Small town, big dreams

Owning a toy store was not in the mind of Luke Randall when he got into business about 10 years ago. But that all changed during a trip to New York City last year for the American International Toy Fair.

“We basically did toy fair for Endeavours, which is my art supplies store, in order to expand our kids section,” Randall tells Playthings. “We just found so much stuff there that it sort of spurned me on to open a toy store.”

The entrepreneur returned home from the fair with plans to start a store. A friend's encouragement and an eventual retail space vacancy sealed the entrepreneur's decision.

Like many cities on the East Coast, Fredericton, New Brunswick is a Canadian city that finds pride in being a small place where daily life flows at a slower pace. The streets lay quietly by a river, the people glow with friendliness and the downtown buildings show off hundreds of years of Fredericton's history. This city of roughly 50,000 people is also a place steeped in tradition and thoughts of days gone by.

Tucked away in a corner of downtown Fredericton is ThinkPlay, Randall's venture into the toy world. The modest store sits in an older building that catches the eyes of passersby with its unique architecture and striking appearance.

This building once housed one of Fredericton's most popular stores. But when the business packed up to move to a larger location in late 2004, Randall saw his chance.

“We lunged at it,” he says.

The location offered what Randall needed, was just around the corner from the Fredericton native's art supplies store and became his second store in the city's downtown area.

“Downtown cores are one of the most exciting places to retail,” Randall exclaims. “If you have a bricks and mortar location, I think it's a no-brainer that you're going to put it on your main street.”

For the businessperson, opening a location downtown offered many benefits ranging from cheaper rent to the opportunity to be creative.

“I'm a fan of downtowns,” Randall says.

This store owner also enjoys running a business in a small city.

“The bonus for being in a more sparsely populated part of the world is that often mass market penetration isn't as great and often there are no other independents,” Randall says. “And that was the case here in Fredericton.”

But there are a number of challenges.

Randall's ThinkPlay did not open its doors overnight. Preparation for the store opening took many hours of work over a large span of weeks.

Investing that time and bringing together the help of staff, ThinkPlay welcomed its first customers in November of 2004. That's about nine months after the trip to the American International Toy Fair.

But the enthusiasm that came from the trip to New York City did not compromise Randall's understanding of his market.

“The disadvantage is that we don't have a lot of population,” he says. “And what population we do have is spread out widely.”

Randall did have brisk business at his store during its first few opening months. November and December saw many toys fly off the shelf. Randall says Lightning Reaction was an especially popular item. But things changed with the New Year.

“January and February were just terrible months,” the entrepreneur recalls.

Suppliers in the area are also few and far between.

“Unless you're an industry giant, you probably don't have sales representation in Canada,” Randall says. “Let alone in one of the smaller regions of Canada.”

Randall frequently makes the short walk between his art supplies store and toy store.

The two retail locations are also linked by Randall's creative touch many people got to know during his first decade in business.

“The exciting thing about the toy industry is the variety that's available,” he says. “And it's a whole lot easier to demo a toy and to show people how something works in the toy industry than it is in the art supplies industry.”

Randall has gotten the word out about his toy store through different mediums, including newspaper stories and donating to school fund raisers. Each of his stores also cross promotes each other. Randall eyes one thing as key to success in business.

“Creativity,” Randall says. “If you're the same as the next guy, why would anyone not show up at the next guy.”

This attitude will likely keep Randall in business for many years to come.