No batteries required
Downtown store specializes in eco-friendly toys for eco-friendly kids
The police tried to shut their store down in the first six weeks it was open back in 1997 because of the smoking paraphernalia it sold.
But the community rallied behind Stephane and Nycki Delisle, and Hempware stayed open.
The store has expanded since then with two more St. John’s locations, Eco-Wise and Flower Child. All the stores adhere to the same ethos of locally made, ecofriendly products.
Most of the merchandise sold at Hempware is made at EcoWise, a wholesale company the Delisles own.
“We’re totally local — all the material comes in and it’s made in downtown St. John’s,” Nycki said. “We try to carry nothing that was made in China.”
Originally, Hempware carried children’s toys, but the line grew and grew until a new store had to be opened to meet the demand.
“We decided to branch it out and make it its own identity, its own store,” Stephane said.
The goal of the toy line was to entertain kids without tablets or TV. Not a single toy in the store requires a battery. If there is any plastic in the toy, it’s recycled. Everything else is either wood or cloth, and all the toys are made in North America.
“Buying Christmas toys for the kids that needed eight batteries to run was ridiculous,” Stephane said.
The Delisles have great consultants to draw on, too: their own daughters. When they were too old for the toys in the store, Nycki asked their 11-year-old what she’d like to see.
“I got her to sit down with me and search for new product on the Internet,” Nycki said. “We found stuff she would be into.”
The Delisles say family is their most important priority — finding harmony between making money and spending quality time with the kids.
Every year they carve out four weeks so they can all go on a trip. The family recently returned from a backpacking trip in Nicaragua.
“Our business works for us, we don’t work for our business,” Nycki said.
They say their employees are a big part of their success. Most of them have been there long-term, and it takes a lot for them to call in sick, Stephane said.
“We have awesome employees,” he said. “We’re definitely fortunate.”