Chinaberry: Reinventing the Wheel

Another key factor is the company’s — and its employees’ — personal bond with their customers, their own jobs and each other. “Often we know when an item could sell well for us,” Kelly says. “But unless it really enriches our own (children’s) lives, we don’t carry it” in the Chinaberry catalog. In choosing products for Chinaberry, she and three other staffers try them out on their own kids before considering including them in the catalog.