Toy stores reflect on lessons learned from a brutal 2020
When 2020 began, Jennifer Fila and Jared Greenman looked forward to growing the new toy stores they own in southwestern Connecticut. They ended it by confronting once- unimaginable challenges to sustain their different enterprises.
A few months after respectively opening Town Center Toys in Wilton and Funky Monkey Toys & Books in Greenwich in July 2019, Fila and Greenman faced the economic disruption unleashed by the coronavirus crisis. They have survived the upheaval through building customer loyalty and adapting their operations to the new landscape.
“I had seen a 50 percent drop in sales right when ( COVID- 19) hit, so it has affected my business,” Fila said. “My holiday season was a little better than it was earlier in the pandemic. I did feel like the Wilton community came out to support me.”
During Connecticut’s economic shutdown between mid- March and mid- May 2020, which included a temporary ban on in- person shopping at “non- essential” businesses, including toy stores, Town Center Toys and Funky Monkey stayed afloat with services such as online ordering and curbside pickups.
“That ( online service) helped me get through when my doors weren’t able to be open,” Fila said. “I have kept that going, and it was helpful throughout the summer and into the holiday season. So people could order online and then either come in the store and pick it up or I would deliver throughout Wilton.”
Funky Monkey has benefited from other new initiatives such as text- message marketing and a points- based customer- loyalty program. Those programs helped the Greenwich store and Funky Monkey’s other shop, in Greenvale on New York’s Long Island, bring in 2020 holiday- season sales that beat their 2019 holiday numbers.
“It was a very difficult time in 2020,” Greenman said. “As a small business, we really had to go back to the drawing board and adapt.”
In the past few months, merchandise such as puzzles and games ranked among the top sellers at Town Center Toys. Funky Monkey saw similar sales trends, with toys such as Legos and a Greenwich version of Monopoly also ranking among the top sellers.
U. S. toy industry sales increased by 19 percent to $ 13.7 billion in the first nine months of 2020, according to retail tracking firm The NPD Group.
“During this unprecedented time of uncertainty, parents and families have turned to toys for entertainment, distraction and joy,” Juli Lennett, NPD’s toy industry adviser, said in a statement. “The pandemic clearly had a positive impact on toy sales in the second quarter and third quarter.”
Fila said she has always taken a measured approach with planning for Town Center Toys, which she launched after 12 years as a stay- at- home mother.
Reflecting that strategy, Town Center Toys’ approximately 1,350- square- foot store, at 5 River Road, is still operating with reduced hours, with an average of about four hours each day. It is open every day except Monday.
“Everything that I did I was conservative — including the size of the store and the amount of inventory,” Fila said. “It’s definitely a condensed version of a toy store. But I think that’s helped me.”