WHO IS KAOS KIDS: THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE BUSINESSJune 28, 2021NewsKaos Kids, Owner – Marie-Louise Towers
Written by Stacy Thomas
Photography by Angela Bliss Photography
“When you become a parent, a lot of what you do revolves around your kids,” says Marie-Louise Towers. It’s something that you hear a lot, and in her case, she took it to the extreme when she purchased Kaos Kids eight years ago and plunged herself into the world of everything kids.
“Maybe it was to do with the time of life I was in,” she says; with two kids at ages five and three, she was already immersed in the kid life, and when she heard that Kaos Kids was for sale, she thought it had potential to grow. She was right.
Previously Towers had been working in office administration, but she began to feel the call of retail again—she spent most of her twenties in retail and even managed the cosmetics department at Shopper’s Drug Mart.
“I missed the friendliness and the feeling like part of the town, that I got when I worked retail, but I didn’t really see myself going back to a frontline position. I have a pretty strong work ethic, sometimes you put all your hard work into things and it’s not always really benefitting you. I was at a place where I thought okay, if I’m going to work this hard, I might as well do something that’s benefitting me.”
So she purchased the store and hasn’t had a chance to take a breath since.
“I definitely jumped in with both feet,” she says. Eight years later, she’s still full on, focused on curating the right products, following up on customer requests and trying to keep everything in stock – since the pandemic hit, her biggest challenge has been sourcing products and keeping the shelves overflowing with what the community needs to raise its children.
“There are supply issues everywhere,” she says. “I’m lucky that I have a very loyal customer following and that people are so supportive, and they understand the challenges.”
One reason for this undying customer loyalty may be the feeling of family that Towers has worked to build since opening the store. For her, the most important thing is having the best possible customer service.
“We’ve got a great, friendly, upbeat, passionate team that is always trying to support each other. We call ourselves a family business even though not everyone here is family. As a staff we feel like we are family to each other.” And with her sister and even an actual “Grandma” on staff, it really is like a family and you can feel it as soon as you walk in the doors – a fact that Towers is most proud of.
Born and raised in Squamish, Towers has seen lots of change come to her hometown. But the downtown core still feels like that small town hub, and it’s one reason why she loves being here.
“It feels like it’s the heart of Squamish. People congregate here – they come down, they’re getting the mail and doing some shopping….it feels like it’s the heart. I definitely would like to thank our customers for their loyalty over the last year and a bit. We’ve all been going through Covid, but they’ve continued to support us.”
With a new website in the works that will finally allow her customers all up and down the Sea to Sky and beyond to have Kaos Kids products delivered, Towers is ready to face the future.
“It’s a pretty daunting task. People are always asking why we don’t have a website, but they don’t understand how many things we have. At any given time we have between five and six thousand items in our store. So to set up a website is not as simple as putting 200 items on a website. But we’re doing it, finally.”
Kaos Kids, Owner – Marie-Louise Towers
Written by Stacy Thomas
Photography by Angela Bliss Photography
“When you become a parent, a lot of what you do revolves around your kids,” says Marie-Louise Towers. It’s something that you hear a lot, and in her case, she took it to the extreme when she purchased Kaos Kids eight years ago and plunged herself into the world of everything kids.
“Maybe it was to do with the time of life I was in,” she says; with two kids at ages five and three, she was already immersed in the kid life, and when she heard that Kaos Kids was for sale, she thought it had potential to grow. She was right.
Previously Towers had been working in office administration, but she began to feel the call of retail again—she spent most of her twenties in retail and even managed the cosmetics department at Shopper’s Drug Mart.
“I missed the friendliness and the feeling like part of the town, that I got when I worked retail, but I didn’t really see myself going back to a frontline position. I have a pretty strong work ethic, sometimes you put all your hard work into things and it’s not always really benefitting you. I was at a place where I thought okay, if I’m going to work this hard, I might as well do something that’s benefitting me.”
So she purchased the store and hasn’t had a chance to take a breath since.
“I definitely jumped in with both feet,” she says. Eight years later, she’s still full on, focused on curating the right products, following up on customer requests and trying to keep everything in stock – since the pandemic hit, her biggest challenge has been sourcing products and keeping the shelves overflowing with what the community needs to raise its children.
“There are supply issues everywhere,” she says. “I’m lucky that I have a very loyal customer following and that people are so supportive, and they understand the challenges.”
One reason for this undying customer loyalty may be the feeling of family that Towers has worked to build since opening the store. For her, the most important thing is having the best possible customer service.
“We’ve got a great, friendly, upbeat, passionate team that is always trying to support each other. We call ourselves a family business even though not everyone here is family. As a staff we feel like we are family to each other.” And with her sister and even an actual “Grandma” on staff, it really is like a family and you can feel it as soon as you walk in the doors – a fact that Towers is most proud of.
Born and raised in Squamish, Towers has seen lots of change come to her hometown. But the downtown core still feels like that small town hub, and it’s one reason why she loves being here.
“It feels like it’s the heart of Squamish. People congregate here – they come down, they’re getting the mail and doing some shopping….it feels like it’s the heart. I definitely would like to thank our customers for their loyalty over the last year and a bit. We’ve all been going through Covid, but they’ve continued to support us.”
With a new website in the works that will finally allow her customers all up and down the Sea to Sky and beyond to have Kaos Kids products delivered, Towers is ready to face the future.
“It’s a pretty daunting task. People are always asking why we don’t have a website, but they don’t understand how many things we have. At any given time we have between five and six thousand items in our store. So to set up a website is not as simple as putting 200 items on a website. But we’re doing it, finally.”
