Vintage Toy Stores Part 8

[ODBJBG]

It's crazy how many toy stores there used to be. What happened? I understand a lot of things going away, but not toy stores.

Great post.

[palitoy]

The majority of them got squeezed out by KB who took over the distributors and then didn't offer any credit. Without credit, these guys were forced to either sell their business to KB or wither on the vine.

[toys2cool]

man it never gets old looking at pics of toy stores

[UnderdogDJLSW]

KB who took over the distributors and then didn't offer any credit.

Could you explain that further? I'm not that familiar with business practices to know what "credit" is outside of credit like credit score or credit as in acknowledgment. Thanks.

[B-Lister]

I already told you how much I appreciate these galleries.

you brought me a picture of K&K Toys from Virginia Beach. For that I will forever be in your gratitude. I never thought I'd see it again.

[palitoy]

Could you explain that further? I'm not that familiar with business practices to know what "credit" is outside of credit like credit score or credit as in acknowledgment. Thanks.

Smaller stores didn't order directly from the manufacturer, they would use regional toy distributors. My Dad was one of these but mostly for rack toys, he had another friend however that carried everything.

The store would order from the distributor and get a certain time to pay for the goods, like 45 days. This gave the retailer time to sell through on the items.

In the 1980s companies like KB bought out many of the toy distributors in the US, then they cut off everybody's credit meaning they had to pay up front to get goods. Many of these independants had prime mall locations and would just sell their businesses to KB.

This killed many of the regional toy stores, like Casselmans or King Norman, over the years people have emailed me telling me these stories about their grandparents getting squeezed out of the business. It's not unique to toy stores either, groceries, books, you name it.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Wow. That's really kind of sad. Thanks for the explanation.