Subject:
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Fun and games turn up wherever shoppers are
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.mediawatch
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Date:
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Sun, 16 Feb 2003 21:19:38 GMT
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1353 times
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Fun and games turn up wherever shoppers are
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134634810_toyfair15.ht
ml
By Anne D'Innocenzio
The Associated Press
These days, it's hard to predict where the next hot toy will turn up.
This past holiday season, one of the must-haves came from consumer electronics
chain RadioShack, which latched onto a micro radio-controlled car called
ZipZaps that can be recharged in 45 seconds. Parents cleared the $20 toys off
store shelves, or, if they shopped too late in the season, settled for one of
several competing knockoffs.
"It was our most successful product launch in history ever," said Don Carroll,
senior vice president and general manager of the Fort Worth, Texas-based chain.
RadioShack's newfound status in toyland is an example of how the $20.3 billion
toy industry is expanding beyond traditional retailers such as discounters and
Toys R Us. The growing sophistication of children and toys themselves is partly
behind the trend, but so are changes in the retailing industry, including the
financial problems of retailers such as Kmart and FAO that have led to hundreds
of store closings.
The shift in toy retailing is expected to be one of the concerns of
manufacturers and storeowners at the 100th American International Toy Fair, the
toy-industry product expo that officially begins Sunday.
In another example of the change, traditional toy stores such as Toys R Us and
K-B Toys are selling toys to grocery and drugstore chains to compete with
discounters, and manufacturers are making deals with apparel stores.
At Starbucks coffee stores, customers can sip a latte while purchasing board
games like Hear Me Out!, which the company sells exclusively. Cranium,
Starbucks' first splash in the game business in 1998, was named the best game
of the year by the Toy Industry Association last year.
Shoppers will now find toys year-round at RadioShack, which is creating new
versions of the 2-1/2- inch-long ZipZaps. RadioShack was previously known for
larger radio-controlled trucks and cars, but never had an exclusive gotta-have
toy until ZipZaps.
"The search is on to put the toys where consumers are, instead of trying to
attract (consumers) to toy stores or other mass merchants," said Chris Byrne,
an independent toy consultant. "Companies have to keep growing somehow."
Byrne estimates that a typical parent goes to the toy store once a month, but
visits a grocery chain at least once a week. Meanwhile, retailers like
RadioShack are using toys to draw parents who hopefully will also pick up some
electronics items while they're at the store.
Theresa Massa, of Middletown, N.J., is the kind of shopper the toy industry is
targeting. A mother of four children ranging from ages 1-1/2 to 17, Massa has
time to go to the toy store only once every three months. But she shops at the
local grocery chain several times a week.
"Now and then I go the toy store. I like to make fewer trips," said Massa. But
she said she would buy more toys if "they were in front of me and I liked
them."
She'll also go wherever the hot toy is. Massa tried to find ZipZaps at
RadioShack this past holiday season, but was unsuccessful. She ended up buying
another version online, she said.
Massa hasn't seen a lot of toys at nontraditional outlets, but as the trend
accelerates, she should expect to see more. Here's how the trend is picking up
pace:
• Toys R Us, which started supplying toys to grocery chains a year and a half
ago, now sells to 31 grocery stores.
• K-B Toys supplied toys to Sears last holiday season in 77 locations, up from
29 a year ago. Last fall, it became the wholesaler of toys to drugstore chain
CVS.
• Lego has tripled its business selling toys to supermarkets such as Food Lion
and Stop & Shop and the Rite-Aid drug chain in the past three years. It's also
expanding into crafts stores for the first time, with a line called Clikits, an
arts-and-crafts kit for teens.
• Home-shopping channel QVC, which attracts 80 million viewers per week, has
doubled its toy sales from three years ago.
Selling board games and other items to chains outside the traditional toy
industry requires different strategies.
Toys R Us ran tests at grocery chains to see which toys sold best, and found
that products priced $10 to $15 that are also portable have the most success,
according to Francesca Brockett, executive vice president.
"We're trying to meet a different occasion" rather than focusing on holiday
sales, she said. Toys R Us is aiming its supermarket sales at parents who are
buying gifts as small rewards for their children or purchasing birthday gifts.
Lego set up a special sales force to pursue selling to alternative outlets.
"We want shoppers to bump into the Lego brand in every relevant location," said
Andrew Black, the company's president.
With Clikits, the company will also be selling to teen clothing chain Limited
Too. Clikits allows teens to create handbags and other accessories by snapping
plastic pieces together.
Meanwhile, Lego will be making an exclusive version of a radio-controlled car
for RadioShack, marking its debut at the consumer electronics chain. The goal,
Black said, is to double Lego's market share in this country to 6 percent.
"It's only a matter of time," he said.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Toyland expands its boundaries
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| Toyland Expands Its Boundaries (URL) PRESS Feb. 15 2003 photo caption: The next hot toy may not be sold in a toy store. CNBC’s Mike Hegedus reports on what could be the next must-have toy: a remote control flying saucer. quote: ‘The search is on to (...) (22 years ago, 16-Feb-03, to lugnet.mediawatch)
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