Opinion - Letter from America

Wow - what a year for the indies!

After 20 years working at A.C. Nielsen/D&B Research Company, Rick opened the first Learning Express Toys franchise in the Chicago area in 1996, and then became a sub-franchiser, opening nine more stores. Although leaving the corporate environment behind, he has combined his expertise in data and numbers with a passion for the toy retail space. In his final column of the year, Rick celebrates how 2021 turned out.

We all are jumping for joy as the year winds down. I am writing this in midNovember so we have several weeks to go, but can confidently conclude the following:

1. This has been our personal best year ever. Learning Express Toys as a group has had its best year ever and the numerous indies I have spoken to say the same. Congrats to all!

2. We learned several things from the Covid recovery year 2021, mainly that kids want and need physical stores. Over the pandemic, children felt a need for tactile items and fidgets to discharge all their nervous energy and satisfy a pent-up need for activity. Our customers, both kids and adults alike, also voted for plush - particularly Squishmallows by Jazwares, which was our No.1 supplier by a wide margin. The girl pictured drove three hours to get her exclusive Terry the Turkey Squishmallow – and, as you can see, she loved it.

3. We experienced the rise of the social platform TikTok, which showed us how even small businesses can go viral and drive traffic in-store. This happened not only with fidgets and Squishmallows but also with our ranges of candy, lighting products, DIY arts & crafts and slimes.

4. Margins improved, even in the face of price increases. With hot product comes less discounting and less slow sellers to move out. Amazon became a major vendor for indies instead of a competitor, which is a complete reversal of the prior 10 years.

So, for Learning Express Toys Lake Zurich, 2021 wraps up like this:

Dollar sales increase vs 2020 by over 140%

Margins increased by 2.5 points

Traffic increase over 150% (majority of the growth)

Average price increase from $45 to $49

Top Vendor - Jazwares

Our Top 5 sellers (based on dollar sales):

Squishmallows (Jazwares)

CatsvsPickles (Cepia)

Poppits (Various)

Pokémon (various)

NeeDoh balls (Schylling)

To all indies everywhere—the news is good, the worst did not happen, and the best possible outcome did. There is a Santa Claus.