Toy Sellers Square Off Small Retailers Pitch Educational Toys, Customer Service To Gain Share Of Holiday Toy Market

Barbies, Slinkys and Mr. Potato Heads will make their appearance under many Christmas trees tomorrow, but so will Brios, Geosafaris and Mancalas.

Haven’t heard of the last three toys? There’s a handful of retailers who’d love to make introductions. For them, convincing consumers to purchase toys not seen on Saturday morning television is quite a trick.

They’re faced with the David-and-Goliath task of winning a share of the Christmas toy shopping market from national toy retailers such as Toys ‘R’ Us and Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby Shops and discount giants such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.

Toys ‘R’ Us towers over the toy industry like the giraffe in its corporate logo. The New Jersey-based retailer announced sales of $8.7 billion for fiscal year 1994, which ended Jan. 28, 1995. Based on 1994 sales data, Toys ‘R’ Us enjoys 20.7 percent of the toy retailing market share. No. 2 Wal-Mart has 13.6 percent.

Despite the omnipresence of the retail giant, “Not everybody will go for what Toys ‘R’ Us has,” said Rae Huslid, owner of Whiz Kids, an educational toy store with two Spokane locations. “All we need is a small percentage of parents.”

Honing in on a niche is the biggest part of the job, smaller toy retailers say. For many, that means selling toys with an educational twist.

“We try to keep it educational, non-violent,” said Fran Lowry, manager of NorthTown Mall’s Learning World, a regional chain with a 68-year history. “We don’t do the Barbie, the Ken, the GI Joe. We do the Legos, the Brios, the Playmobils.”

Brios are wooden train sets and Playmobils are small sets, depicting a scene such as a farm with toy farmers or a castle with toy knights.

Niche marketing is the best way for smaller retailers to get a share of Christmas shopping traffic, said Bob Jacobson, Chairman of the Department of Marketing at the University of Washington School of Business. Smaller stores also focus more on customer service and stocking unique items, he said.

Though smaller retailers such as Whiz Kids, Learning World and The Purple Dragon Toy Store compete with each other, many say it’s a friendly competition with referrals back and forth.

“We call them, they call us,” Learning World’s Lowry said of Whiz Kids, which she lists as her top competition.

“We respect each other and try to help,” Huslid, at Whiz Kids said. “You compete also, don’t get me wrong, but you also help.”

In the educational toy market, customers include teachers, parents, grandparents and the growing numbers of home-schoolers, who are constantly looking for new and interesting ways to keep kids entertained, yet still learning.

“There’s a lot of things (at Learning World) you could not buy anywhere else for schooling and games,” said Spokane Valley resident Diane Smith who’s been home-schooling her children for years. “That’s where I got my Geosafari (three years ago).”

Geosafari is a computerized geography game that sells for about $100 and has lesson packs ranging from age three to adult.

Toy retailers who emphasize education approach the Christmas season from a different angle, Huslid said. They’re looking for toys that will not only sell well, but will match a child’s intellectual development stage.

“We believe education is a lifelong process,” Huslid said. “Playing is equivalent to learning. It’s a responsibility as well as an obligation for adults, parents and teachers to pay attention to development levels.”

Small toy retailers will always operate at somewhat of a disadvantage because of the national chains’ advertising clout.

“There’s no way we could compete with Toys ‘R’ Us. Our exposure is just not as wide and powerful,” Whiz Kids’ Huslid said. “When children watch TV, that’s what they ask ‘I want the Ninja Turtles.”’

Matthew Gibson, assistant manager of the Kay-Bee store in NorthTown Mall, agreed that TV advertising drives demand. “As far as the stuff you see on television, people come here (to Kay-Bee),” he said.

To help secure a share of the market, educational toy retailers rely on creative advertising. They advertise in home-schooling newsletters. They buy time on public radio. They donate toys to school PTAs, auctions and fund-raisers in return for a mention of their name.

Smaller retailers also concentrate on attracting parents, rather than children. While TV ads go straight for the kids, marketers of educational toys target the parents.

“My customer is really not the little kid,” said Dennis Deming, owner of The Purple Dragon Toy Store.

Deming said his target market - college-educated, affluent women - makes up 75 percent of his clientele. Deming’s Coeur d’Alene store has been open since 1988, and his store on Spokane’s South Hill opened in July.

Among Deming’s hot selling items are mystery jigsaw puzzles, in which children piece together a puzzle of a crime scene using clues from a story; “foot rattles” for babies, which are socks with noise makers inside; and construction toys such as Legos.

“We are a specialty toy store that tries to carry something other than Saturday morning television,” Deming said. His customers are “affluent, educated parents that want to give their children a half step ahead of the thundering herd.”

Many of the small toy retailers also rely heavily on loyalty and word of mouth.

“Most people just know Learning World,” Lowry said. “We have customers that have been with us for 14 years. They like the feel of Learning World. We have customers who seem to like a smaller shop to shop in.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; 2 Graphics: “U.S. toy industry”; “Holiday toy tally”