Having opened less than a year ago in the beach community of Carpinteria, Calif., Curious Cup children’s bookstore will close on June 30 after losing its current retail space. Owner Kiona Gross has also announced that a one-day sale will be held on June 17, which coincides with the town’s annual Blue Dot Sale.
When Gross moved into the building that houses Curious Cup, she shared the space with a friend who owned an adjacent toy store. Gross moved in without a lease. The friend then sold that business to a new owner, and the landlord decided to allow the toy store, which held the lease, to expand into the bookstore space. Once this happened, Gross said there was no choice but to close.
“Suddenly I had no space anywhere to exist in this building,” Gross explained. “I made a big mistake when I opened the store without a lease. My friend put her business up for sale four months after I moved in, and I had no protection.”
Ironically, this is the first month Curious Cup will show a profit. The store had a loyal customer base, frequent author and illustrator events, and a successful Princess Pamper and Tea Party that included manicures and regular story times.
