"Express Yourself" through reinvention

Specialty toy retailing today can sure take a few 'cues' from the entertainment business. And reinvention is one of those cues.

In the 12 years that the Brat Pack has been in business, we have reinvented ourselves quite a few times. "We're just like Madonna," I quip to our customers. Every few years we're the "new Brat Pack."

When we originally opened our store, Brat Pack was primarily a children's clothing store with a stock of a few select toys. After a while, we added a children's hair salon section to the store.

This year we have decided to eliminate clothing from our stock altogether so that we can add more toys as well as more baby gift items. You might say that we are transforming, or reinventing, ourselves all over again.

Toy retailers will always know when their store needs a new look.

It is unmistakable when a reinvention is in order because customers are excellent prompters; they show us every day what they want to buy. Their words, actions and whether or not they make a purchase are clear indications.

And it is our job to listen and to act accordingly, which, of course, is vital for flawless performance. Anyone who isn't ready to jettison a product that is not working and keep looking for something that is working has too big a store. Someone once told me the worst thing a retailer could do was to fall in love with the merchandise.

Our store is just like Madonna in another way too: it grabs attention! Part of the entertainment factor in toy retailing is that it has to draw people in; to make the store a destination—just like any other popular venue.

At Brat Pack, we believe that a toy store should be a feast for a child's eye. When our store draws in children, the parents and grandparents—the spenders, in other words—are following.

We hang things from the ceiling. (I love to see a child looking up with awe.) And I buy every demo that is available for the kids and the adults to play with. Merchandise is not in boring tidy rows, although it is a goal to keep the aisles wide enough for a stroller. I want kids to feel comfortable to mess up the place—after all, it's good exercise for us to clean up after them.

We also get involved in the community and we make contributions to anything and everything that has to do with children in our area. Naturally, we all have a relationship with our customers and when they make a purchase we compliment them on their choices, confirming their buying decisions.

A good store must feel like it is alive and breathing. The big box stores cannot compete in this way. I am very near a chain toy store and it hasn't hurt my business at all.

And like the entertainment business, specialty toy retailing needs to be professional, finely tuned and skillfully planned whether it's a full-scale extravaganza or a one-act play.

I'm very careful about what I buy for Brat Pack, as the store is not that big. I research the items I carry. I read toy publications (of which PLAYTHINGS is my favorite, I might add). I am often not the first to cast a new product. I like to wait to see what kind of track record, what kind of play value, what kind of awards a new item gets before staging it.

I try to get only the best products and sell them at a competitive price—unless it is discounted, of course, and then I don't carry it at all. If a company doesn't ship well or hassles too much with returns or sells to discounters, then I drop the product.

And I have a great production crew—great staff, that is—which I pay as well as I possibly can. After all, I want them to sign on for the run of the play!