Toy store enterprise finds local niche

Fifteen years after they ventured into something completely new, the owners of the two Imagination Station Toys stores in Flathead County freely admit they didn’t know what they were doing at the time.

Their success, however, would seem to dispute that premise.

Denise Magstadt and Mary Whitbrod opened a toy store in downtown Whitefish in May 1995, moved the store twice in that community to larger locations, and in 2001 opened a second store in downtown Kalispell.

The owners never thought about opening their businesses anywhere besides downtown.

“We’ve always wanted to be downtown. It’s what we are. Classic stores should be downtown,” Magstadt said.

They quickly filled up the 700 or so square feet in their first store and were jamming products anywhere they could fit.

“Really. We didn’t know what we were doing,” Whitbrod said.

Today, each of their stores has about 1,200 square feet of shopping space and at times that’s not as much space as they’d like.

Magstadt “always wanted to own a toy store.” She used to operate a child-care business and “one day Denise was dropping off her kids and I asked her about” joining in on the toy store venture.

“I said, ‘Let me think about it,’” Whitbrod remembers.

Not long after that conversation, they agreed to open a store.

Then “we sat down with a bottle of wine and a thesaurus and came up with our name,” Magstadt said.

Part of the reason they opened the store was the lack of places to purchase birthday gifts in Whitefish, they said.  That’s why, still today, “most of our items cost less than $15,” Magstadt said. And, it’s why they still offer free gift wrapping.

“We all used to be sitting in our cars, with our scissors and tape, wrapping gifts as we took our kids to birthday parties,” Magstadt said of she and other young mothers a couple of decades ago.

One of the reasons the two women wanted to be business partners in the beginning was to job-share, they said. Both had young children at the time and neither wanted to work full time. So, they set up a schedule where each partner worked three days a week. It’s worked for 15 years. Both say they still love coming to work every day.

In addition to the two owners, the stores employ six people. Everyone works part time. That’s intentional, the owners said. “Retail is tough. It’s hard to be in a good mood all of the time if you work too much,” Magstadt said.

Singling out the most popular toys in the store is a challenge for the women. Part of the reason their inventory is so varied is people have different preferences regarding toys.

Their shops may be a haven for toddlers, but they cater to customers of all ages, with puzzles geared especially to senior citizens and kits and board games for teenagers.

A section of each store is dedicated to arts and crafts products, too, and many of those items are for older children.

Much of their focus is on educational toys.

Their inventory of science kits is especially large and  includes a selection of kits that result in environmentally friendly “green” projects.

Besides focusing on educational products, they say they stock toys that are original and affordable.

They also avoid stocking the same products that are sold in larger discount stores.

They’ve never worried they wouldn’t be able to compete within the market, because of their emphasis on quality, customer service and stocking unique items.

Many of the toys at Imagination Station Toys hearken back to what some people now call vintage items. “We buy a lot of toys that we liked when were kids,” Whitbrod said.

“One of the most common remarks we hear is ‘I haven’t seen that in years,’” Magstadt said of their browsing customers.

Shoppers will find plenty of traditional toys and gifts — stuffed animals, books, paint kits, crayons and markers, playing cards, checkers, balls for every sport, dominoes and chess sets. Sure, there are ant farms, but there also  are earthworm nurseries on the shelves. Bins hold small plastic dinosaurs, fish, and other creatures.

Pogo sticks and stilts are tucked away, too. “We just sold another pair of stilts,” Magstadt said.

Of course, there are model cars, trucks, tractors and the like.

No Montana toy store would be complete without some Western merchandise, they said, pointing out cowboy hats, toy horses and gear and a popular stuffed animal, Mortimore the Moose.

The Whitefish store is at 221 Central Ave. Its phone number is 862-5668. In Kalispell, the store is located at 132 Main St. and the phone is 755-5668.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.