A Hop, a Skip and a Jump to Hopscotch

On Monday, August 23, Hopscotch opened in its much-anticipated new location at 174 Maplewood Avenue. The popular Maplewood children's furniture and gift boutique had spent the last four years in the second-floor space above Freeman's Fish Market.

The new Maplewood Village location looks like a mainstay in the making. First of all, it's four times the size of the former location and bursting with beautifully displayed merchandise. Secondly—along with Little One & Co.—it is targeted at a market that seems to be large and growing in Maplewood. That is, mothers and their infants and small children. The store not only offers gifts for sale, but clothing, toys, accessories and everything you need to decorate a child's room.

"It's great," Kevin Barron, husband of owner and artist Bernadette Malizia Barron, told Patch in July. "It's been going nice up there, but she's just thrilled to be down, to do a proper store in the center of the village."

The new store is much more convenient to moms-with-strollers traffic, a market segment that found it difficult to navigate a second-floor location.

It is a move that Julie Doran, of the Maplewood Village Alliance, told Patch would work in Hopscotch's favor.

"Having a street level location is generally preferable for retail and food service establishments," she said. "Store fronts and windows are an important part of the advertising mix for these establishments and a street level location allows them to maximize this medium."

Hopscotch has a new phone number—973-327-3227—and new store hours—Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed on Sundays). But you can find updated information on merchandise, contacts and hours at the same web address: http://www.hopscotchathome.com/