Hey Folks,
SOOO, so far this blog seems to be a roaring success, which is fantastic,! Hopefully we're already getting some web attention from our present and future customers. This post here is meant to be a brief introduction or user's-guide to the Area staff for anyone not already familiar with our crazy crew.
Let us begin at the beginning:
Loretta, The Big Cahoona: Our fearless leader, the head honcho, and the brains behind the Area movement. Loretta is a mother herself of a 4-year-old girl and 9 months very, very pregnant. In fact she may be in labor as I type. So she has the insider's mom's-eye view on all of the products we sell at Area Kids. She currently has 8 Area Kids stores, 1 spa, 1 yoga studio and is in the process of opening a new Area store in your living room.
Ursula, or UCG: Ursula is our brilliant and talented managistra. She keeps things running at our 5th ave location, is our local bugaboo expert and orders about half of the coolest products we carry. She is also working on becoming Xootr champion of the world.
Jeff, areajeff: Jeff is our lone Area Boy. You'll usually find him behind a pile of toys at our Area Play toystore on Smith and President st. He knows everything there is to know about all of the toys we carry - if toys were wine, he would be our sommelier. Aside from the awesome work he does here at Area, Jeff is a guitarist/vocalist of the excellent band JP05. He is indeed a Jeff of all trades.
Marie, zmariec: Marie has been an active and valued member of the area circus for about 2 years now and knows the stores inside and out. On top of being a sweet, friendly and knowledgeable Area Girl, we hear that Marie is also a sweet, friendly and knowledgeable singer in her brother's band Arthur and the Geniuses.
Kasia: You can find Kasia Saturdays and Sundays at our Montague st. store, usually a burr of clothes being folded, toys being organized, shelves being dusted and general orderliness. She's currently on vacation with her family, but when she gets back in July it's safe to say that any surviving Montague dust bunnies will be in for a swift and painful death.
Jesselyn: Much like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. Also prone to spontaneously breaking out in song.
Nicole, nrusso: Nicole is our tough and sassy, butt-kicking, basement-organizing, order-fufilling folding machine. She works most of the time at 5th ave, but we've been known to send her wherever a good firm re-organizing is needed. Don't mess with this one: she'll clean you so hard you'll never get dirty again.
Patricia Mulia: Patricia is our very own crazy, hilarious Costa Rican marathon runner. She's happily married, insanely productive and a bit of a neat freak, which is a major plus in any Area employee. She can be found running absolutely everything quite effortlessly weekdays at the 7th avenue store. She also makes funky fantastic jewelry - ask her about her website.
Erin, eStead: Erin is an imported Area girl, fresh from North Carolina. She's a student at the New York City College of Technology, and has become a huge fan of New York City (but then, who isn't?). She works most days at the Court St. store and has amassed a large collection of our awesome Kid Robot figures.
Afeisha: Afeisha is one of the two lovely Area Girls who keep the Area website (www.areakids.com) up and running. A relatively recent hire, Afeisha is learning the Area ropes with impressive speed and skill. Look for her bent diligently over a computer screen at one of our Smith St. locations.
Jackie(ee): Before Jackie(ee) was an Area Girl she was a manager of the very cool, very popular Tea lounge on Union st, which proves a theory of mine: if you're a fan of funky tea, you're probably also a fan of funky toys. These days she's working at the Area Play toystore with Jeff, making the world just a little bit more awesome for Brooklyn kids.
Ajia Hunter, hunter: Ajia is fresh in from art school in LA where she's studying to become the next great photographer sensation! In the meantime she's working for us, and loving every minute of it, of course. She has a red-headed boyfriend who lives in Maine, but since there's not much chance of us opening an Area store out there (sorry P-town!) he'll probably move to New York where they'll live happily ever after. Aww.
Nadya: Nadya is originally from and lives in Manhattan, but we don't hold that against her. We're very open-minded here at Area Kids. It helps that she's a lovely, bubbly, super-helpful employee who charms any customer that sets foot in the store. She's currently on a quest to find the perfect shade of purple hair dye.
Liz: Liz is leaving the area! She has been a fixture at the Williamsburg store for the past few years and will be sorely missed by the customers and her fellow Area staff alike.
There are more Area Employees who didn't make it onto this list because they haven't signed up to post on the blog yet. Whenever they do they'll get their own mini-bio and a big round of applause. I hope this is a helpful guide. Refer to it as necessary - an educated Area customer knows their Area Girls (and Jeff)!
