‘It’s become an adult’: Baby2Kids closing after 21 years of providing Tassie parents with choice

The Bellerive baby store has helped countless new parents over two decades, but now the couple behind Baby2Kids have made the tough decision to close. Here’s why.

Nick and Trish Dellas the owners of store Baby2Kids at Rosny Park are closing down after 21 years. They are holding a story from The Mercury from when they first opened. Picture: Linda Higginson

Since 2003 Nick and Trish Dellas have been supplying Tasmanian families with the high quality service and items they missed out on with their first baby.

“We were new parents and we thought there has to be more than this in Hobart,” Mrs Dellas said after making the announcement their independent Baby2Kids store would be closing its doors after 21 years.

“We are putting Baby2Kids to bed, it’s become an adult.”

She said the couple wanted to bring the high quality products to Tasmania that new families were seeing interstate or, in the days before online shopping — the magazines.

“We were trying to find things that were timeless or could service one or two children or more, and something a bit more updated,” Mrs Dellas said.

“There really was not a lot of choice.”

Nick and Trish Dellas the owners of store Baby2Kids at Rosny Park are closing down after 21 years. Picture: Linda Higginson

After their second baby came along, the couple wanted to help other parents find high quality items and information about products after struggling to find an appropriate pram.

“It was really to bring more quality products into Tasmania, and give great customer service as well because there wasn’t great customer service in baby shops back then either,” she said.

“People were spending a lot of money and investing a lot of time to try and find information and even we couldn’t find it, we didn’t have a clue.”

When the doors first opened at 120 Cambridge Rd Bellerive, the couple was “flawed” by the support, as they were expecting a relaxed environment where their two children could hang out in the back room while the parents worked.

“We were so busy from the get go,” Mrs Dellas said.

“People just welcomed us because there were different products and newer products.”

She said the store brought in several types of prams that had never previously been sold in Tasmania.

Since opening, the store has serviced several generations of families in some cases, with children growing into parents themselves and returning to shop at the store.

Mrs Dellas said it was sadly closing at the end of the year due to external pressures.

She said the foot traffic in the store had dramatically reduced over the years, and with price matching and shipping fees they could not stay competitive online against the big retailers.

Mrs Dellas said despite a cohort of loyal customers in its final years the store became like a “resource centre” with customers coming in for information and then going off to buy items somewhere a bit cheaper.

Since the closure announcement, old and new customers alike have wished the couple well on their next venture.

After a big sale leading up to the store’s final day on December 31, the couple said they would spend time with their now grown-up kids, hoping to co-ordinate a family holiday after working “every day except Sunday” for the past 21 years.