'It's a magical experience kids never forget': Why toy stores are thriving while others are struggling
Once upon a time - well, only the other day, in fact, a Monday morning during summer vacation - in the beautiful city of Bath, a building stood. Just opposite the train station. It was - it still is - a large and beautiful building, built not so long ago but in a Georgian style befitting its historic setting. But it is not a happy building because its owners have fallen on hard times and left. Now the Debenhams building stands empty, haunted by the ghosts of shop assistants, a relic of another happier era of retail.
Hold the fiddles, though, and walk around the corner to St Lawrence Street, where you'll find a small pocket of life – of joy even – occupying a unit within the same building. Here is a window filled with hot air balloons, a red pedal car, mice, a huge wooden fantasy castle. It could be Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Toy Story 2, Big, Angela Carter even, if you want to go darker or classier: choose your own cultural comparison. This independent toy store, called My Small World, is run by a woman called Dawn Burden and I spend the morning here.
First of all, before entering to play, the why part. Because this little scene in Bath is a bigger picture of detail in a microcosm. Amid widespread misery on high streets, department stores closing and household names going online or disappearing altogether, for toy stores the story is less dark and bleak, more boom.
Toy store sales from January to June 2022 increased by 44% compared to the same period last year. Duh, you say: containment at the start of 2021, that's why. Granted, it has a lot to do with it - but...
Once upon a time - well, only the other day, in fact, a Monday morning during summer vacation - in the beautiful city of Bath, a building stood. Just opposite the train station. It was - it still is - a large and beautiful building, built not so long ago but in a Georgian style befitting its historic setting. But it is not a happy building because its owners have fallen on hard times and left. Now the Debenhams building stands empty, haunted by the ghosts of shop assistants, a relic of another happier era of retail.
Hold the fiddles, though, and walk around the corner to St Lawrence Street, where you'll find a small pocket of life – of joy even – occupying a unit within the same building. Here is a window filled with hot air balloons, a red pedal car, mice, a huge wooden fantasy castle. It could be Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Toy Story 2, Big, Angela Carter even, if you want to go darker or classier: choose your own cultural comparison. This independent toy store, called My Small World, is run by a woman called Dawn Burden and I spend the morning here.
First of all, before entering to play, the why part. Because this little scene in Bath is a bigger picture of detail in a microcosm. Amid widespread misery on high streets, department stores closing and household names going online or disappearing altogether, for toy stores the story is less dark and bleak, more boom.
Toy store sales from January to June 2022 increased by 44% compared to the same period last year. Duh, you say: containment at the start of 2021, that's why. Granted, it has a lot to do with it - but...
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