Vehicular Play

“Toy cars”—there are few broader terms within this industry. This categorization overlaps into so many toy categories and play patterns that it may be difficult for retailers—particularly specialty retailers with limited shelf-space—to wrap their heads around how to begin to choose products and brands to sell. Playthings called around to a few randomly selected specialty stores to talk to owners and get a general idea of the state of the toy automobile business. These retailers gave us a refreshing view inside and showed us just what makes this segment of the market uniquely different between the mass and specialty markets.

Based on the stores that we've talked to, most traditional specialty toy stores are likely playing to a pre-school audience when it comes to selling toy cars. Older children who have had more time to become influenced by mass media and commercial advertising are more likely to be drawn towards the big name autos.

However, younger children likely have most of their toy selections made by their parents, which appears to be the crowd that most retailers seem to be aiming for.

After checking her sales records, Nicole Burdette, owner of LB Toys, Media, Pa., tells Playthings that the best selling automobiles in her store are garbage trucks, followed by construction vehicles and fire trucks. Burdette proposes that the main attraction to these types of products for young children and their parents is that the toys often encourage interaction and manipulation of pieces on the part of the child. “I think maybe it's because kids can put things in [the garbage trucks] and take them out,” she says.

Focus on the familiar For Burdette, another big draw for the pre-school set to these particular vehicles has to do with familiarity—these are the types of trucks that children often see in their daily lives. “They like what they see in life,” she says. Burdette also mentions that she thinks the popularity of shows like Bob the Builder could be a factor in what small children know, and are drawn to, as far as play vehicles are concerned.

Keeping geography and local culture in mind can also be instrumental in selecting the right kinds of products for a particular region. The beauty of specialty retailing is the ability to “narrowcast” or develop your product offerings specifically around the immediate interests of the people in your area—a clear advantage over mass retailers. Most specialty retailers are constantly fighting a battle with limited shelf space, so it is important to choose carefully and continuously keep track of what is and isn't working in your store. Burdette learned this lesson when she decided to incorporate race cars into her stock. She said that she carried several race car models for awhile, because they assumed that they would be big sellers. Over time, though, the cars didn't really move so they decided to stop carrying them. Burdette was surprised that the vehicles weren't more popular, but she assumes that it relates back to her idea that small children are attracted to the familiar. Being that her store is located in Pennsylvania, it is unlikely that many of the children have been exposed to NASCAR and therefore they don't likely have the strong affinity for these types of vehicles that children in other parts of the country might have.

Most specialty retailers know that in order to compete with the mass market in any category, the secret to success often comes from carrying unique products that the '“big boys” have missed. Patty Leo, owner of Toys Galore and More, Kent, Conn., says that when it comes to cars “I don't carry Hot Wheels because they're kind of all over. I try to have something a little different.”

Leo points out that it's generally hard for small retailers to compete on the same terms with the mass for the same products. “I'm not going to put something in my store that people can get in Wal-Mart or someplace like that for less than I can even buy it,” she says.

Geoff Stern, owner of The Toy Professor, Summit, N.J., says that he does sell small die-cast cars like Hot Wheels and other brands in that genre, because he views them as “impulse, low-end items.” He believes that “there's no difference between specialty and mass” for this type of product. But Stern says that he does think a noticeable difference in quality emerges between specialty and mass models as the price points rise.

When it comes to cars, Leo says she sticks to companies like International Playthings, Parsippany, N.J., and Small World Toys, Culver City, Calif., and Playmobil, Cranbury, N.J. Other retailers that we spoke to consistently mentioned Bruder, Gardena, Calif., as a top-selling vehicle brand.

Leo says that her decision to carry these particular brands stems from her experiences with her own children. She tells Playthings that when her now 21-year-old son was younger she used to buy him Playmobil products “and he just loved them, and I loved them.” Retailers can draw on their own experiences when choosing products and have an advantage when dealing with fellow parents as customers. The trust a retailer has towards a manufacturer is passed on to a customer, which can help to build lasting relationships between customers and retailers.