'Knucklebones' opening at 200 Elm St (where Caning Shoppe was, across from Posto)

[ron_newman]

Signs in the window of 200 Elm Street say:

Knucklebones
for the love of play!

Opening October 2011

Knucklebones retail store and play spaces will be Greater Boston's most unique and developmentally appropriate venue for athletic products and programming for infants and young children. The store, purveying athletically inclined products and picture books, will allow children to try each product and allow parents, care givers and friends to handle each product and see the color range offered.

Two spaces, known as The Yard, a 30'x40' green space; and The Bowl, a 20'x20' indoor space, will allow all our clients to test and experience each product. In addition, these spaces will be available for planned programming.

www.Knucklebones.us

Hey, I didn't write this ad copy, I'm just reproducing it here. I guess it's some sort of fancy toy store crossed with an indoor playground. The web site makes them sound more like an event planner, and doesn't even mention a retail store.

Meanwhile, The Caning Shoppe has moved to a much smaller space down the road at 55 Elm Street, next to Big Fish Little Fish. I think that space was a used bookstore for about 20 minutes.

Comments

[ron_newman]

yeah I don't quite grok that either.

[teko.livejournal.com]

From what I gather, they started as a group that provided recreational team-building-type of events for businesses and schools, and are now opening a retail store combined with event space. From the list of brands on their site, it sounds like they'll have everything from bikes and skateboards to infant toys. http://www.knucklebones.us/Retail.html

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

Unless I'm misremembering, Knucklebones currently has a storefront on Summer Street just on the Union Square side of the intersection with School St. - sort of hard to tell looking at that storefront exactly what their niche was, but the website and the description of spaces and events helps clear that up.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

"55 Elm Street, next to Big Fish Little Fish. I think that space was a used bookstore for about 20 minutes."

Kingston, NY to Somerville to Los Angeles -- those three geese get around!

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Kingston, NY to Somerville to Los Angeles -- those three geese get around!

Sure, they're migratory. It's only the east-west route that's surprising.

[ceo]

I wonder how many people have walked into the Caning Shoppe and been horribly disappointed.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed when they didn't have the basic caning supplies I needed, and then didn't mail them in a reasonable amount of time. But when I called to ask what happened, the owner was very apologetic and said he'd just fired a bad employee, and mailed the stuff right away.

(Yes, I know this isn't what you meant.)

[kjc.livejournal.com]

"I think that space was a used bookstore for about 20 minutes."

Yep. Three Geese or something. And then it was a real estate shop for another 20 minutes (you blinked & missed it).

[nurrynur.livejournal.com]

It was an Apartment Rental Experts location for about 2 weeks. I was very confused. Now they seem to be just across the street from there, and a tiny bit down towards the starbucks/gas station etc.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

The same one? Because there's been an apartment rental place across the street & down next to the oil place for almost a decade.

[notnatalie.livejournal.com]

I chatted with the extremely enthusiastic owner, apparently they do/used to do programming for children's events and organizations encouraging children in outdoor activity (if this sounds strange to you, you would be shocked at how some urban kids don't even know how to just run around and play outdoors any more, according to some teacher friends) They were often asked by parents where they got their equipment from, and it began to occur to them that they should maybe expand their business and start selling it instead of referring all the business away to other retail sites. Or something like that. Anyhow they seem eager to be an asset to the community. I think they want to use the parking lot next door for community-friendly events like outdoor movies.