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The death of the brick and mortar toy store

158 points by speckx

by kurttheviking

28 subcomments

I own a reasonably well performing indie bookstore. I've noticed for the model to work you need a critical mass of other local shops clustered to make the trip an experience for families and diverse tastes. My working theory is that three of such small businesses are sufficient and could operate well with a common inventory strategy and manager (e.g. a bookstore, a toy store, and a tea or candy shop...nothing that spoils in the very short term). When I've got a bit more time I want to try that idea and see if it works as a way to revitalize otherwise charming old downtown areas with vacant retail space and communities wishing to bring back their main street. Giving this idea away in case anyone else has tried or wants to try sooner than me and report back.

by alex_young

2 subcomments

I live in a town of fewer than 8k people. Our local toy store is not only thriving, it’s central to the community.
People would rather shop there than go online. Why? Because they are a part of the community.
At every farmer’s market or community event they have a booth giving out free glitter tattoos to children, and they employ several teenagers part time to wrap gifts (of course this is free too), apply tattoos, and help out in the store.
This isn’t a unique concept. Going the extra mile and doing seemingly unreasonably nice things wins you customers and loyalty.

by strict9

3 subcomments

My experience in a large US city is surprisingly the opposite. The toy stores I visit are doing great. I suspect this is is because a large portion of their business is for birthday parties.
I assumed many or most were gone because of Amazon. But after having kids and getting gifts for birthday parties, I've learned there are a lot of them and they are doing healthy business. Almost always a line on weekends.
Many or most in line take advantage of free gift wrap because they're on their way to a party.
In many ways it is more convenient than Amazon because you're going out anyway, why not get it at the last second with careful gift wrapping.
But even a recent trip to the suburbs surprised me. The Lego store in the mall had a velvet rope and long line of kids waiting to get in. I had never seen anything like this and apparently it is usually this busy.

by Andy_Donner

2 subcomments

My grandmother used to take me to Toys R Us for my birthday every year for exactly this reason — she didn't want to guess what I wanted, she wanted to watch me choose. Walking around that store and seeing what the toys looked like in person was something I looked forward to for days. You can't recreate that with an Amazon wishlist.

by patwolf

1 subcomments

Just last week, I was with one of my kids trying to kill some time before an appointment. I noticed a toy store in a strip mall, and I asked him if he wanted to check it out. His response was, "What's a toy store?"
We did check it out, and he was pretty disappointed. Even though it was advertised as a STEM-oriented store, half of it was stress balls and jigsaw puzzles.

by marcus_holmes

2 subcomments

In the early 2000's I visited my sister's family in Australia. Hadn't seen them for a few years. I took the kids to Toys'r'us and gave them $200 each to spend. It was the best $400 I've ever spent in my life. They still talk about it.
Somehow giving $200 of Amazon credit doesn't feel the same :(

by bartread

4 subcomments

In the UK at least a big part of the problem for all high street retail is high fixed costs.
High rents for "prime" locations that, given the trend over the last 25 years, are no longer very prime, coupled with high business rates set by central government make it incredibly hard to make any money. And that's even before thinking about staff, where cover is no doubt needed at a higher concentration per square foot than warehouse based businesses.
Couple that with increases in minimum wage[0] and employer NI, and taking into account inflation and cost of living in recent years, and a lot of formerly workable retail businesses have simply been rendered non-viable.
[0] Which, by the way, I have no quarrel with.

by TrackerFF

1 subcomments

Many years ago I found myself unemployed, and had a year where I pretty much took any job I could find. One of these were in a sorting facility for one of the largest shipping / postal companies.
On my first day, the very first thing I noticed was how a select few companies / online stores accounted for something like 80% of ALL the shipment that came through the facility: Clothes (with Zalando probably making up half of the shipments, just an endless stream of Zalando shipments...), make-up, and baby / kids toy stores. The last one kind of took me off guard, but then again, local toy stores have been dying for years.

by skipkey

2 subcomments

The Barnes and Noble bookstore I occasionally shop at has a second floor that is about half full of nothing but games, legos, puzzles. I honestly think they sell more of that than books these days.

by zabzonk

2 subcomments

Back when I was a kid in the smallish UK city of Lincoln, we had two big model shops (tools, balsa kits, aero engines, Airfix, etc.), one big toyshop (Scalextric, and toys for young kids) and one rather weird place that specialised in fishing gear, Meccano and 00-guage railway stuff.
Now all are gone, and I do wonder how kids of today will be able (for e.g.) to experience building a glider (balsa, cutting out with a razor, tissue covering with paste) and launching the final product into the sky. We have lost something.
BTW, if any of you or your children want to get into things aeronautical I can strongly recommend https://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-Book-Kites-. Some string, a little bamboo or dowel, and a binbag and you are ready to go.

by voidUpdate

2 subcomments

What country are they in? The list of shops seems to suggest belgium/the netherlands. Because in the UK, I often go to toy shops with my partner. There's probably two shops in the same shopping centre you could call "toy shops", as well as a GAME which sells video games. All three of them sell lego, as well as quite a few other shops. There's also a Cex and a mini Cex if you want to buy video games and get ripped off. Also quite a few other shops tend to have a "toys" section, such as WH Smiths or B&M, though I wouldn't call them "toy shops" At least in my area, brick and mortar toy stores are very much alive and well

by perardi

0 subcomment

I walk by a lovely local toy store every day.
https://www.playtoysandbooks.com
I live in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago, and it’s a small bit of joy to have a thriving boutique toy store to walk by as I go to the gym.

by techdmn

0 subcomment

For the last few years I've been working on a project, before I buy anything online I try to find it at a local retailer (ideally locally owned). If I do find it, I pay cash. I treat it like a game, it's a scavenger hunt. I'm putting money back into the local economy, helping local shops stay open. Makes it significantly more difficult for pervasive modern surveillance to track which items I look at or purchase. I don't get any emails about it later.

by moparts

1 subcomments

I’m surprised physical toys are still a thing. We have a boutique toy store in our neighborhood. Expensive wooden things from Europe. I see lots of old people buying toys for grandkids. I hope they are well loved and not just tossed.

by ErigmolCt

0 subcomment

I don't think every old retail format deserved to survive unchanged, but towns without places where children can physically explore feel a little poorer (in a way)

by econ

0 subcomment

I think it should work like this: government buys everything zoned as a store, restaurant or pub at a deliberate unfair rate. Create A budget for maintenance.
If you want to open a store you wait for a vacancy and apply. Citizens may vote for the applicants, the closer you live the more weight the vote has.
Count the store visitors and set some reasonable minimum. They don't have to buy anything. To much traffic would give priority for a larger building.
The first n square meters is free (smallest building). Low rent for anything above.
People want a tea room but you can't survive doing that unless you price the hot water absurdity. You can have lots of small shops selling eye candy. They don't have to sell a lot of wooden dragons, as long as it attracts visitors it's good to have.
It will be a town or city in the least boring percentage.

by The_Blade

2 subcomments

There is a really cool place in Denver called Wizard’s Chest. I think they make good money off costumes, but also Warhammer 4k (and to a related lesser extent DnD). Nice people, too.

by rhplus

0 subcomment

Our local toy store is a member of marketing cooperative and yours might be too.
They are wonderful and a perfect example of a local toy store - a wide variety, personal service and free gift wrapping on all purchases (a life saver for anyone with kids and a birthday party to go to seemingly every other weekend).
A map of the network is here.
https://stoysnetpartner.com/our-retail-clients/

by carra

0 subcomment

I am surprised to hear this. In Spain there are plenty of physical toy stores. I can easily think of a few not too far from my home. Not only that, it's also common here to see entire aisles full of toys in some big supermarket franchises, like Carrefour.

by jwrallie

0 subcomment

Interestingly toy stores are still a thing in Japan. I took my 2 year old daughter to buy her birthday present this year. Her smile when I told her she could take the toy plush home was priceless.
I asked her if she wanted the big or small version, she liked the small. Showing kids toys on a tablet is never going to replace the experience.

by Freak_NL

0 subcomment

The DreamLand bit seems off:
> DreamLand: another toy store chain with venerable Belgian roots owned by Colruyt group that briefly had a fancy underground store near a new parking lot not even five years ago. Of course it had to go. […] The bigger store about 30 km away from us recently also closed down. The store chain is still alive as is their webshop, but for how long… There’s still a DreamLand nearby but no longer in the centre.
DreamLand actually grew significantly in terms of physical stores due to their merger with ToyChamp, and is present in both the Netherlands and Belgium now. Of course, these huge (for European standards) stores tend to be located in malls and such; not in the historic city centres where toy stores used to be.

by Schlagbohrer

1 subcomments

Does the article mention that private equity killed off the still-profitable Toys R Us?

by jemmyw

0 subcomment

There are no toy stores close to me in New Zealand any more, or even a long drive away. There used to be two small ones, they were both great but never really that busy.
The local cash and carry also used to have a toy section - it was great because they had a deli where they also made coffee, a grocery section, bulk food section, and warehouse section that included toys. So we'd send the kids to the toy section, get a coffee, grocery shop. The building was a bit rundown, but that was part of the charm too. They upgraded it, it looks fancier but the toys are gone, the deli is gone, we only go for things like bulk flour now. I wonder if businesses like that have real trouble understanding loss leading sections like that.

by kazinator

0 subcomment

I went into a Kaboodles in Vancouver a bunch of years ago. First thing my eyes landed on was an on-brand Rubik's Cube. Just days before that, I had seen the exact item for $10 less at Walmart.

by amadeuspagel

0 subcomment

I walked 20 minutes to a brick and mortar toy store to buy some bouncy balls recently. It was a chain store though. That's not sad to me, because I'm not emotional about whether chain or independent businesses do any better in a given industry.

by JohnFen

0 subcomment

In my area, while there are certainly fewer game/toy stores than there used to be, the ones that are left are doing great and are always busy.

by warumdarum

1 subcomments

I found it especially disheartening that the brick and mortar stores had to subsidize their own demise by paying taxes for roads that carry their competition who dont pay taxes.

by mattwad

0 subcomment

I was surprised to find that Barnes n Nobles has a decent selection of quality toys for infants to toddlers. Toys have their own section at my store. I used to buy toy/book gifts at Target but the options are so much more limited.

by AdrianB1

0 subcomment

What I did not see in the article or comments is the fact that people dictate how things evolve. People vote with their wallets (or via local councils) in ways that directly or indirectly influence the outcome. The title can also be, and still correct, "We killed the brick and mortar toy store". This makes people think more than "it's raining", which is impersonal and somewhat inactionable.

by IG_Semmelweiss

0 subcomment

this article feels 10 years late. Toys R us marked the end of the toy store.
Its just a matter of time before other stores follow, except for the Lego flagship stores , or the ocassional anime store in a bigger city.
Its sad.

by linuxkernal

0 subcomment

He forgot Toys RS.

by diogenescynic

2 subcomments

I miss toy stores, butcher shops, record stores, movie renal stores... everything moving online has really made culture so isolating and a lot harder to meet people. I remember when I was younger I could just go to a retail area and get some coffee, look at magazines/books, then go to a record store, then a video game store, a pet store, etc. Now everything is either a big box store in a giant parking lot or online. There are obviously exceptions, but I remember having so many more retail options and now they can't compete with Amazon and the rising cost of real estate and labor. Capitalism is strangling culture and making people more lonely and anti-social. They want us at home, buying subscription services, and getting taxis for our burritos so we don't have to actually go out and do anything or see anyone...

by wellpast

0 subcomment

In Austin we have most notably Terra Toys and Toy Joy.
Terra Toys is 50 years old, its space shows it. Hand-written recommendations and prices. The employees demonstrate and play with the toys, welcome you genuinely as you enter. The toys seem curated for actual fun not schtick. I went in last week and it was popping. It’s an experience.
Does Main Street need to focus on experience to survive? If so, how does it monetize experience if selling items isn’t the first focus now?

by jmclnx

0 subcomment

Yes, in the city were I grew up a single private toy store is hanging on. I think it is because they out right own the building they are in. But we all know their days are numbered.
It is too bad, they were real good and carried items that could not be found elsewhere. Now seems all stores are the same.
Edit: Looked it up, the store stopped selling toys all together last year. But they are still in business selling other items that were in a different part of the store.

by epolanski

1 subcomments

Capitalist efficiency ultimately makes shops barely able to compete on price and convenience with the few clicks needed to order and get stuff at home.
My stepfather was a salesman/distributor, selling the most diverse things (mostly electronics and mobile-related, but not only) to shops in the entire Lazio region in Italy.
95% of the shops closed, even among those that didn't he often wonders why they keep buying from him rather than on Alibaba or Amazon where he often cannot compete on price. And same for those client's customers.
It's hard to beat the convenience of online ordering for them, let alone the pricing.
But this has major implications for the local economies, especially of smaller places. As shops start to disappear so do the services or restaurants/bars connected to them.
Capitalism is brutal in its efficiency and there isn't much if anything that can be done to stop it, if people can get the same products at lower prices, they will.

by whenanother

0 subcomment

[dead]

by anal_reactor

0 subcomment

Good riddance.
I never really liked those small shops. Open Monday-Friday from 9 to 17 so a working person cannot really buy anything there. Prices usually 20% higher than online, minimal choice. It's not like they were selling something unique, they'd sell exactly same shit you'd see online, but at higher prices. The concept of "small shop being a part of the community" is completely foreign to me because what else you'd be doing in a shop other than walk in, buy, get out.
Supermarkets on the other hand, that's a different story. I live in the Netherlands and here we have strict laws pretty much about anything, including supermarkets. The goal is to prevent megastores from coming to existence which usually suck up all economic activity from the area. I have to say that the model is relatively successful - there are lots of mid-size supermarkets, so wherever you live, you're likely close to one.
But I have to say that it's another thing I miss from Poland. I fucking LOVED megastores. I could easily spend an hour walking through the cheese aisle and looking at all the products. For some inexplicable reason, despite the existence of megastores, the chain of small convenience stores Żabka is going through a renaissance - they're almost at every corner which means that if you're walking down the street and you're suddenly thirsty you're almost for sure close to Żabka. Another reason to go there is that they often offer products unavailable elsewhere - once I found sugar-free orange-vanillia coca-cola. I knew that god smiled to me that day. Oh, and typically they're open until 23:00.

by throdjdidjfdik

0 subcomment

My local toy store has a resident dog, and allows other dogs inside. That place serves as a dog toliet, and dog hair, saliva, oils and excrements are everywhere. I refuse to go near it, purchasing any contaminated toys is out of question!
Last time we went there, owners assaulted my child and knocked it onto the floor!