Letters

Batteries not required

Soapbox • Marketplace offers parents pressure but also choices

By Tony Fuentes

, Jan 4, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

KATIE HARTLEY / TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO

Many trendy stores are offering goods for the littlest consumers. Here, Bridget Marsh tries out some wooden animals at Little Urbanites in Northwest Portland. The co-owner of another baby boutique, Milagros, says parents’ purchases don’t have to come with a big price tag in terms of either dollars or ethics.

My wife and I have operated a baby boutique in Portland for nearly four years. We also have two children. So my perspective on products for babies and kids is as a consumer and as a merchant.

I read Audrey Van Buskirk’s column (Baby got brand, parents get the bill, Dec. 18) on the issue of product branding and marketing for babies, young children and their parents with great interest.

She makes a good point: A lot of marketing energy from major manufacturers and retailers is targeting very young children and expectant parents in order to establish early brand loyalty.

The article compares the experience of mass-marketed brands against expensive boutique brands. Van Buskirk is right to imply that there is nothing inherently superior in boutique brands versus mass-marketed brands. A brand is a brand is a brand.

To that I want to add the following: Making the “right product choice” is not the same as making the “right brand choice,” and the opportunity to make these choices is not a luxury.

Depending on the values you want to support, buying decisions are never as easy as choosing a boutique brand over a mass-marketed brand.

At our store we have always believed in fair trade and have always required that all the products we carry adhere to international standards of fair wages, work benefits, positive environment and absolutely no child labor.

A few months after opening, we also made the decision not to add any new product lines to our shelves that were made in China.

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