ChickenKidz sells baby and children’s clothing, toys and essentials through Sunday at Riverhead’s Polish Hall

Moms and dads with kids in tow from across Long Island will descend on Riverhead’s Polish Hall this weekend for a massive children’s clothing and toy consignment sale.

ChickenKids Consignment Events, a company which hosts bi-annual sales that routinely attract hundreds of parents to the Polish Hall, is hosting their fall sale now through Sunday. 

Twice a year since 2012, Susan Biegner, who founded ChickenKidz, and her team of volunteers have transformed the community space into a massive children’s department store. This year, they’ve stuffed the hall with nearly 60,000 items.

The shop carries clothes suitable for infants through preteens, shoes up to size 5, toys, bikes, cribs, car seats, puzzles, video games, books, DVDs and sporting equipment. This fall sale featured plenty of long sleeve shirts, jackets and coats suitable for the winter months. Ms. Biegner explained this is intentional, and that her spring sales boast clothes best suited for the warmer months.

“They’re buying for Christmas and birthdays,” she said Thursday evening in between ringing up customers. “They’re getting an entire season’s worth of clothes and toys and books and everything they could possibly need.”

The shop will remain open until 4 p.m. on Friday, as well as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.

The company hosted special sales for expecting mothers, first responders and its volunteers who make the sale possible Tuesday, then reopened Thursday to the general public. On Thursday, the group granted the general public early access for food and monetary donations for food pantries and children’s charities.

Around 350 families across the island sell their children’s clothing and toys through ChickenKidz, Ms. Biegner said. Sellers price their own items, enter them into the company’s online inventory, tag them and drop them off at the Polish Hall. Then Ms. Biegner and her team get to work.

“Everything’s sorted by size and gender,” she explained. “Infant toys are downstairs, we have a tent outside that has strollers and Pack N’ Plays and bikes. We have everything, sporting equipment, DVDs.”

Ms. Biegner said that families who come from across Long Island purchase around 80% of the items in the Polish Hall each year. Whatever is leftover after the shop closes on Sunday, she added, is picked up by three charitable groups: The Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation (CAST) in Southold, St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church and the Church of St. Rosalie in Hampton Bays.

Ms. Biegner said the birth of her third child inspired her to start ChickenKidz.

“I have two boys, and I had a girl … And girls are expensive,” she explained. “Like other people back then, I was buying off Craigslist. Your third child, nobody buys you anything.

“These sales are actually popular in the South,” she added of her inspiration. “I said ‘I can do that.’ I always love a bargain, I love a treasure hunt, I love a coupon. We started off with about 10,000 items and it’s grown to 60,000.”

The biannual consignment event has attracted a following of repeat customers over the past decade.

“It’s great sales and everything is clean,” Yanina Tineo, who owns Bright & Early Discoveries Learning Center in Riverhead, said of what brings her back year-after-year. “I have a son as well, so I get clothes for him. I get things to make the [daycare] look nice, outdoor furniture, playsets. They’re so sweet here.”

Caroll Andrade, who shopped Thursday evening alongside her two daughters, Nataliee, 14 and Mia, 7, said she became a ChickenKidz seller herself. Over the years, she has purchased clothing, shoes, and a pretend kitchen playset and even a crib through the consignment event.

“Now that the price of everything is going up, it helps us save money,” she said. “You can’t beat the deals that you find here, it’s just amazing.”

This year, Ms. Andrade purchased a new doll house for a visibly excited Mia, whose smile lit up the tent where the volunteers hand off larger, big-ticket items.

“That is why we do it,” longtime ChickenKidz volunteer Heather Gauger said, looking at Mia bounce in place. “Stuff like that makes you want to come back, it’s extremely rewarding.”