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Tis the Season to be Thwarted: 2002 Holiday Overview
for Retailers
By
Tina Dhamija
February 1, 2003
Retailers
agree that the dwindling economy is the big reason behind the shift
in holiday sales. “This year was really down,” says
Maggie Baccetti, the manager of Character Corner
in Seattle, WA. “ I didn’t even make half of what I
did last year, and a lot of that has to do with all the recent lay-offs
at big companies like Boeing here in the Seattle area.”
The
expectation of which toys to stock, as opposed to how much to buy,
seemed to be the critical factor. Where Barera says her Los Angeles
K.B Toys store expected to see higher demand for Barbie dolls and
the Spiderman Dual Web Blaster, she admits demand did not exactly
meet expectation on an item-to-item basis. “We expected to
sell a lot more Barbie dolls, Thomas the Tank and Spiderman stuff
than we did,” she says. “Instead the demand was extremely
high for Yu-Gi-Oh Cards and items from the Real toy line instead.”
Barera theorizes
that business may have been down this year because of recent changes
in store structure. “At this store we did downsize quite a
bit over the past year. [The corporation] had split one big K B
Toys into two smaller stores within this same mall and hoped to
come up with one big store amount,” says Barera. “Instead
we got a rollercoaster ride in sales and couldn’t even hit
a trend.”
Powazek
says that a decision she made a few years ago, to only buy select,
has worked well for her in the long run. “We buy select from
companies like BRIO. We expected our sales of BRIO horses and Middleton
dolls to do well, and both did fantastic. We were flat this year
and we were pleased.
“…
But nothing compares to the Beanie heyday", said Powazek. "Except
for maybe the Cabbage Patch heyday.”
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