CONTRIBUTED BY JOELLE YAMADA

“Sell so much, your kids think they are next.”  — Advise from financial wizard, Dave Ramsey

With PCSing looming large on the horizon for us, I’ve begun to spring clean.  Or, well, cleaning has very little to do with it, I guess.  It’s more a purge and discard sort of process.  Along with other things, I’ve been going through the kid’s clothes and making four piles titled: orphanage, flea market, trash, and Happiness.

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Happiness is a shop near the seawall where kid’s clothing can be bought AND sold.  Twice now, I have gone with my bins filled with the nicest of our outgrown clothes, and have left happy with some nice change in my pocket.

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It’s a delightful little store with beautiful clothing priced for those of us on a budget.  She takes Gymboree, Old Navy, Gap, OshKosh, Cherokee, Carters and other nicer brand items.  The majority of her clothes are 4T and under, but she has a couple of racks for up to size 10 or so.  And if I had a daughter old enough, I would SO grab this hippie rainbow size 8 skirt!

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There is no parking out front, so I parked on the next side street and walked back with my plastic totes of clothes.  She told me I could come back later or just wait about 30-45 minutes.  The first time I waited (which meant I found cute CUTE things to buy) and the second time, I took the kids down to the Dolphin Park and returned later.

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As she looks through your clothes, she places things in piles by the amount she can pay you for it.  There were a few 3-piece outfits that I got 800 yen for, but most centered from 200-400 yen.  Then you can remove things you don’t want to sell and then she totals everything and pays you RIGHT THEN in yen. FABULOUS.

I found the experience to be MUCH more peaceful and MUCH less stressful than flea market selling and I would highly recommend it as your kids outgrow their clothes.  I would also recommend it for shopping as she’s got lots of lovely American clothes that you don’t have to wait on slow shipping or pay full price for!

Happiness Kid’s Clothing Store

Hours:  Open Monday to Friday from 1:00pm to 4:30pm
NOTE: Happiness only accepts clothes for consignment on Thursdays and Fridays.

Address: 〒904-0113 Okinawa-ken, Nakagami-gun, Chatan-chō, Miyagi, 1−273

GPS Coordinates: 26.3285403, 127.74609550000002

Directions:  Leaving Gate 1 Kadena, turn left.  Immediate right at the light to go down to the seawall.  At the last light (the same one for Coffee Casa) turn LEFT.  Happiness is down a bit on the right.  Almost across from the post office.

28 COMMENTS

  1. One more great place to visit is ScavengeInc.com. They have a wide selection of halloween costumes for children. There you can find a perfect variety of teen and infant halloween costumes. In addition, they offer same-day shipping so you’ll have your Halloween Costume before anyone else!

  2. There are 2 stores that I know of…
    One right near McT on Rt 8. I haven’t been in there but looks good enough. There is another one that I just tried out this weekend on 85, a kilometer or two north of Comprehensive Park. (It’s on the right, if you’re driving north.) I sold a garbage bag of boys clothes and got 5000 yen which I think was a great price. I had pre-sorted clothes into 2 piles: name brand clothes that I thought Japanese would want and then clothes that were in good condition but not gap, old navy, carters, etc. I sold the name brand and then donated the other clothes to the thrift stores. Don’t forget the thrift stores because they do great charity work with their profits!!

  3. Yep, they have closed. My friends and I learned of this from a friend before she left the island…shortly after this article hit she was done with her store. So sad. I loved that place and made decent money there. I sent several people there too.

  6. I am so bummed to read that the store is closing. I have tons of baby boy clothes that are taking up space and was hoping to bring them here. We tried the flea market thing, but that was more of a nightmare than anything and we didn’t get much sold. I was planning on gathering up the clothes and coming here next. 🙁 My prayers do go out to the owner and her family though.

  8. She called me on the 6th of July because I had turned in some clothes and needed to pick up the money. She said that her grandfather had died and she was going to be out for a few days and I should call before I go to her shop. Somehow I lost her cell phone number though and still need to finish this transaction. If anyone has her cell phone number please let me know.

    So, I dont know if her signs means temporarily because of her grandfather or is this a permanent thing.

  9. There is a website link at the end of the article.
    The site has a note at the bottom of the homepage.
    Here is an online translation:

    * This time, Happiness is now proud to terminate its operations in stores.
    Thank you.
    In the future, in the Internet, we do sell the stock.
    July 7 , 2010

    So it appears that the store has indeed closed.

  10. I went down to the store to check things out after I read Lilly’s post….and I have stuff I wanted to sell as well. I went by right around 5pm and I stopped in front of the building and was reading the sign she had posted when the owner (I think) walked out. I have been in the store once before and sold some clothes and she helped me. She walked around to my window and said something along the lines of “Sorry, I am quitting…..for family” I didn’t quite understand, but she was very kind about it and apologized….I thanked her for her time and for buying clothes that I had dropped off to her before. So, I guess she really is going out of business?

  11. Lilly – Did you try the door? I only ask because I’ve gone by when she’s had that sign out but it just meant she had an overload of one type of clothes. I had older boys clothes and she invited me in and purchased most of them. There’s another store here by Courtney that very rarely has a sign out saying they buy kids clothes but I don’t have any details on it. I’ll see what I can find, as I’ve got a bunch I want to get rid of. I just hate dealing with OYS for clothes and would rather donate them to the thrift store.

  12. I think this store must be closed now? I went by today at 2:00 and there was a sign that said, “I will quit this store. I can no longer buy your clothing.” I can’t seem to find a phone number that works to call and ask. Does anyone know of any other kids’ consignment stores on the island?

  15. I stopped by yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by how much I got for a not-so-large box of baby girl clothes. The ladies there were so nice! I plan on going back after my daughter outgrows her next batch of clothes.

  17. I went here today and was pleased to have a portion of my clothes accepted at a reasonable exchange price. Some of the items I was a little surprised that she didn’t take but on the other hand surprised that she did take some and for a good price. A couple items – Spiderman, Nike were higher exchange. Some of the shirts I thought would be higher exchange (Old Navy, Sean Paul) only 100y. So it is nice to decide which ones to go ahead and exchange or to take back home. I also was surprised she didn’t take any shorts=(except for the Spiderman, Nike). Maybe not the brands she was looking for? All in all, easy one stop without hassle. Thank you Joelle for this write-up and best wishes to you and your family.

  19. What a great post!! Is this also close to Park Avenue and the kimono store? I feel like I used to drive by this store everyday, but never walked in. I missed out on a lot!! Thanks for sharing. I wish there is a store like that here. I either give away clothes to my friends or take it to a donation bin.

  23. I never would have known this store existed. I hate dealing with OYS and the flea market so I usually wind up giving my kids’ outgrown clothing away. I will save the nicer outfits now and bring them in to Happiness. Thanks