Stores have more rivals than ever
Highland Park’s Beanstalk, which encourages kids to play with toys like glowing blocks among packed shelves under a toy train track hanging from the ceiling, also has been trying to boost its profile since the Toys R Us about a mile and a half away closed this spring.
Owner Pam Hillman is sending out catalogs for the first time this season and planning promotions like a Willy Wonka-themed event. She also began sponsoring a local youth hockey team.
“I think this is the year people will decide, ‘Am I going to run to Target or Amazon, or this place that supports my son’s team?’ ” Hillman said.
Hillman said Beanstalk has been attracting more new customers than usual in the months since Toys R Us closed all its U.S. stores. But other toy store owners, like Toys et Cetera’s Nancy Stanek, said they haven’t noticed much of a change. Shoppers who had already picked big-box Toys R Us over an independent shop will likely switch to another big chain, like Walmart, said Stanek, who has stores in Chicago’s Hyde Park and Andersonville neighborhoods.
Lora Wright, owner of Wheaton’s Pinwheel Toys, hoped the absence of Toys R Us would send more business her way but suspects most of the chain’s former shoppers have gone to online sellers and national retailers. Because they sell far more toys than an independent shop like Pinwheel, they can set prices Wright can’t afford to match.
Now she’s worried about competing with even more big retailers that are putting a new focus on toys. She’s waiting to see whether people will be willing to make a special trip to a toy shop when chains and online retailers offer one-stop shopping.
“I think people have good intentions to shop local, but when you can hit that button and have it delivered the next day, it’s too good,” Wright said.
“It’s nerve-wracking, but this year will tell us a lot about where the toy industry is going,” she added.
There really are more retailers battling for consumers’ toy dollars this year, said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Toy Association. In July, the association reported a 23 percent increase in the number of retailers planning to send buyers to its Fall Toy Preview show. Registrations for a toy fair in February also are up significantly, Pasierb said.
Both he and Kimberly Mosley, president of the Chicago-based American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, expect a postholiday shakeout.
Retailers that are new to the business might struggle if they can’t convince consumers to think of them as destinations for toys or if they’re unable to offer the expertise and selection of dedicated toy stores, Mosley said.
“We don’t expect they’ll want to stay if they’re not successful,” she said.
In the meantime, independent toy store owners said they’re leaning into strategies they were already using to fend off competition from Toys R Us, other big-box chains and Amazon, like carrying more unusual toys parents might not find in a bigger retailer’s toy aisle, providing extra services like free gift wrapping, or advising shoppers on toys that would fit a child’s age and interests.
“If you came into the store and said you’re shopping for your 3-year-old nephew, we’re not going to let you buy a 1,000-piece puzzle,” Building Blocks’ Nguyen said.
Megan Morrison, 61, of Highland Park, said she likes buying gifts for her three grandchildren at Beanstalk because the store will deliver toys already assembled, sparing parents the headache.
Beanstalk also will hang on to gifts and drop them off the day before Christmas or Hanukkah to help parents thwart impatient kids who like to snoop, Hillman said.
Even parents who buy toys online and at big-box stores said they liked having a local option too.
The Gruby family has bought toys at Toys R Us, Amazon and Target, but Benjamin, 6, likes the builtin entertainment at Beanstalk. He tried out the store’s whack-a-mole, darts and basketball games on Monday while he and his dad waited for his mom.
Target and Amazon seem to sell many of the same things Toys R Us did, but Beanstalk has more specialty toys and employees who “can help with what’s trendy,” said Michael Gruby, 39.
If nothing else, most industry watchers say consumer spending has been healthy and shoppers appear ready to buy this holiday season.
Both Nguyen and Hillman are optimistic enough to take on extra space. Building Blocks recently opened a third location in the Lincoln Park area.
Hillman took over a store on the same block as Beanstalk and her two kids’ clothing shops. For the time being, it’s filled with oversize items that look impressive under a tree but didn’t fit in jam-packed Beanstalk, like toy kitchens, foosball tables, child-size taco and ice cream stands and a Bentley-brand stroller that converts to a tricycle. After the holidays, Hillman plans to replace the toys with baby and toddler apparel.
Toy manufacturers also increasingly seem to recognize the importance of working with smaller stores, said Rick Derr, who owns a Learning Express Toys franchise in Lake Zurich. Over the past few years, he’s been able to get products from toymakers that previously only worked with larger retailers and get access to new toys before they make it to national chains’ shelves.
Local retailers tend to have strong relationships with customers, which allows them to give manufacturers immediate feedback on reaction to a new product or strategy for promoting it, Derr said.
That’s valuable to manufacturers, who are trying to react more quickly to what customers want, The Toy Association’s Pasierb said. It’s also in manufacturers’ interest to keep a variety of toy retailers healthy, he added.
There’s another reason Derr is optimistic about sales this season: Ever since people began speculating about whether or not Toys R Us would make it through the holiday season last year, toys have been on consumers’ minds. There was news coverage of the closing sales and the impact on toymakers. More recently, other retailers have been heavily promoting items expected to be popular holiday gifts.
“When toys are in the news, good or bad, it helps us,” Derr said. “Our whole year has been very, very good.”