Talking Shop

Setting great store by…

This month, Sam Giltrow catches up with indie retailers to find out the latest as they review their summer sales and look ahead to the peak selling period in Q4.

Usman Ahmed - Toys4You, Sutton Coldfield

My business partner and I started off as an online-only business during the pandemic two years ago, selling on Amazon and eBay, but after the lockdowns people were keen to get back into shops as they missed being able to touch and feel things. We decided to open the shop last summer, to complement our online sales.

Our business strives to offer a personal experience and we are always happy to give advice to our customers. We have a small play area at the back which the children enjoy, and we run competitions where they can win toys.

When we set up the premises, we made sure our shop fit-out had an eco-friendly element, with shelves made from reclaimed wood. We looked to minimise the use of plastic in our fittings and fixtures, where possible, given lots of toys are made of the material.

We donate a portion of our profits to a charity called Humanify which supports underprivileged children around the world who cannot afford toys. We also take part in a community project where we help to empower youngsters by giving them a few hours’ employment and work experience. This gives them something to put on their CV and hopefully a head start; without experience, many find it difficult to get a foot in the door when applying for jobs. It is important to us to give back and be part of the community in ways like this.

We have competition from a big toy retailer nearby, so we try to ensure that we stock some unique lines to differentiate ourselves. Two of our most popular ranges are Ben & Holly from Character Options and Harry Potter from The Noble Collection. Other big sellers include Playmobil, Barbie and anything from Bandai’s CoComelon range. The Ty and Golden Bear plush ranges also deliver great sales. We sell a lot of small pocket money toys; Slime Party is going down particularly well at the moment and fidget toys are still in demand - and of course Pokémon is a huge seller, especially the cards and plush.

We don’t have a very big Games section yet, but this is an area we’re keen to expand in. So far, we’ve seen strong sales from the Orchard Toys range for younger children. As well as developing our Games offering, we will also be extending the selection of puzzles we stock.

Summer has been fairly busy although, to be honest, we were hoping it would be a bit busier. Many more people must have gone away on holiday this year. However, we’re gearing up for Christmas now and are bringing in bigger box items such as ride-ons and pedal cars. The range from MV Sports & Leisure looks really good and will form the basis of our selection.

We recently became a Toymaster member, mainly to get easier access to suppliers and to speed up the ordering process. Its centralised system for payments will be very helpful. If the ordering and the payment are centralised, it is a useful way we can streamline the processes within our system.

Being relatively new to the industry, it has been very helpful to get help and advice from the Toymaster head office team and other members. At the Toymaster show in Harrogate in May, we realised that being a member opens a lot of doors and will give us more exposure too. We found our time at the show really productive; it gave us a lot of insight with regards to upcoming product, and it was great to have all the suppliers in one place. Being completely new to the toy market, we were also struggling a little with our shop displays and Toymaster has been able to help with those.

When we opened in Gracechurch Shopping Centre, some people thought we were mad because they believed the High Street was dying. In my business experience, if somebody is going in one direction, you should try to go in the opposite direction. I know it’s risky, but sometimes it pays off. Now others are following us; another toy shop has opened nearby, along with two cafes. The local area is quite affluent, so that works in our favour.

We are looking forward to the rest of the year and going forward, we plan to scale up and open another shop in a different area, which is why we are trying to keep the overall business as lean as possible. We are very encouraged by how everything is going.

John Bentley - Howleys Toymaster, Weymouth

We are very fortunate to have two of our stores in the prime seaside locations of Weymouth and Paignton and they have both been exceptionally busy during the long, hot summer this year. For those stores, our best-seller list is probably very different to a lot of mainstream toyshops. With a beach literally 100 yards away from our door, naturally we have been selling a lot of sand toys and paddleboards. Our two inland stores in Dorchester and Bridport have also been doing well, and we are still happy with their performance, but they are not on a par with the two seaside shops, which are really geared towards holidaymakers at this time of year.

The weather this summer has been excellent, and this has meant the beach has been packed every day. Every summer is busy, but last year was fantastic with so few people going abroad. We really didn’t think we’d achieve those numbers again this year, because the year started off with footfall down quite a bit. But the heatwave has compensated for that, bringing so many people down to the coast, even if just for the day.

The weather has also put everyone in a good mood. If it’s pouring with rain on holiday, parents often have to spend more and can begrudge buying their children presents, feeling they have limited options and hanging around in a toy shop is one of them. In the sunshine, they don’t seem to mind parting with their money while they’re enjoying some cheap days on the beach.

In Weymouth we have been opening the shop until 8pm, which is ideal for families who want to wander around town after having something to eat. We started our late-night openings last year when visitor numbers were high, and we decided to carry it on as it’s been a tremendous success.

In the current economic climate, with the costof-living crisis and fuel prices, we’re just aiming to keep our head above water this year. Our cost prices are shooting up, and we’ve had to be more cautious with our buying - and meticulous when looking at margin. Up until the summer really kicked in, we were coasting along okay, so the heatwave has been a massive boost.

The summer is our peak, unlike a lot of stores where Christmas is the busiest time. Customers on holiday are not so conscious about shopping around for the best price – they want convenience. The pocket money category has been performing strongly, and that’s because people like to buy smaller, pick-up items as little treats when they are on holiday or a day out. Fidget toys such as stress balls and Slime Party have sold particularly well, while Funko Pop! Vinyls have also been in high demand this year. We have worked hard building up our relationship with Funko; getting the right stock mix on shelves with this type of product can be a bit of a skill, but we are very pleased with how sales of the range have picked up.

Pokémon cards continue to fly out of the door and as I write this, we’ve just taken delivery of the Panini Premier League Adrenalyn XL trading card game, and I expect those to sell well, along with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Adrenalyn trading cards. They are highly collectible and always a huge hit.

We have been selling a lot of travel games; Uno, Boggle, Pass the Pigs and Rubik’s Cube have been particularly popular. Anything that is under the £10 mark is strong. Bigger games, such as The Logo Game and Articulate! (Drumond Park) come into their own at Christmas, but we’re finding those sales are getting later and now don’t hit their peak until mid- November. However, they continue after Christmas too, when people are looking for games for New Year’s Eve parties, so that extends the selling period.

Jigsaw puzzle sales are still very strong and have been so ever since the pandemic. Ravensburger is our top supplier; we love the range because it is so widespread and covers every age bracket. Puzzles with top licences are incredibly popular, particularly pre-school evergreens such as Peppa Pig and Thomas & Friends. Newer licences such as Bluey, Bing, Super Mario, Hey Duggee and CoComelon are starting to achieve very high numbers too. Adults love anything a bit quirky, like Galt’s Wasgij range.

With such a busy summer, a lot of our efforts have been going into keeping the shelves stocked for the remainder of the season. Once that is done, we will move onto Christmas. We have started the buying already, of course, taking advantage of the deals that were on offer at the Toymaster Show in May, and hopefully we will have cleared the decks from summer before deliveries for the festive season start arriving.

Linda Hocking - Toy Arena, Fleet

The summer holidays have been busy for us. After all the problems of the pandemic over the past couple of years, the kids are enjoying being able to come into the shop and have a good look round. Our website and Facebook page have been helpful in promoting new stock and lines such as Squishmallows, where the kids like to keep up to date with what we have in. It’s lovely to have loyal, regular customers, so we do our best to keep them informed.

This shop has been here for over 50 years, and I’ve been in the business for 35 years, so I’ve seen a lot of neighbouring businesses come and go. We have managed to stay, and consider ourselves lucky, but the retail landscape has changed greatly in recent years.

It’s a delicate balance deciding what to stock and what not to stock, especially with basket spend a little bit lower at the moment, with people’s budgets being stretched. I listen to what our customers say and tailor the stock accordingly. For example, the amount customers want to spend for a birthday party present has gone down; it used to be around a £20 price point, but now £10 seems to be the norm. As a result, we have sourced new lines with lower price points which we can suggest to customers. This means we are still retaining our customer base and getting the sales, they just might not be as big. At least birthday parties are happening again though, which of course wasn’t the case during the lockdowns.

The shop takes up two floors, so we are able to carry a wide selection for customers to choose from. Squishmallows is still selling very well at the moment; the smaller ones are under the £10 mark, which is definitely helping to maintain sales. Sylvanian Families is also still popular; although these items have a higher price point, we find the children save up for them.

Pokémon trading cards are still a huge craze with both children and adults, and we stock both box sets and single packets. These are something the kids can afford with their pocket money and they love to add to their collections.

We stock a vast range of games from Orchard Toys, which sells well all year round. Once people enjoy a game, they remember the brand and come back for more. With more people going on holiday again this year, travel games have been popular, particularly lines such as Uno and Monopoly Bid, which don’t take up too much room in a suitcase. Traditional games such as Kerplunk and Twister are also consistent yearround sellers.

Jigsaw Puzzles are still a strong performer, and we sell a lot of Ravensburger lines. We get jigsaw enthusiasts of all ages coming in the shop, and our older customers especially love the 1000pc puzzles.

Some of the most popular ones are landscapes such as cottages, and animal scenes always sell well. There are also those who like the one-off limited editions, which I manage to keep in stock.

One of the advantages of being an independent toyshop is attracting different customers to the major stores, ones we can talk to about the products we stock, and who can give us feedback or tell us what they’re looking for. Our staff are very knowledgeable and experienced and can offer good advice. We enjoy great footfall in the shop, although not everyone may necessarily buy on that day, we think they like what they see, and they do tend to come back.

indie viewpoint

Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes - Toy Barnhaus

A new craze looming...?

At the moment, it seems things change so quickly from month to month, yet the news generally remains gloomy. As we write this, we have just seen interest rates rises by 0.5% - with this and all the other worries about the cost of living in the press, it was nice to have something to cheer about when the Lionesses won the Euro 2022 championship.

Our weather satellite has been on point for the last few weeks, but what started out as an advantage is now going to hurt us; with a predicted heat wave, we have just entered a hosepipe ban locally, so sales of paddling pools are bound to dry up (if you’ll pardon the pun)! Personally, we have also been devastated by the increase in cost of the McDonalds cheeseburger. However, on the positive side, July was a really strong month of sales and our best month since pre-Covid. The figures show that online sales are now starting to drop back from the lockdown highs and people are returning more and more to shopping malls. We are starting to run events in our malls now, and it’s clear there’s a real appetite for this. Customers seem very pleased to come back and participate in activities.

Fuelling the sales increase has been our outdoor ranges, Lego, plush and collectibles – sales of all these have been very strong. We mentioned quite a few products in our last column that have started to take off and this month, more new introductions are adding to that success. The latest series of SuperThings from Magicbox is a hit, and Magic Mixlings from Moose Toys has been extremely sought after. Although some suppliers still have nightmares over it, another craze that is coming back is Loom Bands. There is massive demand, and early sales are very strong. The Pocket Money category has continued to perform well over the summer. Although we are not quite reaching the volume of sales of last year, which was due to extremely high demand for push poppers, we are still selling anything squishy, stretchy or tactile in huge quantities. Given the price increases that are affecting all products, the lower prices of pocket money are proving attractive to customers who have less to spend this year.

Over the last few months it has been nice to get back into supplier showrooms, seeing both products and people. Most importantly, we are pleased to report that the standard of catering has not dipped post pandemic, and we have enjoyed some very nice lunches. It is key for us to get out to see products in the flesh again; something which has definitely been worthwhile.

Our last show of the year will be Autumn Fair at the NEC. We skipped Spring Fair earlier this year, so this will be our first time back for three years and is a last chance to pick up any new ranges for Christmas. We will focus on the toy and gift areas in order to supplement our offering for Q4. Every year we have been, we have always found something new, so we’re looking forward to seeing what we can find this time.

Let’s hope that by our next article, there is more positive news out there. But whatever happens, Christmas will still be Christmas.

As we draw nearer to the back end of the year, puzzles and games are key categories for us. For puzzles, the main season for selling is from September to April. Ravensburger is our key supplier for puzzles, and we fully support the entire range as we know people trust the quality and the brand. Following all the puzzles we sold during the lockdowns, there has been a bit of a drop back in sales, especially of lines for adults, but we are still pleased with the volume we do and expect a bit of an uplift once Christmas gifting purchases start. However, kids’ puzzles are still selling well all year round as gifts, especially licensed options.

At the start of September, it’s time to get ready for the key season, and we move our stores around accordingly. The main category we expand upon substantially is games, taking footage from outdoor as that naturally slows. After last Christmas, we ended up with quite a bit of excess games stock as we had lower-thanexpected sales. We assume this is probably an after effect of the number of games sold during lockdown. We haven’t spotted a really hot new game yet this year - nothing to replicate the success of something like the viral sensation Pie Face. So far this year, we have stuck with the core classic games, and we will wait to see what starts to sell before committing to anything else, although we will of course be checking out the Toy World special Games Supplement for inspiration!