I've been buying toys for our stores for about 20 years now. I'm not sure that I could even pretend to count the number of times I've been told this or that toy is going to be the new big trend, or a huge hit for the holidays. Mostly I just ignore those comments completely and judge for myself. I also don't go looking in other peoples stores to try to glean off them what is selling.
Instead what I do is try to look at all the toys out there and bring in my very favorites. Sometimes I hit on something that becomes extremely popular. We were one of the first stores (in Akron at that time) to have the Ty Beanie Babies and we were one of the first (maybe the first) to have Webkinz (in our Stow store). In fact, I had both of those in for a while before they went real crazy. They were a little slow at first believe it or now. I started to wonder if they were going to sell well. Then all of the sudden it hit and from then on I couldn't keep them in stock.
That brings us to these Squishables. A fellow specialty retailer (not in this area) told me that these are blowing off the shelves. I took one look and was sold. These guys are so soft and squishy. I love the size of them... big enough to make a nice pillow! I don't think these will be on the scale of popularity with Webkinz or Beanie Babies (especially at around $40 a pop). I do think they are going to do very well though. Stop in and give one a hug.
www.offthewagonshop.com
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