Seriously Interesting

Typically in this space, I take a few paragraphs to tell you what I'm thinking about a certain topic or event—overzealous cashiers, for example, and how they related to my doing the laundry one morning, or an eerily out-of-date independent retailer I ran across while ostensibly on vacation, or my hot-and-cold relationship with the toy business as a whole—sparked by some decision, or lack thereof, that's gotten under my skin or otherwise had us here in the office talking about you behind your back, usually in a tone of "I can't believe what they did this time!" I like to think editorials like that are entertaining and somehow enlightening at the same time—edutainment, if you will, to use a familiar phrase in an unfamiliar context—and that's my goal for them each month. This month, though, there won't be any edutainment in my editorial. Instead, I'm going to fall back on the most time-worn trick of the editorial writer's trade: I'm going to perform the entirely self-serving feat of making sure you know how interesting this issue of Playthings actually is.

Right about now I'd imagine you're saying, "But Cliff, every issue of Playthings is interesting—and essential...," to which I'd heartily agree, "....although, I wish you'd ease up a bit on the non-stop emails about the Toy Building." Yeah, we know; you're not the first one to say that, but we're not going to give up on the toy building story until there's some conclusion, whatever and whenever (and come to think of it, wherever) it may be. I'm bored of it too, but it's too important to ignore, even as we approach the third Toy Fair during which it'll most likely still be a topic of conversation.

A topic of conversation is what I hope this issue of Playthings will be—a discussion starter for industry veterans and a resource for those new to the toy business, in particular, looking to get their 2007 off to a fast start.

In the next few pages you'll read about the challenges that seven-store specialty toy store chain Geppetto's has faced and overcome on its way to dominance of the market in the greater San Diego region. You'll read several other successful independent toy retailers' sourcing strategies as they prepare to enter another annual cycle of trade shows. Our "Minding Your Business" columnist Richard Gottlieb considers how specialty toy stores can take better advantage of the openings offered, often unwittingly, by their local big-box competition. Our preview of new products from first-time exhibitors at this year's American International Toy Fair is a sneak peek at what some of the newest manufacturers in the areas of toys, games and children's entertainment are doing to break into the business, plus it includes a valuable guide from a longtime PR professional as to what to expect and how to most benefit from the Toy Fair experience if it's your company that's making its debut appearance. And in the middle of it all is our 2007 trends and business outlook forecast, in which a massive collection of industry insiders—executives from the worlds of toy manufacturing, retailing and children's property licensing—supply their insight into the factors they expect will most powerfully shape all of our businesses in the coming year. Their predictions are particularly interesting.

My own predictions for 2007 are these: It'll snow at least once during Toy Fair, forcing me to make the agonizing choice between destroying another pair of fancy dress shoes in puddles of gray muck or strapping on that pair of college-era combat boots that I never thought I'd ever even contemplate wearing with a business suit; the term "age compression" will come up in every business conversation I have; several mid-sized manufacturers will be sold off to bigger rivals, to be replaced by other mid-sized manufacturers, returning the world to equilibrium; and the crazy-looking guy I'd hoped to avoid in the game aisle at some show will cajole me into checking out his product, and I'll be stunned by the simple genius of an idea that he and a buddy came up with at a bar one night somewhere in Nebraska.

In short, it'll be business as usual.

Happy New Year!