City Sprouts, on the Delmar Loop

Facing austere unemployment figures and a looming budget deficit, Gov-elect. Jay Nixon picked an unlikely backdrop to introduce his choice to the lead the Department of Economic Development: the delightfully pacifying pastels of City Sprouts, a kids clothing store in University City.

The Delmar Loop stores sells hip threads and accessories for the onesie and stroller set. (”A place you’d shop for yourself if you were a baby,” the website proclaims.)

City Sprouts is a small business — a key component of Nixon’s economic agenda — but how did the infant haberdashery got picked as the spot for Nixon to introduce St. Louis lawyer Linda Martinez as his top economic aide?

A Nixon aide had previously visited City Sprouts and liked it so much she reached out to Blueberry Hill proprietor Joe Edwards — the unofficial mayor of the Loop who also happens to be the store landlord — about holding a press conference at the shop.

Not only did the event help the boutique get some free pub, but it also got them a customer. Outgoing State Rep. Jeff Harris, Nixon’s new policy director, bought a book — something about a duck? — for his young daughter.