Talking Shop

Fab-yule-ous!

Toy World’s Sam Giltrow spoke to a selection of indies as they gear up for the all-important festive trading season, although this year many are finding that the Christmas rush is already well underway.

Linda Robinson - Grovers Toymaster, Northallerton

We are getting very busy in the run up to Christmas and people do seem to be acting on the ‘buy early’ message. However, we have inevitably been experiencing some stock shortages.

Schleich is a very popular range for us, across everything from dinosaurs to wildlife and farm animals. We like to keep our display topped up, which has proved something of a challenge recently. As the range is one of our best sellers, we are placing big orders and just hoping that as much as possible comes through.

In fact, keeping many of our traditionally bestselling ranges in stock across the store is an issue this year. I’m assuming that with all the shipping problems, stock is just stuck in containers, and will arrive eventually. All we can do is keep putting in orders and see what turns up. However, I have just received a large order from Ravensburger, and we’ve had stock from Zapf Creation and Orchard Toys this week, so thankfully there are suppliers who are able to keep pace with what we want.

In terms of what is currently selling well, dolls seem very popular, particularly the bigger dolls such as Baby Annabell. Barbie is also still a massive draw, and we recently took stock of the Barbie Fashionista Doll with Wheelchair and Ramp, which has sold out already.

In terms of licensed product, Peppa Pig continues to sell well along with Paw Patrol ranges, which we get from VTech and Spin Master.

Our Lego and Playmobil lines just sell themselves. The Lego City range is the most popular, along with Technic and Friends. We tend to stick to the more reasonably priced sets but bring in some bigger ones nearer Christmas.

We are in a rural area, so we sell a lot of farmingrelated toys such as tractors. The Britains range is particularly popular.

It’s difficult to predict what are going to be best sellers this Christmas – it might be a case of whatever we can get. We run a Christmas Club in store, but numbers for this have gone down over the years. I guess it’s because of the way people spend now, using credit cards and the like.

We offer a voucher promotion to try and encourage people back into the shop in the New Year; based on their spend before Christmas, they get a voucher towards purchases made in January. This is in a local booklet for the town, and quite a few people take us up on it.

In terms of what is coming up in Q1, it’s the new Schleich launches that we look forward to. However, right now, it is difficult to look too far ahead, because everything we receive is just going straight onto the shelves - our stock room is empty. We need to get Christmas out of the way before we can start thinking about next spring and summer.

We are expecting that games will sell well again this year as families get together. We carry a wide range which doesn’t usually pick up until December when people are looking for things to do over Christmas, but customers are stocking up on them already. However, this is an area where stock levels are good, so we are not worried about supply. The classic games are the ones which seem to be selling best, such as Monopoly and Scrabble. Even though many people already have them, they get refreshed and many people are looking to replace old sets they have had for many years.

I think people are worried that they won’t get what they want this Christmas, and the television and media reports are not helping. I’m sure nobody will go without and there will be something, even if it’s not exactly what they are looking for. We are happy to suggest alternatives to customers from the stock we have in.

Gavin Rosenquest - owner/CEO, Toys ‘N’ Stuff, Hull

We opened just a few weeks ago and so far, trading has been going really well. I run the shop with my wife, Julie, and although this is our first shop and everything is new to us, we have had a really positive response from the local community and a wide range of customers through our doors.

It has been a long-held dream to have my own shop. I was previously working as an operations manager in the food industry, so have a good understanding of how businesses work from the ground up. While we were looking for premises, we started an online shop, which we managed to get up and running a few weeks before we opened.

I suppose you could consider it a brave move to start a new business in the current climate, but I wanted to capitalise on the fact that people were pleased to get back into shops following the lockdown. I decided to strike while the iron’s hot.

In Hull, we are unique. There aren’t many places that carry the range that we offer in a small shop; we have even had someone travel from Manchester to visit us. We are in a great location on a main road leading into the city centre, and there’s a bus stop right outside – you can see people craning their necks to see what we have in the shop window.

We stock a wide variety of product including mainstream toys, infant toys and collectibles such as DC and Marvel figures, and we sell American confectionery.

We carry a lot of licensed lines, and Spider-Man is particularly popular. Hasbro’s Ghostbuster Plasma Series figures are also in demand; the detail on these is incredible and a real hit with collectors. We have a full corner dedicated to Ghostbusters, which also includes Ghostbusters Monopoly and Proton Packs. The franchise spans generations, and with the new Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie coming out soon, we’re expecting this area to be even more popular.

We haven’t really experienced many stock shortages yet, just a small delay in some deliveries getting to us because of the driver shortage. Our customers are buying earlier for Christmas though. We run a Christmas club, so they have been able to put toys away and pay them off gradually. We have an oldfashioned book where we keep a record of what’s been bought, and I like doing that the traditional way; the main reason I wanted to open the shop was to get some kind of 1980s feel back into toys and shopping. I want my customers to have the same experience that I did when I was a child.

Looking ahead at what will sell well this Christmas, I expect Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn So Big Sis and So Big Puppy will be popular. He-Man looks to be in demand, and several customers have put away the Masters of the Universe Origins Castle Grayskull Playset.

We are working with a few company reps about expanding our offering with new ranges; we have another part of the shop which will open up after Christmas and will double the size of the shop floor. We will then be able to introduce more tabletop games and board games.

Although this is an ongoing learning curve, I am very excited to see how we can build on the early success we have enjoyed.

Sarah Borastero - Kids Stuff, Wells

People are most definitely shopping early for Christmas this year. We had an unbelievable August – the best for many years - which rolled into a spectacular September, followed by a strong October. Back in August, many customers told me they were starting their Christmas shopping, buying gifts to put away just in case they couldn’t get hold of them later or we go into another lockdown.

The ‘shop local’ message got through to many people over the course of the pandemic and has become a lasting change in the way they now shop. During the first lockdown, we offered a free delivery service for those spending over a certain amount. People were absolutely delighted with this, and local support was brilliant. Many customers now tell us that they don’t want to buy their toys online, as they would rather get them from us and support local businesses where they can.

One of the main benefits we can offer compared to online sellers is that we can provide advice and suggestions for anyone coming into the shop looking for something in particular – if it’s not in stock we can usually offer an alternative. Going into a physical shop allows customers to see what else is on offer.

This year Toymaster has launched an initiative to help members encourage customers to come back in store in the new year. We have £5 vouchers to give to customers spending a certain amount in the run up to Christmas; I believe it’s the first time they have done this since I became a Toymaster member 12 years ago. We also have our own loyalty card scheme, but I think the voucher will be very helpful and is a brilliant idea.

Kids are sending their parents and grandparents in for certain toys for Christmas, and we unfortunately can’t get hold of everything requested. However, they seem to accept that if they can’t get a particular item, they will just have to get something else, which means we keep their custom. We have known about the supply chain problems for months, so in the early part of the year I was ordering more than I normally would, which has built up stock on key lines.

We are very much a traditional toy shop and everyone that comes in appreciates that. In the Christmas run-up this year, we have seen customers going back to traditional toys and games, as they did last year. Board games, arts and crafts and Lego are all selling very well - people seem to want a nostalgic Christmas with familiarity.

Family party games have been selling particularly well, especially Shut the Box, which has been trending on TikTok - I’ve been selling them by the boxful. Classic games like Scrabble, Cluedo and Monopoly are also popular, as are games from Orchard Toys, which have sold amazingly well this year.

Dolls are always strong sellers for us too, both girl and boy dolls, and buggies in pink and blue. I’ve sold just as many newborn dolls for boys as I have for girls this year; I feel it is important that boys should be able to play with dolls.

Plush toys remain popular, and we’ve been really impressed with the Keeleco range from Keel Toys which has sold phenomenally well. The animals are really appealing with their big eyes, and at an excellent price point too. It’s lovely that the kids come in and read the labels and see that the toy is made from old plastic bottles.

Pocket money toys are also flying out the door as many people are buying these to give to their children throughout December instead of buying advent calendars. However, there are some fantastic toy advent calendars, in particular the Playmobil Novelmore Dario’s Workshop, which is a castle. It’s huge, and amazingly good value for someone wanting an inexpensive castle starter set.

We are very much looking forward to the new year and already thinking ahead to next spring and summer. We had a fantastic summer this year; we get an awful lot of tourists visiting Wells, stopping on their way down to Cornwall or visiting nearby Glastonbury. Because lots of families stayed in the UK this year, it really boosted business for independent toy shops, which is absolutely fantastic. Now that many have re-discovered the joys of family holidays in the UK, I am very hopeful this will continue for next year.

Indie Viewpoint

Thinking ahead

By the time you read this we will be in the final two months of 2021, and it really does feel like this year has flown by. This time last year, we were about to enter another sudden lockdown and start what became a very bleak winter for retail. This time around, there is plenty more to look forward to, and although there will surely be some bumps along the way, hopefully things will be more “normal” than last year. Media headlines have moved on to the current distribution issues - we’ve been fielding calls from journalists and seeing various well-known toy industry figures on TV at regular intervals. Although there is no sign of panic buying to the extent there was at the petrol pumps last month, there has been a noticeable uptick in sales as some customers bring forward their shopping. We have been honest and open with our customers, telling them we have lots of stock (which we do), but that the range is likely to become more limited closer to Christmas.

Overall, sales have been good over the past month, and customers seem determined to enjoy this Christmas more than the last one. The new Pokémon Celebration launch was a huge success; although demand massively outstripped supply, it resulted in a bumper few days. Other than Pokémon, L.O.L. Surprise! continues to sell strongly, with new lines continually added to the range. Anything from the Godzilla films is still in high demand – they have been our most popular action figures this year. Mini Brands from Zuru and Goo Jit Zu from Character remain really popular.

We are starting to look at lines for the early part of next year. Given the known stock issues, having new lines for January will help to freshen up the store and provide reasons for customers to come to our locations. A key issue that continues to rear its head is price rises, and we expect there are more to come next year, due to the high cost of container shipping and raw material costs. An advantage of getting in new lines is there is less price expectation, so it can be easier to manage our profit margins. With existing lines, there is only so much movement on price we can take before it really harms sales.

We are previewing SS22 lines later than usual this year due to the all the recent disruption but have seen some exciting Lego lines, including additions to the models targeted at older fans, which should help drive sales, along with new lines across all the key themes. For the first couple of months of the year, new Lego lines make up a significant proportion of our sales and are a great footfall driver.

We were impressed by the new lines from Character, including a link-up between Treasure X and Minecraft, which seems like a very good fit and is sure to sell well. There are some great new Jurassic World lines, which we expect to be very popular with the new film releasing next year. We are due to see more new ranges in the next few weeks, and it will be a priority to place orders and get them in where we can.

We have already started to think about outdoor toys for next summer. This is a category that may well be hit hard by price increases on the larger lines. We have managed to take in a good supply of paddling pools to store for the summer season, just so we can keep the prices down for our customers. You always have to think ahead in this game…