opened the Main Street store because my mum went to an aerobics class in the area while she was visiting me and couldn’t believe how many strollers she saw,” Robyn explains. When designing the Mount Pleasant location, Robyn incorporated elements of the neighbourhood. “We used lots of reclaimed wood to get that East Van feel,” she says.
