Once Upon a Child offers a large selection of kids' clothing, gear, and toys at affordable prices, which is definitely a plus for parents shopping on a budget. The staff is always friendly and helpful, which makes the experience more pleasant. That said, there are some inconsistencies worth noting. Be sure to bring your ID every time there are frequent policy changes regarding drop-offs and pickups. Sometimes they require it, sometimes they don't, which can be confusing. The selling process is relatively quick, which I appreciate. However, I've noticed that many of the items they choose to buy and resell are stained or in visibly poor condition. It's surprising to see some of these pieces make it onto the sales floor. (See attached photos for examples.) It honestly makes me second-guess purchasing items here, especially higher-priced items like baby gear or amps. I really hope the quality control improves this store has a lot of potential if they clean things up a bit. read more

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I love coming here and finding cute things for cheap! One thing I don't love is how the larger the size of clothes the more expensive the item is. So a 3 month dress may be $2 but 6 month $3 and so forth. Doesn't make much sense to me because when you go to target clothes aren't priced that way.. however, you get a good deal on items! The toy section is a hot mess and they should do a better job with that but they encourage kids to play there while the parents shop so I guess that is what happens. The line can be kind of long when they have good deals or on a Saturday but the staff moves quickly and I've always had a good experience with the staff. I have never sold anything here. Because they sell things for so cheap, i imagine you don't make as much on items when you sell them here. But i'm thankful for the people that do sell to here because i love a good deal! read more

My absolute favorite place to buy baby clothes for my granddaughter!!!!! The prices are very reasonable and the workers are always friendly!!! read more

The staff here are incredibly rude! From those Sorting to the so-called "Store director". They don't but "gently" used clothing, but loads of clothing with obvious holes and rips, or clothing unrsveling. When you let them know, the front counter people don't like that. Very passive aggressive in their response! The store director backs up employees in the wrong way! She didn't stop to listen and needed too many things repeated. Then hangs up because she couldn't handle an issues that shouldn't have escalated to the extent it did. Then, they wouldn't bother looking for the corporate number. They rudely said, google it. Every franchised business has corporate number in their store/ restaurant! No, they just didn't want to bother because they couldn't handle a problem at their level! I highly recommend avoiding this store until they can replace several staff members, especially the problematic store director. Clearly, she is the root of the issues and it's affecting the staff to be rude to customers! read more

This would be a great store WITH ABSOLUTELY different owners and also with different non power hungry managers that will not do anything. I love this store because I don't have to spend so much on baby clothes and you know how quick baby's just grow out of them. I'm probably at this store every other week and getting a bigger sizes and lil toys here and there. I'm never the type to listen to other peoples conversations like that but when you hear so much NO from a manager of a store you get disgusted over time because not only they say no they don't do there jobs nor will they even help. Tbh store is falling apart and I wish the owners would put out an effort to read there reviews because 2.2 rating is reallly crazy especially at a store a lot of people love but hate because of the no soul having owners. I'm happy and obviously really upset like this is my first review on yelp. and some managers that think they could have young adults do all there work is fucked up these kids don't need to be praying to your feet for like 15 or 16 and hour and that's not crazy bad since it's not a big store but these young girls don't need to be pushed whatsoever and I'm sorry I've talk to almost everyone at the store I wish I could remember some names there's absolute angels at this store that are getting mentally drained one of the workers even started to confide to me because she got written up for being late by a min and mind my French but she's told me people get written up for the absolute stupidest shit and I genuinely do remember a name I'm not the one to write reviews like this or put someone on blast but when you treat people like shit you don't deserve to get held back on nor deserve to be a manger it's shameful how you treat your own workers oh the cherry on top the owners also will write you up without skipping a heart beat when you accidentally take a sharpie or a rubber band! I'm so glad I got to hear out most of the girls there because the owner deserve the most shit karma towards them for not treating people like actual human beings absolutely pathetic and shameful owners only the prices and the workers at this store are the only good thing abt it yet they get treated shit so sad read more

Horrid service and a huge rip off. This place used to be a great bargain where parents could basically bring in clothes and get a good deal to shop for more kids' gear. Now it's just a racket where people stand in line for 30 mins to be given a lame excuse as to why they're being offered 50 cents for a bin full of items. The employees don't care about customers, service, or offering any kind of polite exchange either. read more

if you have child clothes you want to sell and get actual money for it don't go here. if you have a lot of stuff they don't go through it all. They take so much for so little money and also they take stuff with out paying you for it. I'm so over it. I used to love once upon a child but it's gone downhill for sure. read more

Let me ask you something. Would you wanna work somewhere that the managers are either always on their phone not doing their own job but barkin at you to do this and that? or a place where every little thing you do gets you wrote up? or a place where the managers and above them don't listen to set schedule changes? you want off for a wedding or a important family event. not the place for you. your at home sick like literally fucking dying. good luck. your sick at work. they'll ask you 17 times after throwing up and see if your still good to work and if your not they get pissy and storm off and go "can you atleast try and find someone to cover your shift" sure okay i'll try. YOU GET BACK TO YOUR FUCKING HOUSE and your next text will be from a manager saying "did you find coverage" and if you either don't answer or say no it's the end of the world. and you might get written up. depends. now talking about covering shifts. YOUR NEVER GONNA GET ONE COVERED. it doesn't exist. you don't find coverage for needing a day of that comes up and you don't give them a good time in between of notice. yeah your not going to that event. your working. you just found out your grandma died. we'll have fun working your 8 hour shift. covering a shift is life or death of your job here. they don't wanna hire people that can work the shifts they fucking need. they'd rather over schedule on days that the managers work but when the keyholders get fucked. they can't get people to work the hours then maybe management needs to pull their head out of their ass and fix the way they treat their employees. demoting a employee THAT HAS RECORDS OF BACK PROBLEMS THAT THEY FUCKING HAVE. slow because of their back problems that management knows about just has visibly now shown that they don't care. telling someone that their gonna get trained to be a keyholder but the training took longer then it was supposed because said employee was "not mature enough" okay but that same person is running the shift that the manager is supposed to be running. counting money in the drawers for you. counting bins for you. making sure everyone is ya know doing their job while management go to the bathroom and go on your phone. BUT YOUR GONNA YELL AT US. "we're just texting the store owners and keyholders" yeah okay there pal. and i have stupid written on my forehead evidently. The managers have shown not once not twice but numerous times that their only concern is the money they get to put in their pockets. listen you can take all this and not give a rats ass but this place needs to either A get new management. or said management needs to start showing that their employees matter just even a little bit to them. and not by buying their love either. okay i'm done for now and if you have any questions feel free to ask the managers their self. but i would not work here even if they were paying me all the money in the world. truly they've made several peoples blood run cold. enjoy! read more

This location sucks and their employees and managers are lazy. I brought in 8 bags and totes of clothes ranging from 6months to 4T. I have 4 kids and just went through some spring cleaning and have sold clothes here multiple times. I brought these in and within an hour they were done and told me the clothes needed to be freshly washed as they smelled like smoke. (I don't even smoke) and i told the associate that and she said they didn't smell clean and to wash and bring them back so i did just that. I washed all of the clothes and folded them nicely and put them back in the container and took it back up to the store the next day. Again, an hour later they are done. Tell me the same thing. The clothes need to be freshly washed some smelled like smoke. I told them again i do not smoke there is no way it could smell that way if i am never around it. I asked the manager of the store to go through some of the bags with me and smell them. She then said they did smell clean and kept trying to give me excuses she handed me a shirt that she said felt sticky. I felt it and didn't feel any difference and handed it to someone else and asked if it felt sticky and they agreed no. So i requested for them to actually go through the bags again thoroughly this time and now they waited until close to say that they are ready but now i have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up. Moral of the story these employees are lazy and don't want to take the time and effort to do their job so they'll refuse perfectly good clothes for no reason. Do not sell your stuff here they will just waste your time. read more

I do like to shop here, but beware if you sell...several times items have gone missing. I had counted my items to sell and after they purchased what they wanted and returned what they did not want, the count was always off. read more

Do not sell your items to this location I drove very far to sell a baby crib I also called before coming to see what all is needed once I arrived I was told to assemble the crib together although they had a guy there then they'll make an offer and if I didn't like the offer to take the crib apart and put it back in the car who has their customers assemble something in a middle of the store very unprofessional very discriminative do not spend your money at this location there is a better one in ballwin. read more

About 90% of what my kids wear comes from here. :) By in large, a pretty clean and organized store. I LOVE that I can shop for all three of my kiddos (different ages/genders) under one roof - such a time saver! Because they outgrow things so fast, I feel good knowing that I'm not paying full retail price and I also like the extra promotions they run, as well as the 20% discount card you are able to earn! Of course anytime you shop at a second-hand store, it sometimes means you may not find exactly what you need every visit, however, I have found that if I try to buy ahead a bit (for the next season and/or size), it helps to avoid this sort of thing. read more

Good news and bad news: Good: They have a store full of bargains, most pretty good condition. Bad news: I have no idea how they have so many items, and why so many people trade them in for NOTHING, donations it seems. for instance, I took 2 HUGE bins full of large sized musical/talking little people toys with matching accessories, 2 Moving imaginext Dinos that worked, a princess ride on toy, and about 50 OUTFITS in great condition, including things like gap winter coat, and also a bag of 5 pairs of toddler shoes in great shape. I couldn't believe it when she told me they could keep just about everything i brought in (a car full of stuff), but would ONLY give me $18 for ALL of it (thats right, $18 for 50 outfits, 5 pairs of shoes, 6 large little people toys with all the pieces, princess ride on toy, etc)! I know they need to make a profit, but that seemed CRAZY to me considering how much i brought in! These little people toys like the LARGE talking animal zoo, they were going to give me $1 for. NO WAY! Those go on Amazon for $70 right now at the cheapest USED! Seriously...i checked! Several other perfect condition little people toys they were going to do the same, give me $1 or less, and i know they would be selling for much more, HUGE profit for them, zero profit for me! ! I nicely said i would like to take them back to sell online. Went home, posted all 6 little people toys for about $10-12 each on FB marketplace, and within 1 hour, all were getting several responses and sold right away for much more than they would give me (I made over $60 off the little people toys alone, when they were going to give me $4 for all of them!). This store seems to think they are doing you a favor and practically taking "donations", well that doesn't work for me. I suspect they are hurting since so many people are selling online now, they used to give you more for items. for example, a couple years ago, i made $60 with them for LESS items, not as bad. Now, with so many people selling online, They cant give you anything for the items anymore, but still try to sell them for the usual, making profit the only way they can now. So, although I don't mind buying things other people have "donated", i wont be selling here anymore at all. Wont even try!! AND, i do have to say at least the staff has been friendly in my experiences. read more

My son has been in the ninja classes next door for a few months and I always see people coming and going from this store. I'd always been hesitant to try based on previous experiences at other locations being dirty and disorganized. I decided to give this store a chance today and am so glad I did. It's huge inside! Very clean with lots of inventory. The clothes are incredibly organized by size, season and styles. The prices and clothes condition was great too! Excited to bring my son back and let him pick out things he would like as the clothes go all the way up to bigger kid sizes. read more

I think this place is way over priced. $4.50 for most of their onesies. No thanks. I could just buy it new. Also don't sell anything to them bc they will give you almost nothing for it. read more

This place is really going down hill, the staff as of late can't seem to be bothered by customers and helping anyone at all, and the manager is aweful, she just spends her time gossiping with all the highschoolers that worl there instead of doing anything a manager should. Where is HR? they should really take a look at their employees and maybe do more training. read more

The staff is always super friendly and they even have a little enclosed play section for my children to play in while I shop. Everytime I run in for one or two items I leave with three or four bags full of clothing! They has a great selection of gently used clothes and their prices are reasonable. read more

Don't bother trying to sell clothes here. I took in 4 boxes and they only bought a few items. They told me most of the other items were outdated. Some of them are older, but the ones they bought were at least 10 years old and they bought none of the clothes that were newer. Some of the stuff they passed on was less than 6 months old with tags. The sales associate was rude as he was checking me out and actually dropped my change on the counter instead of putting it in my hands. He was mad because I was asking about how they choose items. He replied, "we look through the clothes and pick what we will sell and then pay you for them." Even my 5 year old said the store was stinky. I wouldn't bother shopping or trying to sell items here. read more

I shopped here for the first time and will return. The sales help pointed me to the area I needed. I found super bargains. I paid $4.50 for one item and the rest were all $2.50 and less. At the checkout counter the young man was not personable or friendly. I will return for the bargains knowing not to have any expectation for friendly service. read more

I went in to sell some of my daughters clothes she had outgrown. They told me the wait was 3 hours. Which is crazy but I left my stuff there and came back about 3 hours later. When they told me they could only take a couple things (I brought in a huge bag of good condition name brand clothes) They said they only bought items under 12 months in outfits. Which makes no sense because I looked around for a while and they had a ton of under 12 month stuff that was not in an outfit but whatever. And the staff was incredibly rude. When I walked in with my bag the chick who had purple hair didnt even look up or make eye contact. She just mumbled sign in here and its a 3 hour wait but you can leave. And when i came back in the lady who told me what they wanted to take seemed like she was in a huge hurry and rushed me through the whole thing. I wanted to know what they took and how much because I had more I was thinking of bringing in. Not anymore ill just sell them on craigslist. And probably get more (they said they give .30 per onesie no matter the brand!) They just really need to work on customer service and probably need to lower their prices because its practically retail. I know im never going back in to shop or sell! read more