01/22/2024
Hello our loyal customers, we regret to inform everyone that due to a dispute with the landlord that happened when we first opened she has non renewed our lease. 😞 Because this is such a tight community we know that many will be disappointed when they see we are no longer here. So we feel it only fair to bring light to what happened and share our side of the story.
When we first moved into our space we put 8k in flooring down. After our first season we noticed that the floors were starting to feel soft. By September the floors were so bad it felt like you could fall through them. We asked the landlord Val Story, Scarborough Faire Shopping Village in Duck, NC to please fix them. We had a couple contractors come look at them and it was determined that they were molding from underneath due to poor ventilation and moisture. The landlord refused to do the repairs and in March we had to involve the Town of Duck to come violate the landlord in order to get the repairs done. Once the citation was issued our floors were ripped out and replaced. This cost us 8k in flooring and the loss of business between January-middle of June. We also had to remove all of our inventory and racks and it took time and money to do this. However it wasn’t a peaceful transaction and caused contention between us and the landlord for the 3 years we were there. This was a completely unfair situation and caused us to lose a lot of motivation and happiness in our space. Not to mention the space was still moldy smelling. That year we made less than half of what we made our first year.
Unfortunately and as we expected the landlord gave us a non renewal notice because she was harboring ill will towards us for our involvement in the town of Duck, and for having to spend the money to replace the rotten floors. We had no choice to do this though because we would not have been able to open for the summer or 2022 had the floors not been replaced.
So what do we do now? We are not sure. We are considering opening in another space in Duck if we can find one, or just running our store online until further notice. We still have tons of inventory and this will be a total loss if we are unable to sell it online or set up another shop in another location. Lastly we would like to thank you all for your generous support and coming to see us every year of your vacation for the great three years we were able to operate in our space. Great because of our customers, not great due to the floors and the unfortunate predicament we found ourselves in by being essentially backed into a corner to get them to act.
Thank you again and again for your patronage and support. ❤️
Our website is www.sandcastlekidsobx.shop
Use code CLOSED30 for 30 percent off any order.
Located in the quaint and sunny beach town of Duck, North Carolina, Sandcastle Kids brings fashion and fun for your kids to the beach! Forgot your kids pajamas, bathing suit, or just want to grab a gift for the special kids in your life back home, we have you covered!
