Hey, parents — good news and bad news.
Good news is, industry cognoscenti predict it’ll be a banner holiday season this year. After months of drive-by birthdays and celebrations the pent-up demand for extravagance and gifts will explode when winter hits. Bad news is, you’re responsible for making it happen.
I’m not a Scrooge; I love the holidays. But let’s collectively admit they’re exhausting. It’s Newton’s Thirdish Law: every gift has an equal and opposite price tag, every party has an equal and opposite clean-up day.
Regardless, the nascent days of December, before Newton starts kicking the tires, will find us giddily shopping for presents and trappings, excited by the prospect of laughter, cheer, and indulgence of every sort. This is the time to start shopping, finish early, and curl up by the fire with whatever sugarplums turn you on.
Don’t know where to start? I have an idea. Awesome Toys and Gifts (Awesome). I know, I know: a toy store is a toy store and why not click through the internet and make it easy?
Well, you’ve clearly never been to Awesome. Walking through their modest storefront is like entering Narnia through the wardrobe. The store is, like, huge and filled with items designed solely to delight and amuse. It inspires. It energizes. Put another way: my kids aged out of toys a couple of years ago. My toy-buying days are over. Yet I still left the store with a bag full of stuff and a container of jalapeño-garlic crickets. These crickets come in five different flavors.
An enormous wall o’ games runs perpendicular to a giant display of puzzles. There are baby Yodas and Fubbles and Springlings and Ninja Warrior equipment. Battery-activated luxury kid cars with remote control steering for helicopter parents share space with Chula hoops that are three times the size of regular hula hoops but still intended for one person (with enviable core strength). Games for babies, games for kids, classic games for families, and stretch-your-brain strategic games for teens and young adults.
The man behind the magic, Nick Tarzia, details his two success strategies for today’s challenging toyscape. First, “Free delivery, free batteries, free gift wrapping, free birthday card.”
“I bought a Barbie Dream House,” one customer gushed. “It took up over half my trunk - and they wrapped it!” Though she opted to pick it up curbside they will happily deliver anything in Westport and Weston if you spend over $25. “I grew up in the pizza business,” says Nick, “we’d cook and deliver a pizza in 40 minutes - why can’t you do that to a gift?”
Second, Nick shifted focus from Awesome the store to their comprehensive website which lists a quadrillion toys. Nick recounts, "When the state told us we had to close for walk-in business our online sales and free same day delivery took off"
As well, they bolstered offerings of his five quintessential COVID categories:
- Puzzles
- Legos
- Arts & crafts
- Education books (Kuman, Brainquest)
- Games
Speaking of Legos, Nick’s expecting 320 cases of the coveted blocks, which translates to roughly 1,000 sets. That’s a lot of Legos. But he’s stocking up because COVID is gumming up the supply lines in Mexico and Texas and no number of education books will make a kid forget (s)he wants a Lego kit.
We happen to be sitting at tables initially used for the coffee bar and birthday parties. They are now pushed to the wall and used for interviews with Westport Lifestyle. But they’ll be back, because retail, according to Nick, will evolve from what it is now (or was in 2019) “It will become a gathering spot, not just a fulfillment center.”
Eager for him to augur this year’s must-have toys? Well, with our fun little world teetering on a corona surge, you’ll want family games and puzzles. The younger set may want slushy machines, aquarium with jelly fish that change colors, and boom boxes that work with bluetooth on your phone, and Pokémon.
The slushies and the boom box make sense. The aquarium may give us pause, but remember: these are kids. We played with dirt when we were young, so to each their own.
Of the Pokémon, Nick says, “We got 24 trainer boxes in yesterday. There are six left.”
So now he’ll order more. Along with more Legos, which are certain to sell quickly. But right after he sends a quick order to Treasure X.
He stands and exclaims “I’ve been ordering non-stop. I’m excited about this holiday season!”
As I left the store with my mood rings and dead crickets I realized: I am, too.
AwesomeToys.com