Posted by jim on October 29, 2008 under Consumer Experience, Toy Trends | 
Bakugan Battle Brawlers have made pretty much every top toy list for Christmas 2008 including Time To Play’s Most Wanted List, the Toys “R” Us Fabulous Fifteen, and the Toy Retailers Association Dream Toys for 2008 – just to name a few. Fortunately, we started carrying them earlier this year and gave the toys some prime real estate on the front cover of our Christmas toy flyer.
The only problem, and this is no small obstacle, is that in typical Hot Christmas Toy fashion there now appears to be a shortage. Our inventory has dwindled down to practically nothing. I have been begging my supplier for almost 2 months, but still no stock replenishment. The excuses have even lost any flavor – now it’s just “who knows with this company” and “still nothing in”.
Bloggers have offered the new term “Bakugone“. Parents are already lamenting the scarcity. I did find this update from a CBS affiliate in Miami, CBS4. Apparantly, Spin Master – the manufacturer responsible for this phenomenon – has “increased production to 300,000 Bakugan a day” (apparantly the word Bakugan is like “deer”) and Spin Master “is air freighting everything to their North American distribution centers as quickly as possible.”
One can only hope.
Posted by jim on October 18, 2008 under Consumer Experience |
All right, so another post from me bashing Big Box Toy retailer Toys R Us…. But, bear with me. Here’s the quote from Toys “R” Us Senior Vice President:
“At Toys”R”Us, we love kids, and we want to help parents make a big deal about their children this holiday season. Our new campaign shows parents looking for the perfect gift and incredible values that Toys”R”Us has something special for every child and every budget. It also reminds everyone about the magical experience in stores by bringing back the famous, ‘I’m a Toys”R”Us Kid’ jingle.” See Market Watch for more….
If Toys “R” Us is truly so concerned with helping parents make their kids happy, why don’t they revamp their service rather than changing their advertising pitch and reviving their old jingle?
This is how I think of Toys “R” Us. And yes, I sometimes go to Toys “R” Us because we don’t stock and sell every toy brand in the world and sometimes my little girls have their heart set on a toy for Christmas or a birthday that I can’t buy direct and don’t have in stock. In any event, I always thought it would make sense if you could walk into a toy store and say to someone working there, “I have to buy a present for a seven year old boy, can you help me pick something out?” The clerk would then respond with, “Sure, how much do you want to spend? Oh, yes, would you like this, that or we have this over here….”
Actually, we have a local toy store around the corner from our warehouse (yes, I go there too) and you can do pretty much that. But, try that in any Toys “R” Us and you’ll get a blank stare. As a matter of fact, try this one (this is my favorite). “I’m looking for a certain item by this manufacturer, do you have it.” Response: (Employee pointing) “I don’t know, if we have any of those they would be over there.”
That’s the Toys “R” Us I know. No nostalgia there. No love for kids – no help for parents to show them how to make a big deal out of their kids. Just another big box with a bunch of disorganized stuff on the shelves. Always employees that know little or nothing about the product and care little or nothing about the consumer. Most likely this way not because of the employees themselves, but because of another large corporation that believes in spending a lot more money on marketing trying to convince the consumer they care, rather than training employees to do just that.
