Posted on 8th Jul 2011 @ 10:38 AM

Are toy shops selling out?

As more and more toys hit the shelves these days, bombarding us with the very latest in action figures and movie franchise toys, are the toy shops forgetting other toys and games? There seems to be a real shortage of toy shops dealing in the more traditional and staple elements of children’s entertainment like they used to. Is this simply because there isn’t room for it anymore, or do they really not sell as well?

Evidence about which one is actually the case isn’t always easy to find, particularly since toy shops aren’t stocking as much traditional and staple entertainment as they used to, favouring the fashionable toys; we can never work out just how much of this stuff toy shops are capable of selling.

The traditional toys

We’re not talking about spinning tops and wooden hoops here of course, we’re talking about the type of things that toy shops used to be full of not too long ago, like: cars, dolls, craft things, painting accessories etc. These if you’re lucky enough to find toy shops that stock all this stuff you’ll usually find that they’ve got the name of a movie attached to them or they’ve been branded in one way or another.

Toy shops have changed now and they even put some of the more traditional type of toys in shops that are specifically designed for days gone by on the high street. This is all very retro and agreeable to some shoppers, but most would prefer this stuff to remain in the toy shops where they can access it all under one roof.

The new breed

The new breed of toy shops can exist in two forms. These shops will sell all the modern products and it will be very rare that you’ll see anything made by an independent toy maker. Most, if not all the stock in the new toy shops are produced by major toy manufacturers and virtually all of it is merchandise to go with the latest Disney movie or TV show on Nickelodeon.

These toy shops will exist on the high street in places where they can be sure to do enough business, and of course online. Most good toy shops exist online these days to make it nice and easy for shoppers to get what they need 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Online toy shops

Of course the alternative is the online toy shops. These shops can specialise and they can also stock a lot more than the stores on the high street because they don’t have to pay for expensive shop fronts etc. All their stock is in storage and is simply mailed out to the customer when they order it online. So if you want to get your hands all the old style stuff, plus some of the newer merchandise, shopping in online toy shops is probably the best way to go.