Word: toying
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...Station. He slips me the card of a friend's shop that had one set as of last night. From my car, I dial my cell phone with frozen fingers. The woman who answers tells me I am lucky: I'll be No. 58 on her waiting list. The Toy Station in the wealthy suburb of Lake Forest is next. It's now snowing like crazy, and it takes me almost an hour to get there. But my holiday adrenaline has kicked in. I double-park and push past a throng of parents. The salespeople laugh out loud when...
...businesses quickly realized that the cards were cash cows. Now banks, credit-card companies, various financial-services providers and such chains as Starbucks sell branded prepaid cardsnot only at their own outlets but also through grocery stores and shopping malls as well as over the Internet. The newly reopened toy store F.A.O. Schwarz is even offering a $100,000 gift card. Some of the cards include ATM access. Some let holders reload them; others permit transfer of funds to other cards or individuals. In one of the latest incarnations, at last count about 1,000 companies give their workers electronic...
Just out for Christmas: a new toy in the hood. The Hoodio, a hooded fleece jacket with a built-in FM stereo created by novelty toymaker Wild Planet, is a solution to the age-old problem of teens seeking ever better ways to tune out the world. On sale exclusively at GapKids (around $70), the Hoodio runs on three AAA batteries and features two small speakers in the cowl charged by a PDA-size power pack and controlled via a tuner panel sewn into the sleeve...
Play patterns like this could Grinch another Christmas for the toy department. Through September, toy sales were down 5% compared with the first nine months of 2003, according to the NDP Group. Meanwhile, the video-game industry is heading for another record year, with sales of $12 billion in the U.S., up 7% over 2003, including consoles and PC titles. And thanks to hot new games like Halo 2 for the Xbox, the industry is light-years ahead of the toy business when it comes to buzz. With distractions such as instant messaging, cell-phone games and iPods angling...
While some hard-to-find toys emerge every holiday season, toymakers are heading into this one without a monster hit. Indeed, there has not been a Furby-style frenzy in years. Of 10 toy segments--yes folks, there are that many to the people who take toys seriously--only two, arts and crafts, and dolls, have generated sales growth over a recent 12-month period, according to investment firm Harris Nesbitt. Some of the weakest categories like construction sets (down 10%) and action figures (down 9%) are the ones aimed at boys, who suffer the most blisters from video games...