Retail
ith its fun window stickers and colourful panels declaring “I am unique” and “I am worthy”, SENsory Toy Shop is by far the most striking store front on Mill Lane, Wallasey. Sitting between a printer’s shop and a hairdresser’s, the brainchild of owners Leanne and Adam Eaton opened in April 2021, just as the UK emerged from lockdown, and aims to be that rare thing: a truly inclusive toy shop for every child. The range of toys on offer here cater for wheelchair users and for children with ASD, ADHD, ADD, SPD, blindness, deafness and neurological disorders; the shop even has its own sensory room where customers can go for a moment of calm. Neither Leanne nor Adam – a former
SENsory Toy Shop W
pro footballer turned mortgage advisor and property developer – have a retail background, but Leanne has a wealth of SEN expertise. A sign language whiz, she was employed as a support worker for deaf children and those with additional needs for
several years. In fact, it was her desire to find gifts for the children she worked with that sparked the idea of opening a shop. “As well as being deaf, some of the kids Leanne worked with were in wheelchairs, some had autism, and every Christmas, she and the SEN team would struggle to find appropriate gifts for them,” Adam explains. “We used to talk about it a lot – how amazing it would be to create a place that was as inclusive as possible, that provided toys for kids with every type of disability… And then the opportunity presented itself.” When premises that Adam owned on Mill Lane became vacant, the couple set about sourcing products, toys and games that would be truly representative. The shelves are now stocked with dolls in wheelchairs, with Down’s syndrome and with a range of different skin tones; ‘Mellie the Deaf Elephant’, who loves to wear her owner’s implants at night; colour-changing lamps; Braille books; fidget spinners; traditional wooden toys, and much more. Despite the wealth of items on offer, Adam admits finding the right products is a struggle. “There is stuff out there, but
getting access to it is tricky,” he says. “Often the suppliers don’t have UK distributors or they don’t ship to the UK, so now we’re having to look into finding a US distributor and getting goods delivered to them, and then shipped to us separately.” As you’d expect from a shop that caters to
a diverse range of children, at SENsory Toy Shop there’s no such thing as a bestseller. “What’s popular depends on the client,” Adam explains. Sight-impaired children, for instance, love tactile toys, or – if they have partial sight – light-up toys they can hold close to their eyes. “Day-to-day stuff like fidget toys tend to sell themselves,” says Adam. “Melissa & Doug wooden toys are always popular, as are fibre-optic lights, salt lamps and old-school favourites like Newton’s cradles and pin art. We’ve also got Hey Duggee and CoComelon soft toys. We just aim to have as much variety as possible, so that when people do come in, or look on the website, they can find exactly what they want.” Some companies are doing better than
others when it comes to inclusivity. “Barbie has a decent range,” says Adam, “and Miniland do some great ethnically diverse dolls. But again, because the products come from Spain, we’ve had to wait 10 months for one particular range of dolls. I just think it takes a while for the bigger companies to catch on.” With nearly 5,000 Facebook followers,
SENsory Toy Shop benefits from community and word-of-mouth support; families come to visit it not just from the Wirral but across the northwest. Adam and Leanne, however, aren’t focusing on upscaling just yet. Adam explains: “We were asked to franchise recently and we said no, because with family, pets, other work, volunteering [at The Hive, a local youth hub] and so on, life is quite hectic, and we don’t want to run before we can walk. For now, we want to take each day as it comes and just enjoy what we do.”
114 Mill Lane, Wallasey, Wirral CH44, 3BL; 0151 458 3200;
www.sensorytoyshop.com
16 | ToyNews | Spring/Summer 2022
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