Business

HEY MOMMY! I LIKE THAT STORE, NOW DROP $75K

Madison Avenue’s poshest shops are rolling out the red carpet to entice deep-pocketed shoppers – and neighborhood toddlers are crawling all over it.

While shopkeepers on Madison Avenue are more used to moms in Manolos jumping out of Town Cars for monstrous credit-card binges, they are recognizing a new reality: many moms have traded stilettos for strollers.

But instead of shunning the stroller set, like many upscale shops in the city do, these Madison Avenue stores, like Jimmy Choo, Cartier and Bulgari, are hosting face-painting, story-telling, sing-alongs and other kid-friendly events in hopes of getting the upscale stroller set into the stores to see the merchandise.

The hope is that mom will return without the stroller – and with her charge card. And the plan seems to be working.

“Catering to kids pays off,” says Georgia Kaufmann, the co-owner of Kaufmann de Suisse, a pricey jewelry store.

“One father came in with one child, then came back with the whole family and bought his wife a $75,000 sapphire ring. He liked the family environment,” said Kaufmann, who often brings her two-year-old, Lulu – and two-week old, Massimo – to the boutique.

Kaufmann is not the only store to realize there are sales to be made to the stroller set. Recently, a mom brought her two-year old into the Jimmy Choo store only to find the toddler, minutes later, stomping around the store inside a pair of $800 heels.

Instead of a panicked reaction, the staff laughed and helped her try on another pair.

“Moms need to be and should be treated equally now that we’re moms with strollers,” said Lyss Stern, who is at the center of the Madison Avenue mother’s climate change.

Stern established Divalysscious Moms a few years ago, in part, to warm shops hearts toward kids.

Earlier this month, the group ran its third annual Moms on Madison event in conjunction with Cookie magazine.

“We still want to keep in touch with our “Sex and the City” side after our children are born,” Stern said.