Let the Wal-Mart death tally begin.
After 15 years in the Bayshore Mall in Eureka, the locally owned Toy Barn store will be closing at the end of the month, owner Sandy Powell announced today. In a press release, Powell said she reached the decision after learning that Wal-Mart is moving in. The store has four employees, she told the Journal, only one of which is not a family member. Toy Barn will continue virtually, selling its wares on Amazon.com.
Here’s the press release:
Longtime local business the Toy Barn is closing its doors at the end of this month in anticipation of Wal-Mart’s opening later this year.
After more than 15 years in the Bayshore Mall, owner Sandy Powell faced the tough decision of closing the business after learning that Wal-Mart will be opening a few stores down from the family owned toy store.
“The mall has treated us well over the years but with the opening of Wal-Mart we feel as if we cannot survive, so we are relocating online to be able to still serve our loyal customers and keep the store alive.”
Powell opened her fist business, Blackberry Creek, in 1998 and has since become a staple in the community, opening stores such as 9 Months Later and the Toy Barn.
While closing the location at the Bayshore Mall was not in the plans, Powell feels that moving the store onto Amazon.com will give her business more opportunity to grow.
“Moving the store onto Amazon will allow me to sell a more broad range of items and be able to reach more people. I can take what people loved about all the stores I have had and sell it in one convenient place. We understand that sometimes online shopping can seem impersonal as there is no ‘face-to-face’ interaction; we will miss the opportunity to stand across the counter from you and personally thank you for your purchase but hope that you will continue your support by shopping with us online.”
This article appears in A Place in the Woods.
Moons Play and Learn too… they fell to the preditory nature of WalMart.
This is coming from someone who values local business but I’ve expected Toy Barn to close for years before Wal-Mart was an issue. Toy Barn’s prices are ridiculous even for a local business and I’ve been able to find the same products for a lot less at other local kid stores.
I don’t buy it. I heard the same thing about a mothering/baby store that closed as Target’s approach was announced. Never mind that the store sold different, better products to a different type of clientele.
And, never mind that Toy Barn sells different, better toys than Wal-Mart. Being located in the mall never made much sense to me. That’s what I chalk this decision up to… it’s hard to sell alternative toys in a mall.
As for Mall Employee’s observation, I call shenanigans. The only other local toy store with overlap in merchandise is Toy Box in Henderson Center, and still they differentiate themselves pretty well. The other toy stores are Rocking Horse and Bev’s Real Kids, but their toy selection is very small, and they seem more like places for grandparents to buy gifts for their young grandchildren, and to buy infant supplies. As for the prices, compare Toy Barn to Amazon. Not bad. I just believe the press release as a convenient excuse for why the store is closing.
Bullshit…..
When I lived in the big city, Home Depot decided to move in a couple of blocks away from three hardware stores which were all around the corner from my house.
Store #1 closed before HD arrived, claiming they couldn’t compete. No surprise there. They had been overpriced, understocked and an annoying shopping experience for years.
Store #2 closed a year later, claiming they couldn’t compete. The truth was, their dad died and the kids wanted the ton of money from selling the land under the shop, so they did.
Store #3 which was the smallest one when HD moved in is still open and four times the size it was.
I don’t believe it’s just “we can’t compete” that closes stores. What we learned in town was the family owned store #3 had their act together, gave good customer service and actually put the big box out of business because HD has terrible customer service and pulled their standard game of opening with full stock and never stocking up after the opening. So why go somewhere with lousy help and no selection, when Store #3 was stocked up with the same friendly faces to help you?
Back to the here and now… Wal Mart didn’t “force” this store to close. The owners made a decision without waiting to see the actual impact and decided to blame the big box in advance. Reminds me of Store #1 back in the city. Vince Lombardi would have loved it.
Few big boxes are researched more than WalMart…news reports, books, video documentaries, all thanks to Walmart’s disgraceful, predatory conduct and lawsuits.
Eureka spent $30,000 on professional economists that concluded Eureka had too may low-wage jobs back in 1999! Subsidizing more big box wages with welfare is disgusting.
Go ahead, welcome a well-documented bad neighbor into your community, Toy-Barn is smart to close now…others would be wise to follow suit.
Yeah right. They probably would have picked up more traffic when Wal*Mart came in. Just an excuse to close in already pathetic Ghost-town Mall.
More like they figured out that they could save money hand over fist by having Amazon store their goods than store in it Eureka.
I mean, they have sold at least 1,250 items in since they opened their Amazon store front two months ago. I’m sure that is more than their storefront moved in the same timeframe. And since Jerry Brown figured out and removed his illegal tax law…
It’s a neat trick. They claim one megastore is causing them to close, yet have had a increase in sales due to working with another megastore.
Ryan Burns, you can do better than this. 10 minutes of web browsing and you should have figured out the real reason. Unless all you are going to do is re-shit fake press releases from companies without doing any fact checking.
Does anyone remember Beasley’s toy store in Eureka? Now there was a REAL toy store — great selection of interesting toys. When it was taken over by the original owners’ children it morphed into Toys West — nowhere near as good — moved to the Mall and of course died. The Mall is a death trap for local businesses.
Tear down the Mall!
Pure BS. I guess that’s what it takes to have folks read the paper now. I thought this paper was taking steps forward, now it’s taken a step back. why not wait until Walmart is here then let consumers decide where they’d prefer to shop.
Humboldt County is a death trap to local businesses.