For more information call: or email: sales@epochmakingtoys.com


of time, energy and money into our retail stores, and we have some of the best staff in the toy industry, so it really is fantastic for all of their effort that we have been awarded as one of the best. It also must be noted that without the help of our suppliers we would not be where we currently are, and we really appreciate them working with us for so many years.


The biggest impact that we are coming up against has to be the trend in shopping online. It breaks my heart to see the huge percentage of sales being carried out online by our consumers, especially when we try to focus on traditional values such as making sure every customer walks out of our store with the right item for whatever child will


Mark Stewart owner, Wise Owl Toys,


be getting the toy, but the staff knowledge and potential is wasted when people simply purchase an item at the cheapest price without talking to anyone. Toys are not as simple to consumers as books or DVDs, these are items that we are giving to our kids, and there should be thought put into this before purchasing. Another huge impact that we are having to battle against is decreasing domestic margin. I get frustrated when I see an order form, in which someone has been tasked with inputting and calculating the cost prices and RRPs, how these people can be happy to finalise a document that gives the retailer less than 30% margin return, this is simply ridiculous. And for the suppliers who read this article, don’t advise


Worcester We were originally a left-handed retailer, as our four-year-old son was left-handed and it was very difficult to find anything for him outside of London. My wife, Heather, and I stocked training videos, practice books etc, before we joined Formative Fun in the same premises to become a traditional, educational toy shop. Eventually we decided to go independent and became Wise Owl Toys, as we still had an educational slant but wanted to make it clearer to customers that we stocked toys, too, and we chose an owl as our mascot as they are seen as being intelligent. We still have a left-handed section in the left corner of the store, and we run courses for teachers and early years’ groups, which fits in well with what we do. If other independents are interested in stocking educational supplies for left- handed children, we are even able to supply them. We have two websites, one for the toy shop and one for the left-handed products. The toys site doesn’t do as well as the left- handed one, as left-handed products are more of a niche area. In terms of general toys we do a lot of


Bigjigs, Orchard Toys, Galt, Esdevium, Papo, and we have sections for science, literacy, baby and toddler, and creative; we aim to offer a really broad selection of products from birth upwards. We’re based in the town centre in the Shambles, which runs parallel to the high street. It’s amazing that we’ve done so well but we have a lot of nice customers who spread our name through word of mouth and bring us repeat custom. Over the


28 Toyworld


last 14 years we’ve built up a good base of customers, we work with local playgroups and we usually circulate 30,000 copies of our catalogue throughout Worcester’s


population of around 100,000 people. We’re also quite active on Facebook, where we recently got a reach of 1,440 people for our Dobble Challenge win and run a Dobble Around the World photo album which our fans send images in for. Business has been tough, but we’re holding on and we’re doing okay. Our clientele tends to be grandparents and parents keen to be proactive with their children, so our ranges of quality toys and games keep us going. Dobble is a top seller for us, though generally other than that not one thing is better than others. The guys at Esdevium told us that they decided to set up the Dobble Challenge because it was our sales the previous year that had been so good, and they realised that if other independents could demo it then sales would go up as well. We didn’t go out of our way to win this year because we were already doing so well with it and just carried on, so when we realised we’d won we were delighted. It’s such a great game but doesn’t sell itself so it’s great that it can be demonstrated easily at Toy Fair/ Spring Fair and in-store. For me, I hate conveyer belt shopping,


I really like to help and talk to customers and create a good experience for both sides,


me that you are responsible for “driving the consumers into our stores through your TV marketing”, the cost price for TV items is higher, so in actual fact we are the ones that pay for the TV advertising! All we can do is keep striving for


improvements across every aspect of our business, and to keep “ducking and diving” to keep up to date with where our consumers are shopping, I just wish that the high street retailers had it a little bit easier and could still provide a service to their local communities that was appreciated and respected throughout, but it seems to be pushing further and further from this ideal all the time.


with everyone happy knowing that what the customer has bought is going to make a real difference to the user. That’s what I like about having a shop. My two sons are grown now, but I think children are fascinating, and it’s wonderful to think that you can help left- handed children, for example, and see them having fun playing with toys that will have a positive effect. We’re also happy to open boxes and allow families to see and touch the products and ask questions, the internet is very good and has its place but it can’t provide the same experience that in-store can in that way. We get Green Board Games, Orchard and Esdevium products out in-store – we’re enthusiastic to our customers and proactive in the games section, suggesting games like Dobble and helping people pick out presents. For this year we’ll carry on with the Dobble Challenge, we saw some interesting new bits at Toy Fair and Spring Fair so we’ll be considering those, we’ll move things around and rethink where things are going – and we’ll continue reading Toy World emails!


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