4 minute read
Letter from America - Rick Derr
Opinion The future of 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. This month, Rick looks ahead to predict what a profitable Indie Toy Shop might look like in 5-10 years’ time.
Big retailers and major companies pay consultants a lot of money to predict the future. Do they know any more than those of us that are in the business and have actually been in the trenches every day for years? I think not. So, without charging you any money or fees, here is my vision of the future…
Let me first set some background before diving into this vision. Suppliers estimate that the US indie toy market has dwindled over the years from several thousand pure toy stores to less than 1200. This does not include gift shops, museum stores, value channels, drug stores and convenience stores, all of which also sell toys. In fact, toys have sprung up everywhere, including in home improvement stores and truck stops selling food and petrol. Everyone wants toys!
As we ended 2019, the toy market in the US was soft. Then, in a weird way, we were all helped by the pandemic shutdown. The aftereffects have also been strong and, as I have stated before, this is the longest consecutive run of strong monthly sales performance that I have experienced in 28 years. So, while indies remain a small sector of the toy market, it’s a sector which is in a stronger position postpandemic. Now is the time to position ourselves for a future which will include more competition, not less. I feel we have a once in a generation opportunity to strengthen our position as a local community resource that children and parents need and will continue to need. But we need to act now.
Prices rise, prices fall, hot products come and go, retail competition intensifies and then slows down, fads come along occasionally that we hop on, but we can control none of that. So, my vision focuses on what we can control. Indies have a lane and when we follow very simple, clear strategies, we can compete profitably by creating the best teams and curating a product mix that suits our local customer while operating in a world of ‘wow’ - both instore and online. This in itself is not easy to sustain at a high level over time. So, I see us adding another key element that raises the bar even higher in terms of customer service, by investing in our teams as play experts.
We know that play is critical to child development and all the way through to the end of life. We need to be experts in the field of play and help kids build the skills to become more resilient to the challenges they face. By investing time and money in learning about and understanding play and its benefits, we are meeting kids (and parents) where they are today. We can reap huge benefits from being trained not only in the science and history of play, but in mental health as well. A store needs to communicate with its customers and recognize when they need help with recommendations for a comfort toy or to build skills that take practice over time. It will be a balancing act to interact in an empathetic way, while also making sure the shop is profitable and growing.
Investing in team members as Certified Play Experts means associates will feel better about their retail job and the higher purpose of making an impact in their community, child by child. Sharing with customers that your store is a Certified Play location gives credence to your expertise.
These CPE’s (certified play experts) then act as a firewall against the outside forces of competition, especially online. If you help a mother or grandparent just one time to find that perfect item or recommend toys and games to build skills in the future, you will have a customer for life. This expertise and service defends against pricing ups and downs, hot products going away or even a supplier not allowing you access to products. You are protected by your expertise, because you have built a core of customers which values your expertise. As I have learned over the years, what is good for customers is generally good for business.
