Specialty Focus |
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| 2012 |  Avoid Holiday Burnout with these 7 Retailing Tips
With all the demands of retail during the holiday season, including longer hours, employees calling in sick, and dealing with gift returns, it is easy to throw up your hands and become the Grinch. But you can’t let that comfortable old “grinchy” feeling in or it will cost you sales... 9/1/2012 |
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| 2011 |  How Survivor Guilt Prevents Sales
Survivor’s guilt plays out by projecting our worries onto our customers. It’s like the salesperson adopts a losers limp. On an irrational level, these individuals wince at their privileged escape from death’s clutches or worry they are next... 6/1/2011 |
|  Addict Customers With Pricing and Knowledge
Nobody needs a toy to live, but you need to sell as many as possible to keep up your livelihood.... 2/1/2011 | |  Innovations of 2010
According to 16 specialty toy store owners during 4Q 2010 by TDmonthly Magazine, the most notable trend last year was a move away from innovation and technology toward simplicity and value.... 1/1/2011 | | |
| 2010 |  VIDEOS: How I Found My Niche
The first rule of business is that you must develop a niche in your market. But how do you find a niche and how do you know it's the right one for you and your customers... 12/1/2010 |
|  VIDEOS: Retailers Talk Up Classics
Use the following TDmonthly Magazine videos and let other storeowners train your holiday staff about toys that have made your holidays bright for 5 years or more... 11/1/2010 | |  VIDEOS: Retailers Talk Up Newcomers
This time of year, you don't have time to talk to every customer about every toy. That's why TDmonthly Magazine lets other specialty toy-store owners from across the country do the selling for yo... 11/1/2010 | |  TDmonthly Goes Inside ... Kazoodles, Vancouver, WA
Bob and Mary Sisson had to drive all the way from Vancouver, Wash., to Portland, Ore., to buy toys for their grandchildren because there were no quality toy stores in their hometown. That's when they had an epiphany:... 10/1/2010 | |  My Best Sellers: Figpickels Toy Emporium
At Figpickels Toy Emporium in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, “please don’t touch” is never part of the vocabulary. Customers are encouraged to play with toys and shoot each other with rubber band guns... 9/1/2010 | |  Retailer Spotlight: Figpickels Toy Emporium
For Figpickels Toy Emporium, the name came first. “The name Figpickels came from Granny’s cookbook!” Proprietors Brett and Susan Sommer... 9/1/2010 | | |
| 2009 |  Retailing Tips: Crushing Competition
About 25 percent of 40 specialty retailers polled by TDmonthly Magazine indicated this fall that the impact of mass-market stores on their business is greater than it was five years ago.... 12/1/2009 |
|  Retailing Tips: Riding Out the Recession
There’s no time like a recession to try new things. At least that’s what the majority of 38 specialty retailers told TDmonthly Magazine about how they’ve approached 2009... 10/1/2009 | | |
| 2008 |  Turning Electronic Appeals Into Specialty Deals
Despite constant advances in the technology market with gadgets, games and computers, as well as electronic toys for children, many specialty toy stores consciously keep their product selection founded in more traditional toys.... 12/1/2008 |
|  Why Retail May Be More Challenging Today
Achieving success in retail today is more challenging than it was 10 years ago, four of 10 toy-store owners and experts told TDmonthly Magazine.... 7/1/2008 | |  Challenged Economy = Opportunity
Talk of recession and comparisons to the Great Depression in the media fuel consumer anxiety, but most experts predicted to TDmonthly Magazine that toy stores will fare well in a challenged economy... 4/1/2008 | | |
| 2007 |  Turn Mass-Market Fiends Into Specialty Lovers
Kids might be crazy for the licensed products they see on TV cartoons, but they’re not likely the same toys found in your specialty toy store... 11/1/2007 |
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| 2006 |  Retailing Tips: TDmonthly's Top Tips
Every month, specialty retailers and industry experts share their problem-solving techniques with TDmonthly Magazine... 10/1/2006 |
|  Personalizing the Shopping Experience
It shouldn’t take a new study claiming social isolation to be at an all-time high to remind us that people appreciate a little one-on-one.... 8/1/2006 | |  Winning the Game
Thinking inside, rather than outside, the (big) box may be counterintuitive, but original problem solving is one reason long-term storeowners heap on the years.... 2/1/2006 |
