Talking Shop

A winter’s sale

This month, our indies report that customers started their Christmas shopping early, to spread the cost. Equally cautious, retailers are keeping a very close eye on stock levels. As they move into the peak festive selling season, Suzie Sparkes and Sam Giltrow find out more.

Nicky Tossell - Youings, Barnstable

Youings is lucky to have a great location at the bottom of Barnstable high street, and we also bend around the high street corner. Within our premises there is a sweet shop, tobacconist, a model shop and the toy department - so we attract a lot of footfall. We had a really good, busy summer with great sales in our toy department. The Lego and Pokémon ranges were particularly popular, as ever.

Lego has always been our number one top seller and we continue to enjoy fantastic sales. We have dramatically increased our range of Lego; we now have a whole wall of it in the store and are now one of the biggest stockists in the area. We are incredibly proud of it - there is nowhere locally which can match our range which makes us a destination for avid fans of the brand. We carry stock of all Lego ranges including the big kits and the 18+ ranges. We have recently received stock of the new Ferrari, which retails at about £350, but I’m confident it will sell, as we are attracting customers from all over. We have a Facebook page, which we manage between us, but a lot of our customer base is prompted to visit us via word of mouth, which my staff are very good at, and which is definitely working.

For Christmas this year, I have kept my stock quite tightly under control, as we can’t be certain what is going to happen. We have a wide choice of product and the ranges that we want to stock, but I am not holding as much in my stockroom as usual; making sure orders that come in are out on the shop floor and selling through as quickly as possible. I’m therefore placing smaller orders more frequently. Our suppliers have been incredibly helpful by offering us carriage paid and allowing us to do smaller orders, which really is beneficial.

Lego will be our best seller for Christmas, it’s popularity still seems to be on the rise, probably due to the wide demographic of fans. It is something you can do on your own, but we are also seeing that families like to build together, especially at Christmas time. It appeals to all ages from kids to the elderly.

The Pokémon range will also sell well this Christmas. That’s another favourite with customers that we know we can rely on, pretty much whatever the product. I try to stock a wide range of all products but focus as much as possible on items that the supermarkets don’t carry so I don’t need to compete with them. It also means my customers can come into our shop knowing they will be able to pick up gifts they can’t get elsewhere. I call it my ‘Looking out of the box range’.

We will also move good quantities of board and family games. For example, Jumanji from Spin Master and the Ghosts Castle game from John Adams (Ideal) always prove popular, especially at Christmas. We stock a lot of Goliath games and find the company a brilliant supplier as they offer all sorts of different games that the grocers don’t stock. Family games such as Murder Mystery games from Lagoon (University Games) are always in demand and especially so at this time of year, as people buy them to play during the Christmas break, and for hosting New Year parties.

We are promoting our Christmas Club heavily this year. The customers pay a deposit and pay it off in a cycle that suits them, and we offer free storage in the meantime. We have a Savings Club all year round - for birthdays or for just saving - but it is especially popular at Christmas and has been even more so this year. Customers have the peace of mind that their children are going to get what they wish for without the worry of paying out for it all in one go. Many people have already come in and put £400 worth of toys back for this Christmas.

I think this quarter will be slower than previous years, our October sales haven’t been as high as they have been in previous years. However, the good news is that children always come first no matter what; people might hold back on the amount of food they buy this Christmas or what they spend on other relatives, but they will always ensure the children come first, which means they will still buy toys.

Will Osborne - Osborne Sports & Toys, Rushden

We are starting to ramp up for Christmas now. We have always run a Christmas Club and this year it very quickly became more popular than it has been for a long time; I thinkcustomers who are concerned about the economy are conscious that they will need to spread the cost over a few months.

It’s always said that kids are the last to go without and I hope that remains true this Christmas. Parents might cut down a little bit on what they spend but the kids will still get presents, though whether they get as much as they normally do remains to be seen.

I think customers will perhaps buy a few more lower price point items, although kids will still want the big-ticket items. We haven’t completely changed our buying strategy this year, but we have been a little bit more circumspect in trying to avoid piling stock on top of stock. The Christmas Club helps us with this as we know in advance what is being saved up for.

As usual, we will be running adverts in the local press and radio to try and drum up some extra footfall for Christmas, but we are in the fortunate position that we have been in business for so long that people know we’re here.

Christmas stock is still arriving as we run a stock and order approach and like to keep our operation fairly tight, avoiding too much sitting in storage. We have found working with companies such as Kayes of Cardiff ideal for this way of working because we can order in smaller quantities as required. Although we take a bit of a hit with the cost, it does work out better in terms of stock control.

It’s difficult to say what will be the big sellers this year – I’ll tell you on Christmas Eve! There has been a lot of hype about the Gabby’s Purrfect Dollhouse set but we’ve not had many requests for it yet. I expect this will increase as we get closer to the big day.

We are a traditional toy shop and we always do well with ranges like Lego, Playmobil and Sylvanian Families. We have started to sell more wooden toys, so this is an expanding area for us. Grandparents in particular see wooden toys as a quality product and one that will last. We stock a wide range of Hape, which is popular, and Orange Tree Toys, which has a lovely range of licensed products including Peter Rabbit. The quality and design of wooden toys seems to have really come on in the last decade, especially with licensing now spilling over into the category - it’s no longer just about wooden railways and garages.

Arts & craft type products have also been selling well for us, as have plastic model kits, particularly those from Airfix and Revell. The popularity of lines like this seems to have continued from the pandemic lockdowns when kids, and adults, were looking for activities to do to pass the time.

Hornby train sets and Scalextric sets are always in demand at Christmas. This is when they are presents for children, although we also get a lot of custom from adult collectors for model railways throughout the year.

October half-term traditionally gives us a pre- Christmas boost and from then on, the countdown to Christmas is on. Customers started buying presents early on in October; I think they have been more mindful than ever about getting in early. I don’t anticipate a big, last-minute rush this year, not to the extent that there usually is. More people are preferring to buy presents in dribs and drabs rather than in one go. I am concerned about what might happen after the Christmas rush – the second half of January is normally very quiet once the Christmas money has been spent – but who knows how things will play out?

There is talk that we might have to have blackouts this winter due to the energy crisis, which brings back memories of the 1973 power cuts where we had candles in the shop and could still operate quite effectively. With technology nowadays, we are so reliant on power that we probably wouldn’t be able to carry on trading, so that it is a worry. However, we have managed to get through some really difficult times already, so I’m sure we will just adapt and cope once again.

Jon Scrivens - Hamlins, Berkhamsted

We had a surprisingly busy summer; we wondered if it would be quieter purely because more people were making the most of being able to go away and have a holiday, as travel is much easierthan it was last year. Surprisingly though, we had quite a lot of stay-at-home families, and we were also busy with things like Birthday parties. What’s been notable though is two or three kids joining forces to have a Birthday party together, so people have been coming in and buying three presents instead of one which is quite a change.

In terms of Christmas, everything is ready to go. We’ve had a lot of stock arriving throughout the year and more trickling in now. Last year, Christmas started for us in early October; our customers start buying then, they like to pace themselves and not have to do it all in the last month. We’re seeing similar buying behaviour this year. We haven’t really had the big uptick yet but things like advent calendars have been selling well for a while now.

In terms of spending this year, people seem OK to pay out what they were planning to on the ‘big presents’ but will maybe spend less on stocking fillers – they’re looking for quality over quantity. Father Christmas will bring the items on the list but maybe not put quite so much in the stockings.

We are still enjoying fantastic sales on classic products. I expect all sorts of board games and wooden trains and accessories to prove popular this quarter.

I’m hoping to get plenty of Christmas themed Squishmallows. These are bound to sell out quickly as the range has been a really strong seller throughout the whole summer and shows no sign of stopping. Lego is as popular as ever, and it is selling well in all ranges: boys, girls and licensed sets such as Star Wars etc. More importantly, we have been seeing an increase in sales of the 18+ kits such as big cars and architectural products, which means a different demographic coming in for Lego. People’s habits changed during the pandemic and many grown-ups got back into Lego and are still enjoying it. Star Wars Helmets and Super Hero heads are also proving popular, they are at a good price point for adult birthday gifts.

We’re seeing a similar trend with lines like Airfix – something creative that people can sit and do artistically, quite self-contained, but an activity where they have actually got a product to show for it when they have finished. This type of pastime started to become popular in the various lockdowns and people have realised they enjoyed it and stuck with it.

We only sell in store, not online. We are located on the high street and have regular customers; it is very encouraging to see that people are appreciating their local shops more and making the most of them being there. We have a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook and as we get new products in, we post what’s arrived. We can update instantly, which we’ve found is a more organic way to stimulate sales.

In the lead up to Christmas we’ll run some competitions and promotions as that’s always a good way to encourage people to visit the shop. We’ve been working on our plans; a few years ago we ran a successful advent calendar prize draw promotion each day in December which was very popular with customers. We focused on a different product each day, which they could enter to win. We offer a Christmas savings club which some of our regulars find helpful. People can spread the cost and don’t need to miss out, and it benefits both us and the consumer.

Being a Toymaster member is really beneficial to us, as we get the support we need. We get increased buying power but we also remain pretty independent, so as far as we’re concerned, it’s a win-win situation.

We are looking forward to the Christmas period. On top of Squishmallows and Lego which we know will sell well, it will be interesting to see what turns out to be in vogue this year – it’s hard to predict at this point.

indie viewpoint

Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes - Toy Barnhaus

Everything to play for

As we write this column in mid-October, we are enjoying a bit of an Indian summer, and we are very glad as it means we are not having to use the heating too much. Trade has been mixed; September turned out to be a very good month, with all stores up year on year, but October has been notably tougher for a variety of reasons. The biggest one is the general cost of living, along with all the upheaval going on in government. Both things are understandably making people more cautious. Measuring against last year brings its own difficulties, as October was a very strong month. People were shopping earlier then, mainly due to concerns about Covid worsening in the winter months and the threat of restrictions being reintroduced. Then sales tailed off year on year as we got closer to Christmas.

October last year also saw the release of Pokémon Celebrations, which was one of our biggest ever launches and added a lot of additional sales to the month. Taking all these factors into consideration, we are happy with where we are, if cautious about how trade will pan out over the next couple of months.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game continues to be our top seller, even without the increased activity of last year, and remains a massive footfall driver for us. Squishmallows continues to sell extremely well, and we have just started to receive Disney and Star Wars licensed stock, which should boost the range even further. The new L.O.L Surprise! Fashion Show range has been very well received and is selling well, along with the L.O.L Surprise! FIFA World Cup dolls. Zuru’s Mini Brands continues to be popular, and we’re seeing strong sales of the Lego Orchid and the articulated Lego - I am Groot! sets.

Our sale lines are selling well, as people manage their budgets and are on the lookout for presents they feel are good value for money. This quest for value is something we had predicted and have taken into account in our buying. We have altered our buying strategy this year and have been a lot more cautious in placing orders for higher ticket lines, knowing there is bound to be a lot of price activity on them. We need to protect our margin as far as possible. But where a good clearance line has been offered to us, we have been bold in taking large numbers, knowing that they will sell very well during peak season – and without having to discount and eat into the profits.

The big focus for the end of November will be Black Friday, which we think will be more important than ever this year. We will have extra offers to feature for the event and will run these over a period of two weeks. Black Friday has become a key date for consumers; located where we are in shopping malls, people do expect to see offers in our stores over that period as so many of our neighbouring shops take part in promotions. We feel you do not need to have loads of offers, but you do need some attractive deals to draw customers in, or they may go elsewhere. Having said that, the majority of our sales still come from regular products in store, rather than the offers.

We have started to look at lines for Q1 next year, mainly from the Lego and Hasbro ranges. There are some good lines in there, and it does seem that prices are reasonable. We have to look at price points very carefully; higher prices are going to be more difficult going forward and it’s good to work with manufacturers that get this. We will order selected lines to freshen up our new year offering, but will have to keep a cautious view and see where we sit in terms of stock coming out of Christmas before committing to too much more.

In these varied times, if will be interesting to see if the winter World Cup has much impact on trade, especially if England matches are played during the day. We will be hoping that any of the knockout matches for England are shown in the evening, so we can fully enjoy them - although that may be a bit optimistic given how the team has played recently!