I’m not going to lie to you. My kids and I spent 90 minutes in Target yesterday, and all we bought was toilet paper and tissue. I went there because it was raining, I needed those two items, and I thought we could waste a good hour not touching the holiday decorations. And we did. (I did not buy anything that wasn’t on our list, so a round of applause please.)
We didn’t even hit the toy aisle, because if we did, well how would we ever leave?
So now I want to remind myself that we’ve had just as good a time and spent just as long in some of our local mom and pop toy stores. They carry brands and styles that the big box stores don’t, and I appreciate that. They make our shopping destinations fun and interesting, and without them, we’d have only strip malls. So this is just a little plug for us to remember the mom and pop toy stores when we do our holiday shopping.
Cute mobile, right? Not from Babies R Us. No ma'am.
I may curse their prices, but I don’t want to lose them in my town. So I pledge to spend some dollars next month with my favorite specialty toy retailers. Please join me and shop local!
Berkeley favorites that you can shop from your own house: Kid Dynamo, This Little Piggy, and The Ark (coming soon).
Yes, great reminder! I just went into our local independent toy store for the first time, and I was blown away! It was seriously the coolest, ever! I found so many cool things Target will never, ever carry… WIN!!!
Check out http://www.the350project.net/home.html – It’s a really cool concept that helps people shop local.
This Little Piggy closed on 4th Street. 🙁
Don’t forget physical retailers like Mr. Mopps (MLK/Rose) and Five Little Monkeys on lower Solano.
I pledged to buy locally last year and was pretty successful. I will join you. For toys, might I also suggest the Berkeley Ecology Center for the greenest and localest stuff (near Dwight and Ashby) and 5 Little Monkeys (but that may be way far away in Albany!)
I totally agree with you. There are some great independent stores here in Ottawa Canada: Fab Baby Gear, Red Chair Kids, and 3 Monkeys. In Toronto Kol Kids has also has an amazing selection of toys and clothes.
Love that mobile! I loved exploring our local shops at our community trick or treat this year. I’ll have to get back there for shopping!
We support our local consignment stores here in Ottawa before buying big box store stuff for our son. Our local boutique toy shoppes and baby stores are very expensive places to go and we cannot afford a lot of their merchandise.
We have a lot of consignment stores to choose from, one called Boomerang Kids, another called Belly Laughs! We are very fortunate to have a wide selection, and shopping there a great way to save $$ on gently used toys and clothes.
GREAT reminder. So important to shop locally in general but there are so many super finds during the holidays! This would be a fun feature to do regularly (like your 5 Things to Do) for different cities.
You might also check out your local children’s museum – I’ll put in a plug for our store (click our link) – but many children’s museums have GREAT toy stores, often featuring cool educational but fun toys! Boston Children’s Museum even has an awesome Recycle Store where you can buy cool stuff in bulk, like reusable fabrics, plastics, papers, and strings…
And for those of you who want to shop online, visit www.etsy.com for all sorts of great handmade items!
We made a commitment to shop only local on Black Friday, and stuck with it three of three of the five local toy stores (not even counting great book stores). It was a great feeling knowing I was supporting local businesses.
Don’t forget about Nest Toy Store in Ottawa! It is on the north end of the ByWard Market.