Sprout Natural Parenting, a new shop located down Bootleg Alley in Greenport Village, is opening this week and on Sunday morning, owner Laura Tancredi is busy stocking shelves and attending to a hundred different details.
The 450 square foot store is located in the space formerly occupied by Luisa’s Magic Barber Shop off Front Street, just up the alley from Little Creek Oysters.
Sprout is not a traditional retail store, says Tancredi, but rather it’s a resource and community center for all things related to natural parenting.
“Our specialty is natural parenting and we want to support and enhance anything related to that philosophy and that mission,” she says.
The colorful shop, complete with mobiles hanging from the ceiling and a felted squirrel perched on a giant felted tree, goes out of its way to make parents and their little ones comfortable. There is a nursing chair, a changing table and even a bathroom with a tiny toilet and sink. A dressing room for trying on nursing bras is off in one corner.
With the help of her builder husband, Bill, Tancredi has made Sprout a stress free environment for parents. All of the inventory is stored above 36 inches, out of the way of little hands. Cubbies with toys are at toddler-level and a play table in the shape of a boat will occupy children while their parents shop.
For pint-sized customers, Sprout carries a full line of organic layette clothing, swimwear, wooden toys and Elsa Beskow books. They also offer Montessori toys, beach toys, sunscreen, handmade rattles and silk fairy skirts and costumes.
For moms they stock nursing bras, pumps, slings, breastfeeding pillows, books and herbal supplements, among many other supplies.
In addition to their retail offerings, Sprout is all about the natural parenting community and will be a resource for moms and dads to connect with others using the same parenting philosophy.
“Sprout came out of my own parenting philosophy,” says Tancredi. “The philosophy of natural parenting spoke to me and I had this idea to create Sprout. As I learned more about building community in natural parenting, I started seeing all of these different people who were intrigued and very well versed in natural parenting. We just came together.”
The new shop is Tancredi’s third Sprout store; she owned the original Sprout in Brattleboro, Vermont for about eight years and a second shop in Burlington, Vermont for two years. Those shops are now closed.
A vacation to Greenport several years ago led Tancredi to eventually purchase the commercial building down Bootleg Alley as an investment, and when the barber’s space became available, she decided to open on the North Fork. With the help of Laura Kwasniewski, the woman who had managed the previous Sprout stores, Tancredi is able to juggle a full-time job running a non-profit called Global Children Cambodia and raise her family in New York City. She and her family stay in the apartment above the shop when they are in Greenport.
Since word began to spread about Sprout coming to Greenport, Tancredi has managed to make multiple connections with doulas (childbirth coaches), midwives, lactation consultants and other practitioners.
“The natural parenting community out here is much more rich and vibrant than I ever anticipated,” she says. She has already gathered resources and referrals, which she will keep in a book at the shop, and hired staff who are well-versed and passionate about natural parenting.
“We’re a community store,” says Tancredi, “and every aspect of what we do is well thought out and done so that parents feel comfortable here. It’s a safe space and everyone is welcome.”
The grand opening is planned for Thursday, May 11. Sprout will be open seven days a week and hours will be posted on their Facebook page.
