Out of the Toy Box

March 17, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (3)

The increase in sales of toys to children in the 9-12 years old age group last year (NPD) may have more significance than we think. That is what I was musing about last week as I walked through a Wal-Mart in New Jersey. 

As I stood in one of the toy aisles my mind wandered back to the 2008 ToyCon. In memory, I sat in the audience with other toy industry leaders as we heard Laura Phillips, Wal-Mart Vice President of Toys, tell our us that kids 3-5 was the place to focus our efforts. 

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March 14, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

I told my friends at the Strong National Museum of Play about my interest in gender based colors; specifically my surprise that pink has only been a “girl’s color” in recent decades. As a result, Chris Bensch, Vice President of Collections at the Strong, has been keeping his eyes open on the subject and sent me an interesting piece from the online magazine Slate.

Entitled, “Pink is for Battleships, a history of...Read More

March 11, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Any of us who have entered China to visit a factory know the amusement park quality of the experience. It’s like one of those 360 degree Disney rides where the danger feels real but isn’t…except in this case it is. 

That’s why I was drawn to a book review in The New York Times on Peter Hessler’s new book, “Country Driving, A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.” Here is how Hessler puts it:

It’s hard to imagine another place where people take such jo...Read More

March 8, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (4)

What is going to happen as consumers in various part of the world use their Internet connections to become savvy about retail prices around the world? Think about it, a consumer in, say Iceland, goes to the store to buy a product, pulls out a cell phone and checks prices, only to find out that the same product they are looking at costs much less in the US or Europe. How are they going to feel about their local retailer? What is that going to do to their consuming patterns? Will the Internet ultimately force a sort of “global pricing?”

That’s what went through my mind as I read an excellent email from a blog reader in, a...Read More

March 7, 2010 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

The New York Times Op-Ed page had a mind expanding editorial on why Oscars are gender based. The piece, by Kim Elsesser, a research scholar at the Center for Study of Women at the University of California, Los Angeles, asks the question: “[Why] is it considered acceptable to segregate nominations by sex, offering different Oscars for best actor and best actress?”

To make her point she muses as follows:

Suppose…that the ...Read More