Nithya Mani, a human-resource professional turned mompreneur, put her son on a regular diet of books when he turned three. She found a steady source of reading material: Wholesale used-books markets. Nithya also did not face any difficulty selling the books his son had outgrown.
ADVERTISEMENT
What started off as a mama’s effort to keep her child off gadgets and gather useful knowledge outside the classroom has culminated in Kiddiwinks, a store that supplies second-hand children’s books at the customer’s doorsteps.
They are priced from ₹20 to ₹1200 at nearly one-fourth the price of new books, says Nithya, a Pallikaranai resident. An added feature, one particularly favourable to zentennials: Novelty books, which include audiobooks, board books and pop-up books. These interactive books can be ordered online from Kiddiwinks.
Nithya runs the enterprise with a small warehouse in Pallavaram and a battery of six assistants who attend to customer support, procurement, logistics and delivery.
“There is so much that a child can pick up from a simple picture or storybook. It is definitely something that parents and schools should look into,” says Nithya. Kiddiwinks has also launched its own interactive line of learning resources for children. Their Instagram handle is @kiddiwinks_official