The Toy Shop

I visited the store when it was in NYC. It was fantastic. It had the best toys around, both commonplace and collector items. Maybe if you took the time to actually look around you’d see that it is a really special store with really cool merchandise. In fact, I blame this store for my obsession with Folkmanis puppets!

After brunch at No. 3^rd on Saturday, I went on a hunt for a birthday gift for a 1-​year-​old girl. I don’t have kids. I don’t know too many kids. I don’t know what kids like — except I do know they like toys. I knew if I drove around in No Libs for a bit that I would come across some place I could buy toys. I never noticed it before (not sure how long it’s been open), but caddy-​corner to No. 3^rd I saw a big old-​fashioned sign that yelled TOYS. I went in, and there were no other customers in the store, but there were two employees talking behind the counter. They didn’t even acknowledge us when we came in. The place was covered in miniature dragons and horses and assorted army men and space-​y figurines. All I wanted was maybe a big stuffed animal, or some other sort of toy. There was nothing like that there. I did find what I thought was a stuffed animal, but it was actually a puppet. If the staff there had said «hello» or «can i help you?» or anything along those lines, I might have bought the puppet, just to help a new store out. But no dice. The place left a really bad impression. I expect a toy store to be fun, and at the very least friendly. This store was neither.
(For the record, I wound up going to Art Star and buying a cute handmade stuffed ghost and a silk-​screened onesie.)