Cholly & Waldo's is More than Just Quality Children's Clothing

In addition to providing long-lasting quality items for children, Alex Lesser's vision for Cholly & Waldo's is to provide an oasis for parents. Lesser, a Keene native and resident, opened her store at 39 Central Square in September, in the space formerly occupied by Creative Ink Tattoo Studio (that business moved to Roxbury Street). The dominant inventory in her retail store is premium kids' clothing and toys — and her focus is heavy on keeping children occupied while their parents browse the shop. In addition to a play area with a tent right inside the door, there is a back room in the space where Lesser plans to lead kids' craft activities like Valentine and holiday ornament-making. She also offers every child a bag that contains a paper airplane, lollipop and coloring supplies. "For moms, shopping is about keeping their child content," said Lesser. "A lot of my goal here is to ease parents' minds. It's nice to check in with moms (especially) because they can sometimes be in a dark and twisty area (of motherhood), which is normal. But moms won't bring it up." Lesser, who is targeting children ranging from newborns to about age 6, speaks from experience: she has four kids aged 2 to 9. "I've been dressing kids for a while," she said. "The knowledge I have I put into the store." What she considers important is offering quality clothing and toys, so parents can spend once and pass the items down to their younger children — and the younger children can have that experience of receiving hand-me-down toys and clothing. In addition to newer items, Lesser hopes to build up the shop's inventory by supplying up-cycled clothing for sale, for which she finds fabric from used clothing and sews it onto other clothing. Not only is this a unique product line, her hope is that it might allow younger kids some individuality in their clothing and avoid having families pick the same clothing for different kids at local chain stores, leading to children with matching outfits. "Kids barely wear clothing, and it's expensive" she said, before they outgrow it or it wears out, usually quickly. "I have three boys. I buy the top-quality name brand item for the first kid and it gets handed all the way down." Among the carefully-selected clothing brands she carries (some of which she said are popular) are Kyte Baby (bamboo clothing), Lou Lou and Company (bamboo blankets), Binkybro (hats, sportswear), and Quincy Mae (organic clothing). "Quincy Mae has the vibe I built my store around," said Lesser. "Their clothing comes in neutrals with pops of color." Local brands she offers include Dotbean Kids' Clothes (based in Swanzey) and Birch and Stone jewelry (based in Surry); and toy brands include Jelly Cats (a plush toy company based in England) and Coco Village (wooden toys). She said she has wanted to open Cholly & Waldo's downtown since about the time gift shop Ingenuity Country Store closed in Central Square in 2016 on the same block. It created a vacancy on her mother's property, as Lesser was privately developing the concept for the children's store. That retail space is now occupied by Concord MedSpa at Keene, which moved there in 2020 from Main Street. Lesser continued exploring several other retail spaces in the Keene area that had become vacant over the years. However, having more children kept her from moving forward with her plans. Then, when Creative Ink opted to end its lease, which was due to expire in 2025 early and moved to Roxbury Street, she felt like it was time to materialize her business idea. Instead of opening in 2025, she had to open in 60 days. Lesser also manages The Pour House and residential apartments in the same building block, which is owned by her mother, Dorrie Masten. The store's two names — which Lesser said she meant to be playful — come from her 2-year-old daughter Charlotte (Charlie's) pronunciation of her own name, and from a friend of Lesser's named Waldo, who's helped Lesser raise her children from time to time when she needed mental breaks. "She loves being Waldo," said Lesser of her best friend, Maddie.