'Official' Grand Opening on Saturday!

Although we opened for business on Monday, our 'official' Grand Opening is this Saturday. Do we have anything planned? Darn tootin' we do! We've got:

• free collectible limited edition YoYo Joe's Duncan yo-yos for the first 75 kids at YoYo Joe's on Saturday. It's a Duncan Proyo and it features a custom YoYo Joe's imprint on each side of the yo-yo.

• Vincenza Carrieri-Russo, Miss Delaware USA will be at YoYo Joe's from 5-6 pm (courtesy of our friends at McNeil Designs for Brighter Minds - maker of the game 'You've Been Sentenced')




Plus, Rocky Bluewinkle will be at YoYo Joe's from 12-2 on Saturday. Meet the official Wilmington Blue Rocks mascot!


• Hourly prize drawings!

• Special Opening Day discounts on selected YoYo Joe's toys from Melissa & Doug, KEVA planks, WOW Toys, & Klutz Books

• Other awesome events we haven't even thought of yet!

It should be a swell day for us at YoYo Joe's as we mark the beginning of our store. We open at 10 AM and close on Saturday at 8 PM (although we're happy to hang around if people want to browse!)

One Week Old!

Today marks our one week anniversary. While we have a long way to go to reach the amazing 55-year run of Mitchell's, I'm pretty jazzed about being open for one week. The customers have been gushing over the store. I know I'm biased and all, but we actually had a customer thank us for opening the other day. We certainly were proud of our store, but it's so satisfying to hear almost every customer compliment us on the look of the store, or the products, or the wickedly cool palm trees or the incredible pirate ship. Things really came together well.

Yesterday, we had our first event at the store - a book reading with local author Jamie Kleman. Jamie read her book twice to two different groups of people. We had no idea what to expect as far as a turnout, but were happy that the audience was well stocked for both readings. We expect to have a full schedule of events like this - from book readings to yo-yo club to craft activities and even an 'grown-ups' only shopping night that we'll call 'adult swim.'

Where DO those toys with lead in them end up?

Last year, millions of toys were recalled due to lead content in them. According to this article in The Health News Digest, only about six percent of recalled toys are returned, so where are the other 94% of potentially dangerous toys? And what do the toy manufacturers do with the recalled toys when they do get them back?

Book reading and signing on Saturday

Our first real event takes place this Saturday. Well, I guess the opening party qualifies as an event, but this is our first official unofficial event. Local author Jamie Kleman will be here at 11 am on Saturday to read from and sign her latest book, "It's Not Mean to be Green."

Special Bonus! A photographer from the Wilmington News Journal will be on hand to take a picture of Jamie reading at the store, so we need as many kids as possible to show up! Your kid could be discovered!

Unofficial opening day has come and gone

I honestly had no idea what to expect when pulling up to YoYo Joe's today. I didn't know if there would be a line waiting to get in or whether no one would come in at all. Well, like most things, the truth lie somewhere in the middle. To say we were busy today would be a stretch, but we had some sales, several of which were blog-readers (yay, blog reader people!) I finally realized that perhaps taking down the banner that advertised that we would open on November 1st might be a good idea, since several customers mentioned thinking we weren't open yet due to the date on the banners our front.

Carol was in today for the first time - Carol worked with me at Mitchell's for the past 20 years or so. She originally worked in Mitchell's in Ogletown (what now is ground zero for the MBNA/Bank of America complex) with her husband, Roger, who managed that store and the location where it moved in Community Plaza before moving up to our Fairfax store for the past dozen years or so. We're thrilled to have Carol with us at YoYo Joe's.

More pictures from the party to be posted soon!

Opening Day is Here!

OK, so tomorrow is our opening day. It's unofficial, but people who have been reading the blog will know all about it. I'm curious to see if we have much of a crowd - since word-of-mouth is really all we have going for us tomorrow. Our official opening day is not till November 1st - it gives us a chance to mess up all we can for a couple weeks before things really count. It's been such an exciting time, and tomorrow should be another cool day for YoYo Joe's.

Last of the party pics - Andre, Emily & Karen

Here's a photo of my wife, Emily (on the left), her co-worker Karen Todd and her boyfriend Andre Kerr. Andre is the artist who created the cannon in YoYo Joe's and the group of palm trees in the front of the store. He's very talented and we were very lucky to have him work for us.