Talking Shop
Bring on the
summer!
With Easter out of the way, the summer season is getting started, and indie retailers have to balance this busy season with planning for the rest of the year ahead. But first, the all-important Toymaster show, which everyone is looking forward to. Sam Giltrow reports.
Wayne Kincaid
Plaza Toymaster, Llantwit Major
W
e have been a Toymaster member for about 10 years now. The main reason for joining was to be part of a toy buying community with the benefits of buying power, offers, the FOB buying programme and the streamlining of administration. When we were totally independent, we were a little adrift of anybody. Toymaster is obviously a community, so being a member enables you to get to know what other people are up to, what they are thinking and how business is going – both when times are good and when they are bad. If you are on your own, you can feel isolated - you don’t know if something is just affecting you or if it’s a wider problem. As well as receiving regular newsletters, there is an online forum where members can talk to each other, which is really useful. The Toymaster show is also a great place for people to meet up and chat, and see what product is coming out, especially for Christmas. There are also always plenty of offers and deals going on, which are a huge advantage to a small business. We have had a good Easter, though it has felt a bit strange. While takings have been pretty good, it hasn’t felt very busy. However, we are starting to see more visitors from abroad in the shop, so tourism is showing signs of picking up, which is great. We will approach the summer as we normally would and hopefully it will be a good one. Pokémon continues to sell well and the Squishmallows range from Jazwares is still flying out
of the door. In terms of dolls and collectibles, L.O.L. Surprise! and Polly Pocket are popular, and Barbie has remained strong for the past couple of years. The younger girls particularly like dolls and collectible figures that come with accessories and pets. Sylvanian Families has also continued to be in high demand over the last couple of years, and many of our customers are keen collectors. In our Pre-school offering, the Paw Patrol range from Spin Master is the star seller, and there seems to have been an upsurge in demand for
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Thomas & Friends. I’ve just taken delivery of a pallet of Jurassic World dinosaurs from Mattel and plan to build a big feature display around that. We have always done really well with Schleich dinosaurs; the company offers a fantastic selection, so I think they will continue to be popular too. Let’s face it, anything to do with dinosaurs is exciting. I’m really fired up about all the Jurassic World toy ranges coming out for the new movie this summer.
