August/September 2010

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An exterior view of The Toy Shop in Concord, Mass.

t may appear that plush toys sell themselves just by being all soft and cuddly and endearing. But retailers who are sanguine about sales spout off a laundry list of consistent practices they rely on to keep teddy on a pedestal that teeters at times, over an uncertain economy. They’ve watched toy makers succumb to the low cost lure of offshore manufacturing, rather than incur the expense of opening yet another domestic factory in which to stuff their menageries. For the most part, quality is sustained. Even when it doesn’t, plush sales are flush for the toy retailers that flaunt the fluff.

“You can’t be gently in the category,” claimed David Hesel, owner of the Toy Shop of Concord, the oldest specialty toy shop in America, which was started by a relative of Louisa May Alcott in 1942 in Concord, Mass.. “That’s our strategy in plush and every category. If you want to make a statement, you have to carry a significant number of stock keeping skus and make a statement about what you do carry and it has to be refreshed frequently because it is a fashion of sorts. And don’t be afraid, at least we’re not, if it doesn’t sell, to get out of it fast and into something that does sell.”

A view of toys at the Village Toy Company in Grosse Pointe, Mich.

Hesel noted a few somewhat disturbing trends. For one, he attributed a decrease in the absolute dollars in plush to “the pushing down of wholesale prices,” assuming that as Ty pushed wholesale prices down, others followed suit. Hesel isn’t concerned because he just sells more units. Another tendency of the times that Hensel noticed is that because of overhead and sales demands, manufacturers move their products through trendy distribution channels, and merchandise declines in selectivity. Siting Steiff as an example, Hesel said they sell everywhere, so their cachet is gone. “It still sells, but not anywhere near what it used to.”

Hesel was intrigued by the pillow collection from Douglas, and Mary Meyer’s zippered purse animals, both of which pushed the typical stuffed animal envelope. Although he’s been asked to, Hensel displays his plush items, except for showcasing Steiff because of value, on 180 lineal feet of shelving by animal type, not by manufacturer. “People don’t come in wanting a Gund horse. They come in thinking they want a horse.”

At the lone toy shop left standing in San Francisco, of the 15 that were there before 9-11, Jeffrey’s Toys owner Mark Luhn is leery of the direction the market is heading. “Eventually we will be homogenized,” he conjectured. To offset that trend, Luhn buys contrary to it. “If we buy the way the market trends we end up looking like Wal-Mart.” And that’s where Luhn sees the market going: Wherever Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart want to send it. So he buys the opposite. “If angels are out there, I’ll buy devil toys.”

A plush dragon at the Toy Connection. Plush toys is a healthy and expanding category for the shop.

Luhn can trace some of his merchandising practices back to his grandfather’s, who opened the first of nine family-run stores in the Bay Area prior to the 1989 earthquake.

“Smile when they come in, gift wrap for free, take things to their hotels when they need it.” Specific to plush, Luhn advised to not get “cutesy,” to not overdo a category and to not fall in love with the merchandise. “Don’t go dog-stuffed-animal-crazy. You have to have variety and that means you can’t just do bears no matter how good they look.” Luhn added to be cautious with seasonal goods because often the profit gets boxed for the next year and possibly the next. Luhn doesn’t alter anything seasonally, keeping regular store hours. He doesn’t put items on sale, just pulls them from the shelves. He suggested starting to buy an item in small quantities, no matter how impressive. “Let the manufacturer sit on the inventory,” he said.” Just put three things on the shelf and see if anyone looks at them and if they do, then you can run with them.” He recommended keeping plush separate from every other department and not weaving it into other child-related departments.

In the 17 years in business, Ellen Durand, buyer for Village Toy Company, in Detroit, Mich., has sold more plush dogs than any other animal. She carries several breeds because kids want the kind they have at home. Plush is a staple at Village, many of which are puppets. Brands on the shelves are Russ Berrie, Gund, Jaag and Steiff, the average price point, being $25, and the animals represented ranging from jungle dwellers to bears, cats, and sea life. The classic teddy bear has evolved, said Durand, with a much nicer, softer, more appealing fabric.

Polar bear and shark plush atop a Playmobil display at the Toy Connection. Pieces of plush are sprinkled throughout the entire store in an effort to trigger a desire to buy in customers.

“The nice thing about plush is they’ve always been around and will always be around” said Durand. “It’s a classic one of those things that if they don’t know what to buy and buy it, the child will always like it.” Durand has had success in grouping animals together by type, color or breed, in cubby holes so that all the plush together is not overwhelming. “I don’t like stuffed animals all piled up on top of each other, but display them so their faces are peeking out. Constantly straighten them so they look inviting and buyers can’t resist.”

Durand is always looking for more breeds of dogs, new varieties of dog types. She said giraffes have been popular and sold out of them in 2005. She noted that parents are getting back to buying stuffed animals for boys. She is hoping to find better fabrics in 2006 and that the quality will remain as good as it has been in the last six years.

Customers might giggle nervously when asked if they’d like an Ugly Doll but once they see and feel them and read the tag attached, they discover the artistic appeal, according to Dan J. Koenig, owner of Toy Connection in Barrington, Ill. “It was one of the hits of the holiday season”, said Koenig. “It won’t attain cult value like Beanie Babies did, but it is sufficiently cute, interesting and artistic in its nature, gentle and dealing with love as opposed to violence. It sold at a rate of sale that surprised us. We reordered it three times between November and Christmas.”

Dan J. Koenig, co-owner of the Toy Connection in Barrington, Ill.

Plush toys is a healthy and expanding category at Toy Connection now that manufacturing is focused offshore, even the major brands. For Koenig, Gund, his main supplier, provides a “quality-right, eye-appealing, varied and affordable product.” He also noted Melissa and Doug as welldesigned and respected by the public, with stuffed toys that rival Steiff in quality, but more affordable. “It helps business because someone who had no intention of buying something like Melissa and Doug’s near five feet tall giraffe, realizes they can do so.”

Koenig’s intent with his store is to create an environment that almost comes to life. Merchandise presentation is geared to accessorizing a Noah’s Ark in the window and store. Plush is displayed categorically in a habitat that is the equivalent of a walk-in cage. “Pieces of plush are sprinkled throughout the entire store in such a way that someone walking by, reaches for a plush and has to have it, keeping in mind it is not need-oriented, but triggers a response. So presentation is extraordinarily important.”

The plush category is stable at Tom’s Toys in San Luis Obispo, Calif., according to owner Ted Frankel, who carries Ty, Aurora, Kim, Steiff, Manhattan Toy and Melissa and Doug. “Plush is getting to be a better value and price. Consumers appreciate that aspect of it.” Frankel displays plush toys alone and also next to items they relate to. When he is shopping for plush at gift shows he is looking at better terms, discounts and freight policy.

More than likely, what customers want when visiting the Tracy Aviary Nature Store in Salt Lake City, Utah, is anything bird-related, which manager Marissa Kass acquires from Wild Republic, Princess Soft Toys, Fiesta, and Folkmanis (for puppetry.) Unless a theme commands integration, plush are grouped together, which Kass attempts to keep “neat, straight, beautiful and appealing with sufficient lighting.” Parents veer toward the lower end of the $5 to $10 range, but most of what Kass carries is closer to $10. Kass would like to see more of a peacock and owl selection at the gift shows.

A soft doll for sale at the Toy Connection. The owner’s intent is to create an environment for plush that makes it almost come to life in the shop.

Essential to the presentation of plush items is how well staff knows the category, Kass said, “like those that make sounds or have a special hair to mention to customers.”

Luhn’s approach at Jeffrey’s Toys when hiring new staff is to “have them walk around for a few days and not talk to us. By the end of the third day, they know where everything is in the store.”

David Hesel at the Toy Shop of Concord doesn’t train staff in plush as he does other categories because, for example, “they can’t sell a game they don’t know how to play. But it’s easy to sell Steiff because they can talk about history of the tradition, or mohair versus no mohair.”

Training at the Toy Connection involves sales or supplier reps making an appearance and explaining the product so that staff is capable of explaining features, whether machine washable or surface cleanable. And, said Koenig, “there is a trick in manipulating a piece of plush to make it come to life in the hands. They used to laugh at me when I hired someone and would say ‘let me show you how to make it come to life in your hands.’ But when they saw that presenting it to someone as opposed to holding it out and saying, ‘here’s the dog,’ if nothing else, you get someone to smile, they see that you care more than just putting it on a shelf, expecting them to help themselves. You can sell a lot of things to people who had no intention of buying if it’s presented properly.”

	A view of the Apple Valley Country Store in Townsend, Tenn. Nearby is Country Elegance, a quilt and gift shop, and Apple Valley Kitchen.

Soft dolls for sale at the Toy Connection.	Russ animal plush in a basket and Ugly Dolls for sale at the Toy Connection. The Ugly Dolls were a hit during last year’s holiday season.