Talking Shop

Just popping to the toyshop

Toyshops in Scotland and Ireland have now joined those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in reopening. Retailers delighted to see customers back interacting with toys, making choices and asking for advice spoke to Sam Giltrow about their latest experiences.

Ian Melville - Bright Star Toys, Linlithgow

It’s great to be back open again and it has been very busy, which is really encouraging. It’s also nice to see some familiar faces back in the shop again, and especially good to see children returning. There has been a lot of saving of pocket money, birthday and Christmas money and vouchers, and everybody seems very confident coming back in. The biggest issue, from my point of view, is having to limit the amount of people coming in at one time, as we are a small shop, and it does mean we have had queues outside. On weekdays it doesn’t make much difference, but it’s much busier on Saturdays, and on Friday afternoons as the schools here close at lunchtime on Fridays.

The uptick in business has also been driven by current crazes. We are finding great demand for anything related to fidget toys - Pushpoppers and anything squishy are selling really well. We quickly realised just how popular the craze was and have been trying constantly to get the right kind of stock in, but this has been a bit of a challenge, as there’s not a lot of stock out there. I got a delivery of Pushpoppers from HGL over lockdown and they were ticking over nicely, but as soon as we opened, they all sold very quickly and have been out of stock since. However, I’ve been able to get similar ones after scouting round various suppliers.

The fidget craze is being driven by social media, and TikTok in particular; I think it’s just a nice outlet for kids to forget about things and focus on something tactile and silly – a welcome distraction. The kids are watching videos and making their own videos and talking about it with their friends. We’ve always had crazes, but I’ve a funny feeling this fidget craze will last longer because it’s not being driven solely by the playground; it’s being driven by social media.

Pokémon has always been a huge seller and the brand has just exploded again. Luckily, I‘ve been able to build up my range and I’m happy to say I’ve got quite a healthy stock of Pokémon at the moment. We’re about to install a Pokémon window display, to make a real feature of it. I think the current popularity has been driven by kids watching packs of cards being opened on social media, as well as a lot of older collectors returning to the brand.

We are still selling lots of jigsaw puzzles and Orchard Toys. Games in general has been a little bit quieter, but that is to be expected at this time of year, especially now people have other things to do and places to go. Because this year will all be about staycations, we have expanded our outdoor toy range quite significantly and have lots of water guns, blasters, kites and Swingball sets. We stock a selection of items from TKC, which supplies us with the Waboba range – the Moon Balls have always sold really well but recently we’ve also seen strong sales from the Waboba Heads range, especially the Flying Silicone Discs and Gliding Heads.

In terms of Arts & Crafts, I recently placed a large top-up order for Hama Beads from DKL, as the range has seen quite a resurgence, as well as Galt kits around the £6 price point. Another range which has been selling really well is the Eugy range from Brainstorm – it has been fantastic.

I have been trying to expand our offering in the Kidult category and managed to get some of the Masters of the Universe figures from Mattel, which have been very popular. I’ve also made a conscious decision to stock more retro lines, such as Star Wars and the Playmobil Back to the Future range. We love retro toys as they engage the parents. I think everybody is crying out for a bit of nostalgia and these sorts of retro lines mean the Kidult category will continue to grow even bigger.

One good thing to come out of the pandemic has been our website, which we created in the first lockdown last year. Although we weren’t able to offer click and collect here until very late on, we were able to offer local deliveries, and the support we received was amazing. We are keeping the website going and are still getting orders, though people now seem to prefer to come in. However, it’s encouraging to see that many people are almost using the website as a catalogue, before coming in to buy.

Alison Bowen - Toys ‘n’ Things, Cardiff

The shop was very busy when we first reopened, but now it has quietened down a bit. You can’t really predict the footfall each day, as every day is different. It was manic when the kids first came in and had all their saved-up pocket and birthday money to spend, and that was lovely to see. We are still busy at weekends when it is pocket money day. Now hospitality has opened up indoors again, we are hoping this will improve things and business will pick up even more.

We didn’t have an online presence during the lockdown, but are currently building a new website, so we are prepared in case it happens again. Over the last few months, we used the time to refurbish the shop and give it a new look. We cleaned and painted, put down new flooring and rearranged all the shelves, and we’re very pleased with the results. Since reopening, it’s worked brilliantly. We have a new one-way system which I think we will keep in place, even when the restrictions end, as it works so well.

Since we have reopened, we have been doing good business across our all ranges, but Lego has been the most popular, particularly the Ninjago, Technic and Star Wars sets. Between the lockdowns we were selling lots of jigsaw puzzles, with Ravensburger very popular for adults and character licensed puzzles such as Peppa Pig and Thomas the Tank Engine selling best for children. We also saw high demand for arts & crafts products such as moulding sets, face paints and science-based kits for children. A lot of parents working from home wanted their kids to have activities to keep them occupied, which they could do unsupervised. The Kids Create range from IG Design has sold especially well, as the products are low cost and popular among children. Colouring pens were also a big hit, and we sold lots of chalks during the first lockdown, when the weather was good and kids could chalk outdoors.

We have seen strong sales for infant toys recently, which is new for us. Before the refurbishment, the section was at the back of the shop, but we have now moved it to the front of the store, where it has been selling much better. It’s a bright, colourful display and I’m not sure whether more people are seeing it or if it’s because of the baby boom we are hearing about. Brands which have been doing well include Fisher Price, Tomy and Lamaze.

Overall, the shop is now fully stocked for the summer, and we are anticipating a lot of families staying at home this year and looking for things for kids to do during the school holidays. We have just created an eye-catching summer window display to encourage them. With an offering including paddling pools, bouncy balls, flying rings, water pistols and outdoor games, as long as the weather is good, I am sure we will sell lots of those. Footballs are the best seller for us in term of outdoor toys: we are only five minutes from Roath Park, so the children take them straight over to the park to play with.

We always look forward to school holidays when the kids are able to come into the shop themselves. The 9–10-year-olds like to come in without their parents to have a browse and spend their pocket money, and I’m pleased they are able to do that again. We are quite confident about the rest of the year, and I believe it can only get better.

Wayne Kincaid - Plaza Toymaster, Llantwit Major

Business has been good for us since we have been able to reopen here in Wales and it’s great to see all our customers coming back in, especially the children. We have lots of change in the till as the kids are bringing in all their saved-up pocket money. The first couple of weeks were extremely busy but footfall is now steady again and the spend has been good. Following the previous lockdown, we set up an online shop which went live in November, so we still had a presence when the shop closed just before Christmas.

Spending in the online store has been across all departments, with games and science-based toys selling particularly well. Now that children are coming back in store, it’s the lower priced nik-naks that they are asking for. All types of pushpoppers are still doing well, along with any pocket money items related to the current fidget trend, such as spinners. Squishmallows are still in very high demand too and would be doing even better if we could get hold of more. When I placed my last order, I was told it would at least a month before I’m likely to see any stock. When we were in lockdown and selling online, it was hard to get a handle on what was popular, but Squishmallows has stood out as a consistent seller.

Last summer, sales of jigsaw puzzles were amazing, but this seems to have levelled off now. For this summer, we have been buying normally and sticking to what traditionally performs well at this time of year; we carry a big summer range as we are quite close to the beach, and also have toys suitable for the garden. In terms of other ranges, because we carried a lot of stock over from Christmas, I plan to sell through that over the next few months and am concentrating on thinking ahead to Q4 this year for new stock.

We are now looking forward to the summer, and a stretch of good weather would be nice. We are trading slightly up, so for the time being we are happy with how things are going. Orders for the online shop have dropped off a bit now we are back open but will still bring in some additional revenue.

All in all, we are very happy to be back open and our customers tell us that they are too.

Brendan Will -

Wills Toy Shop, Aberdeen

Throughout lockdown, we have been in a unique situation as we also host a Post Office, so we have been allowed to trade throughout. We’ve probably been busier than ever – I guess we have been taking business from elsewhere. When we first opened, some parents were protecting their kids and keeping them at home. A few weeks further on, the kids are starting to come more - and spending money they have saved up from Christmas and birthdays.

Hobbies, collectibles and jigsaws have been the big sellers – in jigsaws, we’ve seen strong sales of all the Ravensburger and Gibsons titles. High end teddy bears have also been popular, while Pokémon has been massive for us this year.

There’s been a surge in anything art & crafts, and one of the biggest sellers has been chalk. We couldn’t get hold of it, as it was sold out everywhere. Particularly during the first lockdown, it seemed that everyone was using it for pavements.

In terms of the next few months, many families will be staying at home instead of going on holiday and looking for more things to do. As we have the Post Office, we get a feel for what folk are doing and where they are going - at the moment, no one has been buying foreign currency.

For those planning staycations, we have a great games selection for rainy days. We have been selling a wide variety of games during lockdown, and Big Potato’s P is for Pizza and Colourbrain have been standout successes, probably because they are really easy to demo and explain.

Overall, business has been ticking along nicely, and we are optimistic that we will have a good rest of the year. Even if we have rubbish weather this summer, people will need plenty to keep them occupied. We had snow only recently, so who knows?

Toy Barnhaus

Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes

It’s the little things…

It is now over a month since we re-opened again, and we really have settled back into it; the closure already feels like a distant memory. Since we have opened, we have been delighted with trade overall. It has returned a lot more quickly than after previous lockdowns; customers seem perfectly comfortable coming out shopping and are keen to do so. Our branches are situated in shopping centres and until recently, the cafes had not been able to offer sit in service. Now that they are fully open again, that will help further, as shoppers can make visiting the centre more of a trip.

One of the biggest drivers of the sales recently has been the huge demand for low value items. We mentioned in our previous column that pushpoppers had started well, and they have continued to sell phenomenally well. This is the first proper craze we have had since squishies, which was about three years ago now, and it is exactly what the trade needs. On top of this, we have also been selling large quantities of the reversible plush octopus, which we get from Zappies. We started getting asked for these a while ago and since we received our delivery, they have been just as popular as pushpoppers. It’s another low-priced line that is not really suitable for online, but demand is driving people into our stores and it has revived the whole pocket money area. Anything fidgetrelated is selling well. We are seeing kids ask for fidget spinners again, and anything squeezable or tactile is also proving very popular. As usual, it’s very hard to predict how long this craze will last, but it is great to have some new items to get behind, and really build some sales momentum going forward.

Now that things are getting back to being a bit more normal, we are starting to play catch up with all our suppliers. We have seen very little spring/summer product so far and have of course missed going to the Toymaster show and looking at stock for Christmas, so there is a lot of work to be done. We started the process of catching up with new lines in mid-May and have also begun to look at autumn/winter ranges, which is ongoing. It is good to get back into it all, but with no physical toy shows happening, there are only so many PowerPoint presentations of products we can look at before the mind starts to switch off.

An area of the toy market that is growing, and that has certainly benefitted us, is the kidult market. The past year has increased demand, as everyone was looking for things to do, but there was already significant demand beforehand. I would estimate that around a third of our Lego sales are to adults, and that figure is growing. It’s an area of increased focus for Lego, and more sets are being made available to the general market, so by stocking these lines, we bring customers into store who may not have come in previously. These customers tend to know exactly what they want, but if you build up a good relationship with them, and make sure you have the latest lines in, it is a great avenue to grow sales with a different audience.

Outdoor toys have been in high demand due to people staying at home and enjoying their gardens, and our sales of wheeled toys have definitely benefitted from this. Scooters and ride-ons are our best sellers, with the Nebulus range from Grossman and the licensed ranges from MV both performing very well. Dolu also has a great selection of wheeled toys, and our bestseller is the My First Moto range, giving kids a first try at riding a motorcycle. Dolu’s entry level trikes and ride-ons are also very popular. At the other end of the age-range, scooters are still extremely popular with older kids, and there is strong potential for add-on sales with the accessories too.