Working at play, playing at work
Toy stores gets ready for the holiday season
By ALAN CHOATE
The Daily Inter Lake
'Tis the season when toys take center stage in the retailing world - and that sector of the retailing world has been roiling for the past few years as the competitive landscape changes and big companies duke it out over market share.
There's still room, however, for small, locally based toy stores such as Imagination Station, which has been growing steadily in Whitefish for 10 years and opened a Kalispell location three years ago.
As large chain stores transform retail shopping in the Flathead Valley, the toy stores - owned by Mary Witbrod and Denise Magstadt - provide another example of how a local economy can remain diversified when business owners find a specialty or niche and go the extra mile for customer service.
"We try really hard to stock unique items that you can't find anywhere else," Magstadt said.
Wal-Mart and Target have moved into the toy arena aggressively and together now dominate about 40 percent of the market nationwide.
Well-known toy retailers have been hit hard - KB Toys and FAO Schwartz filed for bankruptcy protection, and while Toys 'R' Us has made some moves to fight back this Christmas, company leaders have indicated they want to get out of the toy business and focus on the Babies 'R' Us chain.
One analysis of the toy industry put it this way: Get megabig or get out - or be small and be different.
Though Imagination Station has grown, it is not in danger of becoming megabig, or even medium-sized.
Before the toy store, Witbrod was a Montessori teacher who had a child under Magstadt's supervision at a Whitefish day care. That's how they met and hit upon the idea of opening a toy shop together, starting with a 400-square-foot space downtown.
"We just gradually got bigger," Magstadt said, eventually buying their current location on Central Avenue - "the last affordable building in Whitefish," she said - and expanding to Kalispell. The two locations total about 3,700 square feet, and they have seven employees.
Their merchandise is eclectic.
There's a lot of demand right now for medieval action toys, such as knights and castles, and both women pointed to the supply of toys that "stimulate the imagination," such as art supplies, puppets and dress-up sets.
Interest in "classic" toys - jack-in-the-boxes, marbles, Tinker Toys, erector sets - has been up, and usually surges during the holiday season.
The retail construction boom and the ongoing reshuffling of downtown Kalispell businesses don't worry Magstadt and Witbrod.
"Competition is not necessarily a bad thing. We're not in competition with the valley," Magstadt said. "You can't stock everything, and we want people to find what they want. We tell people where to find what they want."
Several businesses have closed or relocated from downtown Kalispell recently, citing the need for more space or the lack of foot traffic there. Witbrod, however, said she can't see the store moving to, say, a mall, should a new one be built.
Although the Whitefish location gets more traffic, "I'm not willing to give up the ghost down there," Witbrod said. "I think there's a lot of room for growth in Kalispell.
"I want to be part of a kid's memory. I want them to say, ÔWe had the coolest toy store.'"
Reporter Alan Choate may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at achoate@dailyinterlake.com