Do you care about small TF toy shop die ?

[TFtoys]

To me, local toy shop is still so much fun for me to browser and sighting when I want to have a piece of mind and get some surprised of their display. But then, pricing now seems to be an issue to reduce my times to go there. We now can always get stuffs from internet. One thing that I like the most in the TF toy shop is to looking at the used TF showcase and buy something I need from there.

Without the local customers "supply", it is just a matter of the time for the toy shop to expand the selection of the toys/change to another type/ close down. But do you really care?

[joshimus]

I prefer local speciallized toy shops as I agree they are way more fun to browse. Plus they sell japanese stuff too but unfortunetly there really isn't any in Hamilton. We have Big B Comics which is good for my MOTU stuff but they don't get into tfs let alone japanese ones

[Tekkamanraiden]

Hasn't been a specialty toy shop in London for a long time unless you count the comic shops. Personally I think that the business savvy shops have evolved into sites like automation. Having an online business is a good way to keep costs down and still offer the products your customers want for a competitive price.

[onecoin]

I do, I think we just lost two here.

[Pascal]

My local store does carry some Transformers, they had to close one of their 2 locations recently, and I'm not sure the one left is doing all that well either. Problem is that they get the new toys really late in the game, they can't compete with our local Wal-Mart who gets them all and for less before them.

[Dragon Knight]

It always makes me feel good knowing that I've done my part to help the little guy.

[fishtifer]

I want to support the local shops, but it does come down to price and how soon they can get new stuff in. Most of the small shops in Calgary just carry the movie toys which are available everywhere else and for cheaper so what's the point of carrying them if they just sit on the shelf over priced and readily available? Then there's the shops that have old G1 in baggies with crazy prices on them behind the counter that you can barely see, and then you check out a $100+ Wheeljack and his head is missing. You have to fight with the seller to get a decent price at those ones, or go to the shop where there's no price tags, it's whatever price the guy tells you.

I like the toys shops in Edmonton that have Music Label, Revoltech, Henkei, etc - that's the kind of stuff you can't get at Toys R Us. Calgary has one shop in Chinatown that sells some of that stuff, but it's always late, always "we'll get them in 10 days" which turns out to be 10 months or never.

To me the internet is the best way to shop, no checking the boards like a crazy nut to see if the Generations are out yet, no driving across the city to get one, no waiting a month or two later than the US release date to get them for cheap at Walmart or Toys R Us.

[Richter]

The economy is too poor right now to support small boutique stores I find.

Walmart execs are laughing thier asses off rolling in piles of money due to this recession.

[Robimus]

Yes

The smaller retailers are a crucial part of this for me. I'm not a big fan of buying online and love checking out brick and mortar locations for all manner of things.

[Buhawi]

maybe for hard to find things, yes. their prices on japanese stuff is sometimes comparable to the price of the item shipped. If see one I take it. the only time the latter happens is if the vendor gives me tax off/cash only.