The Life & Times of Generation X: Toy Stores

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From the perspective of most kids, childhood is about toys. The simple goal is to get them. Once that plan is complete we move onto phase 2 which consists of getting more. Kids of today maintain the desire for playthings. What they want may be the same, but how they get them is completely different now than in previous decades.

Toy stores were magical when I was a kid. In fact, one of my local haunts called Children’s Palace was actually designed as a castle. You would enter through sliding doors and see aisles of fun that went on forever. The shelves stretched way up towards a distant ceiling. I remember thinking that if I was the richest man in the world I could buy all those toys. Forget world peace or international power. That stupid stuff wasn’t even on my radar. Know what was? Every action figure and remote control car on the shelf.

The internet and retail giants like WalMart slowly strangled the toy store industry to death in the past 20 years. Gone are the days of snagging the ultimate catalog–the annual Christmas Wish Book–from the mailbox to circle all the stuff you wanted. Toy reconnaissance. No one cared whether these items were provided by Santa, mom, grandma, or the smelly neighbor who thought a dime would buy you an ice cream cone.

We just wanted the toys.

With apologies to Baby Jesus, page images from those catalogs and visions of palatial toy halls kept me awake on Christmas Eve. I was a product of my culture. Greed reigned and toys built empire.