132 CSD


toy buyers. “Consequently, you, the cus-


tomer, are changing play from what you’ve known in the past to the future,” says Osborne. “You’re actually hands-on in developing products.” Wonder Works is like the Lowcountry’s Disney World of toys, an always-happy place that has thrived for more than 26 years. The franchise continues to expand and will soon move its Mount Pleasant location to a larger space in the same shop- ping center. Osborne and her staff are now go-to industry experts, and their company has been named one of the best toy retailers in the country by the American


Specialty Toy Retailers Association. They owe their success to the first-class mix of products that fire up the imagination and intellect and to the social nature of the stores. Osborne and her staff encourage play, which makes Wonder Works a community hub for families— something not seen in big box toy retailers. “One store is next to a Harris


Teeter, so families do their gro- cery shopping and then mom brings the kids here for hands- on play. They meet up with other families doing the same thing. They have so much fun! They can even have a themed birthday party here in our birth- day room, where more magic


can happen,” says Osborne. If Wonder Works is a locomo- tive, ideas and enthusiasm are the engines that propel it. For the Christmas season, Wonder Works is once again sponsoring Elfstravaganza, a free street fair of toys, games, food and entertainment where every child attending receives a free toy. It’s slated this year for November 12 at Belle Hall Shopping Center in Mount Pleasant.


All this initiative comes, in


part, from Osborne’s late part- ner, Dan Morissey, who advised her, before his passing, to follow her own passion and not his. As a result, everything you see at Wonder Works has been handpicked by the “head magic


maker” and her team, not just for the ingenuity of the products but for their quality and safety as well.


“If we don’t help develop


and promote the best toy ideas and bring them to Charleston, who will?” Osborne asks. Find Osborne in one of the stores and ask her what other ideas are on the horizon. 2


Visit Wonder Works stores in the Belle Hall Shopping Center, Mount Pleasant; St. Andrews Shopping Center, West Ashley;


the Great Hall at Charleston’s City Market; and in Freshfields Village on Kiawah Island. wonderworkstoys.com


Barry Waldman is principal at Big Fly Communications, a PR firm.


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