Rethinking toys for what it's not: traditional, simple and static - Editorial
Author: DSN Retailing Today

Go ahead. Call me a bleeding heart retail lover. I deserve it. Over the holidays, I brought my son and daughter to the local mall where we did all of our toy shopping at FAO Schwarz. And after we dropped a couple hundred dollars, my kids were ecstatic--and I was feeling pretty good about myself, having done my part to support an ailing retailer.

It's a funny thing with me. Like people who feel compelled to bring in stray dogs or call the police when an suspicious vehicle circles the neighborhood, I somehow view it as my civic responsibility to unload cash at dying retailers. When Caldors was on the ropes, for instance, I was out there buying up cheap sweaters and athletic wear like it was going out of style--which in the case of Caldors wasn't far from the truth.

But these days, buying into the notion that dropping a few hundred sheckles into a dying retailer can help resuscitate a chain--especially within the specialty toy sector--can be a costly habit. Just look at the recent holiday season. Had I known going into the holidays what I know now--that KB, Kids "R" Us, Imaginarium and FAO were facing dire situations--my habit of helping out struggling chains could have run up quite a costly toy bill; it may even have forced me to join KB and FAO in bankruptcy.

Unlike most consumers, though, I'm not looking at the toy retailing situation and lamenting about where to buy toys next year (like most people, I'll worry about that come mid-December). I am, on the other hand, genuinely concerned about the future of vertical toy retailing--especially in the wake of the massive toy shakeout of the recent holiday season.