Coming soon: Temporary Toys R Us store will open in Harlem this week (Photo courtesy Toys R Us)
Blitzing into the uptown toy market, Toys R Us has announced that it will open one of its 350 holiday “pop-up” stores at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard this week.
The Harlem store will be about 4,000 square feet in size and will remain open through January, according to the company’s corporate communications office. Toys R Us spokesman Linda DeNotaris could not specify how many employees would be hired but said via email that such temporary shops, some freestanding and some within existing Babies R Us stores, would hire around 1000 workers nationwide.
In 2008, US retail toy sales reached almost $22 billion dollars, with leader Toys R Us commandeering more than a third of the market. The toy industry has been relatively unaffected by the recession, with sales falling 3 percent in the last 12 months. It has consistently outperformed other consumer product categories like apparel, technology and video games, sales of which fell 5 percent or more this year, according to the NDP Group.
But Dennys Franklin, manager of Grandma’s Place, Harlem’s best known toy boutique, wasn’t daunted. “It will boost our sales,” she predicted. “A lot of people don’t like pushing and shoving and the crowds, and they like our atmosphere.” Last year, the boutique, just seven blocks away from the upcoming Toys R Us, saw profits of $14,000 from November to January.
Toys R Us’ brand of bright, plastic playthings will not appeal to uptowners, Franklin maintained. “A lot of the toys we sell are unique, and they are only sold in small boutiques like ours,” she said. “Our wooden puzzles and dollhouses are heirlooms, and Toys R Us simply cannot match that.”
Indeed, when, Toys R Us announced its sales trends for the holiday season, it focused on toys manufactured by major companies like Fisher Price, Hasbro, and Leapfrog. In contrast, Franklin says her biggest Christmastime sellers are wooden Victorian dollhouses.
Ruby Thomas, a local mother of two, doesn’t plan to change her shopping habits. “I don’t think Toys R Us when I want to buy a gift,” she said at Grandma’s Place. “My kids come in here and lay on the rug, and the experience is completely different.” Franklin’s shop is certainly different from the neat, orderly aisles of Toys R Us. Books and toys are scattered throughout the store, and almost nothing is wrapped in plastic, leaving kids free to play with everything.
“Their motto is ‘batteries not included;’ they want to unplug the children,” said Thomas. “Even I like coming in here, because these are the toys I grew up with.”
