Celebrating our independence July 2013’s Independent Retailer Month is all done and dusted; Toy World spoke to some of the toy industry’s indies to fi nd out what they did to celebrate.


Helen & Gerard Gourley, Toy Hub, Dunblane We had a few things happening for the month of July; we ran a competition over the last few weeks of June and announced the winner on Indie Retail Day – 4th July. Customers who spent £15 or more on Lego were entered into a prize draw to win four tickets to Legoland Windsor. Throughout July we offered double points for Loyalty


Card holders, meaning they got two points for every £1 spent in store over the month. We also held a Top Model Colouring Competition


throughout the month. Customers could pop in to collect a colouring-in form and three winners will be picked at the beginning of August to win a Top Model Goody Bag each. To celebrate the launch of our new website at the beginning of July, we offered our online customers the chance to shop independent by offering free delivery on all online orders throughout the month of July.


Bhav Patel, Toy Galaxy The activities and competitions we had running this July included a Play-Doh activity day, a Hama Beads Take and Make competition, and a Nerf Shootout competition, which ran in all stores and rotated on the weekends. Along with that, we highlighted the key benefi ts to customers of using independent retailers such as ourselves. This mainly focused on the customer experience in-store, which with a high level of customer service and the personal experience, speaks volumes to our customers in itself.


Ian Moore, Howleys, Weymouth I promoted the national campaign organised by The National Skills Academy encouraging the public to shop at an independent retailer on 4th July, in both our stores and by encouraging all the other independent stores in our town to get involved as well. There are a lot of independent retailers in our town and I think a lot of locals value these stores and use them as much as they can. It is encouraging to see this support and I am sure this campaign will be very successful and will lead to more people checking out the small stores before going to the supermarkets. We just need our local council to realise that our customers do not like paying £5.20 to park in town for the afternoon - then the town would be a lot busier!


Independent Retailer Month is an annual global ‘Shop Local’ campaign which runs throughout the month of July, to champion the role that local independent


retailers play in the communities they serve. For more information on the initiative, please visit www.independentretailermonth.co.uk.


Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes, Toy Barnhaus Toyworld 21


The independent voice...


viewpoint Indie


How we learned to love paddling pools H


i all. You can all thank us now; the Toy Barnhaus satellite has delivered the Summer weather we were all hoping for. As we write this, fan on maximum next to us, temperatures are hitting 30 degrees outside with no end in sight. With all the big majors out of paddling pools, we both have rather


big smiles on our faces. We pre-empted the weather, and managed to get pallets of pools in, and have this morning stripped any suppliers of their last remaining stock. As ever, the Intex range from Kandy Toys has been our best seller, and with blown up paddling pools on display in all of our malls, we are maximising the opportunity. Out of this, we have found a great secondary sale of RoboFish from Tobar, which will keep the kids company in the pool. To escape from the sun, we both had a great night at the cinema watching


Despicable Me 2. Following on from this, we got in the Minion plush, and what a winner it has been. It is one of those products that has appealed to kids and adults alike, and, after paddling pools, it is our bestseller at the moment. With our next trips to the cinema booked to see Monsters University and Disney Planes, the early signs are that the toys from both of these fi lms will be popular. Generally this time of year, we fi nd our plush sales slow down a bit, as no one wants to cuddle something in the 30 degree heat. However, we do fi nd that people do like putting something on their hands, as our puppet sales are very strong. We carry a range in all stores from The Puppet Company, but the only thing we fi nd is that they end up all over the store, and the adults have as much fun as the kids with them. A good category for any independent toy shop is wooden toys, and we have


increased the space for it in our shops over the last year. We carry the Bigjigs road and rail range, which has a wide selection of items at good prices, and customers always come back to add to their collection. One of our fi nds at the Toymaster show was the Evie and Jack wooden range from ABGee. The range covers all the classic toys, is of good quality, and we were both taken back with the prices; so much so, we had to ask twice. To all our readers, a date for your diary is the 29th August as it sees the release of


the One Direction fi lm...as Mark has been reliably informed by his daughter. It is a licence that we were a bit unsure of at fi rst, but seems to be growing year on year. The dolls from Vivid continue to be very popular, and other items we have had success with include the Zip bands and tattoos. With another album coming out this year, I think they are here to stay. After all the barbecues we have had over the last few weeks it is time to shed some


pounds, and what better way than a visit to the NEC for Autumn Fair at the beginning of September. Although not as big as Spring Fair, it is a great opportunity to fi ll any gaps in our ranges for Christmas. We always fi nd when we go there that we’ll uncover a real gem of a line that we would never have found otherwise. This is us signing off, with sledge orders as the next priority. Happy selling, and enjoy the rest of Summer.


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