Our Story

Small World started in 1989. We were newly married, we always enjoyed talking to people, and we wanted to build something together. So, we opened a children's clothing booth at the Route 18 Market — three days a week, in a space we could barely turn around in.

A little over a year later we had a real store of our own in Village Green West in East Brunswick. We did the buying together from the very first season, and we still do. What we carried was always shaped by what our customers told us they wanted, and our customer base kept growing.

After several years in Village Green West, we moved into a 5,000-square-foot store right on Route 18. It became one of the largest children's boutiques in New Jersey. Next door we opened a sister store for the size 4-14 and preteen girls who had opinions of their own, and we gave it a name that raised a few eyebrows: Girls Go Wild.

For a generation of Central Jersey families, that stretch of Route 18 was simply where you went to dress your kids. Their children were referred to as the Best Dressed Kids in Town, and the parents were proud of it.

The years in between

While the business was growing, so was our family. Not long after we opened on Route 18, Wendy became pregnant with twins — our second and third daughters.

Business was booming. But there are only so many years when your children are small, and we didn’t want a stranger to raise our kids. So, we made the hard decision to close down Small World. Wendy stayed home to raise our children, and Mike continued his career in the corporate world.

Our family kept growing through those years. A son came along after his three sisters. We don't regret a day of it.

Coming back

By 2015, our children were grown and on their own and we were ready.

We reopened Small World in Marlboro, starting small again — a store about the size of the one we'd had in Village Green West. As the new Small World found its footing, we grew into the larger store we're in today.

Many of our original customers, many grandparents now, found their way back. 

The WOW Factor

There's a look when someone walks in our store, and takes a look at all the beautiful items around the store. We've called it the WOW Factor for as long as we've been doing this, and it's the standard everything in the store has to meet.

We can hold that standard because of who we buy from. Many of our designers are people we've known personally for over twenty years, going back to the first Small World. They know what our families want and they always want to hear feedback from us, and they'll make unique designs exclusively for us, certainly not something a chain store could ever do. That relationship is the whole reason we can carry what we carry.

What makes us different

We've raised children of our own, so we understand what our customers are actually shopping for. That isn't a sales philosophy. It's just true, and it's the reason this works.

Most of what we sell is for a moment that matters. A Christening. A First Communion. A wedding, a graduation, a father-daughter dance. Families come to us in the middle of something they'll remember for the rest of their lives, and we take that seriously. Our job is to make sure the whole experience is beautiful — for the child, for Mom and Dad, for the grandparents standing in the corner getting emotional.

Wendy, Mike, and everyone on our team share that. It's the one thing we'd point to if you asked what sets us apart from any other store, and the reason it works is that it's completely genuine.

The best part

Every so often, a woman walks in with her daughter, who is about to become a mother herself. And somewhere between the doorway and the dressing room, she realizes this is the same Small World she came to almost thirty years ago to dress that very daughter.

That moment never gets old.

That's what we love about this business — and it's why we're still here.

Small World Kids 420 Route 9 North, Marlboro, NJ 07726 732-907-9075