More Articles Maria Weiskott

• A gentler giant?
  “Know and understand the local customers. Take the community's culture and ambience to heart. Enhance the consumer's shopping experience.” Subtitles from the specialty retail handbook? Not this time. Rather, these familiar-sounding concepts are at the center of the evolution of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. More
  
• Wal-Mart details next steps
  BENTONVILLE, Ark.—The company that wrote the book on successful mass marketing is taking a few pages from the specialty retail handbook. Wal-Mart executives this week described a blueprint for the future of the world’s number one retailer that includes such strategies as enhancing the shopping “experience,” developing a better understanding of the local customer and communicating with customers through programs and special events. More
  
• Mass Market Roundup
  Things were definitely a buzz at this year's Mass Market show in New York. Everything from Strawberry Shortcake to comics to comebacks and collectibles were represented. Some of the highlights of Mass Market, and 2006, include: Publications International, New York, will continue with children's literature, and something new. More
  
• Movin' on...
  An esteemed philosopher once said: “When you get to the fork in the road, take it.” Okay, okay. So the person who coined this phrase isn't really a philosopher; he's a Hall of Fame catcher. What of it? Over the years, Yogi Berra has imparted countless gems of philosophical wisdom—which are quoted endlessly, I might add. More
  
• Collectively Speaking
  The collecting “dye” was cast for Tim Phelps when he was 5 years old. It might have been the gift of diecast cars at Christmas. Or maybe it was his brother’s 1930 Model A Ford. “As a young boy growing up in Indiana in the early sixties, I fondly remember riding with my oldest brother in his red 1930 Model A Ford with its white primer spots and white spoke wheels,” ... More
  
• The more things change...
  A psychotherapist counsels participants on how to deal emotionally with the pressures of survival. A panel of retail and wholesale professionals gives tips on how to survive in those niches. A university professor expounds about how to survive financially in difficult times. A group of manufacturers swap survival stories at a workshop. More
  
• Tenants get ITC update
  NEW YORK—Tenants of the International Toy Center (ITC) carved out some time from a busy mass market show schedule last evening to get a first-hand update about the proposed new ITC—100 Church Street in downtown Manhattan, one block north of Ground Zero. More
  
• From the editor’s keyboard: Déjà vu?
  NEW YORK —Here we go again (long sigh) : buzz about Mattel buying Hasbro—one of the biggest non-stories in the business for years—being reported in local and national news. More
  
• Collectively Speaking
  When Bill Hanlon asked the woman who would eventually become his wife, Gail, on their first date, if she wanted to see his antique toy collection, she thought it was a unique “pick-up” line. Little did she know! It wasn't a line at all. By the time Hanlon met her in 1974, he had already been collecting toys for a decade. More
  
• Buyers to visit Asia, New York shows
  The fall buying season is in full swing this month with two major shows in Asia and a smaller show in New York. The Far East shows include the Shanghai Toy Expo—International Trade Fair for Toys, Hobbies & Gifts—and the Hong Kong twin shows, International Toys & Gifts Show and the Asian Gifts Premium & Household Products Show. More
  
• Inside Out
  Rumors were swirling last month as to the SRP of the Xbox 360. While not hitting the stores until November 4, online reports noted anonymous Wal-Mart employees claiming the unit will cost $299.99. But unless the number-one toy retailer was considering selling the 360 as a loss leader, those alleged employes had to be musing about the low-end version of the box; the one without ... More
  
• Tweens: A consuming army
  Tweens: a buzzword created on Madison Avenue? Probably. Nevertheless, when this pre-teen, toy-abandoning, video-game loving, fashion forward, techno-savvy, fickle consumer demographic makes a move, we all watch while holding our collective breath. Never before has a group of youngsters—with an age span from 8- to 12-years old—wielded so much consumer clout. More
  
• Here's lookin' at us
  Talk about unforgettable experiences. We had one in Tokyo recently. We were stopped while meandering from toy store to toy store and asked to pose—for picture-taking purposes—with the pre-school-aged daughter of a Japanese couple we had never met. “She wants to take a picture with the Americans,” our host explained. More
  
• From the editor’s desk: On the road
  TOKYO—Thomas and Friends, Hello Kitty, Miffy, Cinderella and the other royals…yes, we certainly saw a host of familiar “faces” while visiting toy stores in the city. More
  
• From the editor’s keyboard: On the road
  TOKYO—Walk into a toy store in this bustling city and you’ll see something you likely won’t see in a bustling city here in the States: a kid over 8 years old (10, even!), shopping for a plaything. More
  
• From the editor’s keyboard: On the road
  TOKYO —It is very well possible that I was the only person at the recent Tokyo Toy Fair with paper and pen in hand (the better, of course, to take copious notes for you!). More
  
• Insie Out
  Grin and bear it. That's what the Big Apple did last month at the opening of the biggest Build-a-Bear Workshop yet. It measures in at a whopping 22,000 square feet. (That's more than a few Manhattan-size apartments!) The workshop, located on 46th Street and 5th Avenue, has New York flair with I Love (heart) NY t-shirts, Libearty bears and a United Nations of bears. More
  
• From the editor’s keyboard: On the Road
  TOKYO —We counted just over 100 exhibitors at the Tokyo Toy Fair last week, but as far as the excitement was concerned, it was definitely IM-measurable. More
  
• Collectively Speaking
  It was reading about Andy Gross's collection of “ventriloquist's assistants” in this column back in March that inspired Doreen Schonfield to want get in touch with us. She, too, is one of probably very few collectors of this puppet genre. Schonfield's affiliation with the toy industry is one of those “guilt by association” things: a close friend is an inventor. More
  
• Diversity playing key role
  We first met up with Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications Inc., at a diversity workshop. The company is publisher of Essence, a leading magazine for African-American women. At the time, we were researching “America, the colorful,” which appeared in last month's issue. More