Paul Wohl owner and tea boy, Argosy Toys,
Southend-on-Sea Argosy toys opened in 1947, and my parents bought it in 1987 when the owner thought that the days of the independents were numbered. I bought the shop from my parents nine years ago when they retired; I kind of drifted into it as a teenager and I’ve been here for 26 years now. Business is okay; the beginning of the year wasn’t great because it was so cold, but now people are going for lower price points and buying more of them, which the independents are always good for. People aren’t spending so much on the bigger ticket items; things above £30 aren’t really going - obviously it will all change as Christmas approaches, though. With the good Summer this year we obviously did really
well on Outdoor, and we got rid of the paddling pools and water pistols that had been sitting in the shop for the last few years; I didn’t reorder anything as I didn’t have confi dence in the weather, but I’m just glad to be rid of the old stock. With the Summer product gone, we’re using the space for all the Christmas stock. We’ve got products from the Toymaster catalogue coming in across the line, while we’re more cautious of the high-profi le products as the prices get hammered by the multiples. So instead of the big brand suppliers we work with wholesalers like Peterkin, whose traditional lines sell day in, day out. Categories that have always done well for us at
Christmas include the usual; dolls, musical instruments, Lego, and crafty products which have always been good. Games are good, but not as good as they have been in the past. Nursery products always do well; people want to spend more on the cute new babies. Character licensed products are not important for us; the margins are just too low and the time span on them is very short. Suppliers clear their stock three months after launch, and as an independent we haven’t sold through on them by then. On Pocket Money toys, trading cards and Top Trumps continue to do well, as do die-cast like Hot Wheels.
The independent voice...
viewpoint Indie
By hook or by crook we’re finding the space H
i all, with the back-to-school period and the end of Summer coinciding, the Barnhaus satellite is predicting some very unsettled weather. The Summer holiday trade has been good for us, and with the weather
now turning more autumnal, we are optimistic for the coming months. The sales on back-to-school products seem to come later and later each year,
but performance on kids lunch bags and stationery was very strong. Now though, Christmas is fi rmly on our minds, and the deliveries are starting to roll in.
Each year, we always ask the same question: where is it going to go? By hook or by crook, we usually fi nd space, and by the time you read this, our warehouses will not be full up yet. This year, we have moved our stores around for Christmas two weeks earlier in an attempt to get more stock out; and thank goodness we have, with the amount of stock arriving now. The early signs on a lot of the new lines for Christmas are good, with a lot of lines selling as soon as we put them out, and we are having to re-order already. Examples of these are the Barbie Campervan, Imaginext Apatosaurus and the new VTech Toot Toot items. An early winner for stocking fi llers is the Robofi sh, which is literally swimming out the door for us at the moment. And do not underestimate the Chill Factor from Character Options, as kids like slushies whatever the temperature. Last week, we did our usual dash to the NEC for Autumn Fair, which we always fi nd is a
great chance to pick up last minute bargains, and any new items we may have missed. And this year, it did not disappoint. Martin Grossman had some great show deals up his sleeve, we always end up spending more than we intended on his stand. A real winner we saw on the Bladez Toyz stand was the RC Infl atable Minion, which was great fun. To break the day up, we had a nice lunch with the Toy World guys: my god can Stephen talk. However Tom, next time we expect a three course dinner. (I’ll check with the boss. - Ed.) Seriously though, it was good to have a chat about what’s going on in the trade. With Christmas soon upon us, one area that often gets overlooked due to its price points, is pocket money. However, if you look at the sales uplift from this category, it is one that is defi nitely worth investing in. We use HTI for its My Toy range of pocket money items, which provide a great range of stocking fi llers. For the sub-£1 price point, we fi nd that Henbrandt do a fantastic range that is ideal for stockings and party bags. However, every year we fi nd the items that sell best are whoopee cushions, marbles and fart putty; you can never go wrong with these. Character Licensed merchandise plays a key part across all categories in our stores,
with probably nearly half our products being attached to a licence. For the rest of this year, Disney Planes will be very strong as a licence for the rest of the year, and Doc McStuffi n has proved to be a winner so far. Another opportunity is Princess Sofi a, which is showing good sales off only a limited range of products so far. Evergreen licences for us include Disney Princess for the girls, Spiderman and Batman for the boys, and these deliver for us all year round.
Anyway, that sounds like the back door bell ringing again. Who ordered 20 pallets of
Playmobil?! Happy selling.
If you would like to get involved
with next month’s Talking Shop, please get in touch with Kayleigh:
01442 840 306, @KayleighConners
kayleigh@toyworldmag.co.uk
Mark Buschhaus and Stephen Barnes, Toy Barnhaus Toyworld 57
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