Kari Huang, a West Windsor resident for two years, is the owner of When I Grow Up, a consignment shop featuring items for children at 4110 Quakerbridge Road, Lawrenceville. “Shopping has not been easy for me in this neighborhood,” says Huang, who worked in merchandising in the garment industry for many years. “I don’t like to pay full price since I know exactly how much the cost is.”
Born and raised in China, Huang was a business management major at Adelphi University. She began her career as an intern in a textile company during college. From there she began her 13-year career in textiles and garments. She worked in production and merchandising for stores and labels including Nordstrom, Macy’s, Marc Jacobs, and Ralph Lauren.
Her husband, Yee, was offered the opportunity to run Wang Technology, a growing engineering company located on Washington Road, four years ago. The company provides geotechnical and structural instrumentation and monitoring services to major heavy civil construction projects in New York City including the Second Avenue Subway, LIRR East Side Access, and World Trade Center Transit Hub.
The couple lived on Long Island and Yee had to commute from Roslyn, Long Island to Princeton Junction. “After his two years of a 6-hour round trip train ride, we relocated to Princeton Junction,” she says.”Shortly after, I became pregnant with our third baby.”
“In 11 years of marriage, Yee and I relocated three times,” Huang says. “Each time we moved to a new house, we had a baby. This is it. No more moving for us. We are here to stay.
“With three kids I also found it’s more and more difficult to continue to pursue my career in the city and have quality time with the kids,” says Huang. “It was an extreme difficult decision for me to park my career and stay home to be a full time mom. The process took me a whole year to gradually reduce my work load and transition myself into the new role.”
Huang found the only shortcoming in the area is shopping. “With so many kids in the area and the going green trend — plus my years of industry experience I came up with the idea of a small shop to provide local moms the convenience of shopping and recycling.” The store offers recycled furniture, strollers, toys, clothes, and shoes.
“Princeton Junction is a great place to raise children with more open space, less traffic, and a very kids friendly environment,” says Huang. “We have discovered a lot of interesting activities for our children to do and have made many friends. The kids love the schools and teachers.”
Spencer will be in Village School and Marcus will start kindergarten at Dutch Neck. Aaliya has several more years before she starts school. Huang plans to be involved with the WW-P district for many years. “I hope in the near future I can do something for the schools, town, or sports league.”
The store opened in May. The store buys juniors, children’s, and infant clothing; baby care items and equipment; children’s toys and furniture; and maternity and nursing clothes and supplies. Consignors receive 40 percent of the sale price of their items, and contracts are in effect for 90 days. For information call 609-750-8880 or visit www.whenigrowupconsignment.com.
