At the ASTRA Convention 2009

I am in St. Paul, Minnesota - home of the 2009 American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) Marketplace & Conference. I will be checking out cool new toys to bring to YoYo Joe's plus getting good ideas to implement at YoYo Joe's. First up was the Keynote session with Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor, then it's Kits, Kits & more Kits and finally a couple choices as far as breakout sessions. I saw Bob Phibbs last year at the 2008 ASTRA Conference and he's a great speaker - always motivates me to try out new stuff. One idea I'm gonna implement right away when I get back is to get more goofy YouTube videos up - videos about new products, store events & more. Check out my Twitter page for live updates from #ASTRA09

ASTRA Conference wraps up

I got back last night after attending my first American Specialty Toy Retailers Association (ASTRA) Conference this past week up at Foxwoods, Connecticut. I learned the following things over the past couple of days:

1 - Compared to Toy Fair, the ASTRA show is the hands-down winner. Sure, it's kinda comparing apples to oranges, but the intimate nature of the show, the seminars that addressed specialty retailing, the more relevant manufacturers at the show all made it a better event for me than Toy Fair. Now you're not gonna replace Toy Fair - it is what it is, but ASTRA has done a great job in presenting something that any independent retailer should try to get to.

2 - The seminars were wonderful - easily worth the price of admission in and of themseslves. I attended the opening session with Rick Segal, the web session with Don Hays, the two profit sessions with Al Bates and the closing session with Bob Phibbs. All were on the mark as far as relevance to my situation. I wanted to attend a couple other sessions and had a difficult time choosing between sessions, but ended up attending the sessions I thought I should go to instead of the ones I wanted to go to. Plus, I attended the impromptu ASTRA Mac users group meeting, led by John MacDougall of the Golden Apple Learning Store in Pleasanton, California - which was a nice little breakout meeting to compare notes on using Macs in our businesses.

3 - Driving TO Foxwoods at 3:30 am on a Sunday is vastly quicker than driving FROM Foxwoods at 1 pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

Live from the ASTRA Convention

So, I drove up to Foxwoods, Connecticut today to attend the ASTRA (American Specialty Toy Retailer Association) Convention. We've been members for several years now, but I'd never made it to one of the conventions. It's being held in the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Casino - which is a incredibly gaudy complex located in rural Connecticut. It's a massive facility, holding at least three casinos, hotels, restaurants, night clubs and more. I have to say, it seems like a pretty incongruous place to hold a convention that's aimed at generally small retailers. Plus, I'm not a gambler, so the whole casino thing seems kinda dopey to begin with. Oddly enough, there seem to be tons of families here. What do the kids do when mommy and daddy are working their way through the college fund?

Anyhow, I digress.

I drove up from Wilmington, Delaware today. I left around 3:45 am and got here just after 8, in time to attend the opening of the show, which featured a seminar by Rick Segal.

In the opening comments by ASTRA President Kathleen McHugh, she stressed that, despite the economy, this is their biggest ASTRA convention ever – with more registrations than ever as well as more retailers having registered than ever before. It leads me to believe that there is a demand for locally owned specialty toy stores in America.

The first session was with Rick Segal. Rick comes from a retail background, having worked in his family’s business for over 25 years before persuing his current career path as a speaker. He has written eight books on retailing and has achieved the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation – apparently only 7% of the members of National Speakers Association have qualified to be recognized as CPS speakers.

Rick speaks fast and covered a lot of material. He gave a good speech – titled 7 Essentials for Successful Retailing. His speech was directly mainly at the retailers in the audience, as he speaks from a retail point of view. Like his books, Rick stressed differentiation. The need for your business to differentiate from it’s competitors. What is your store known for? Is it known for anything? Stress it, in your advertising, your communications, your store image.

What are the seven essentials?

According to Rick, they are:
1 – Shopping
In order to be a good buyer for your store, you have to shop. Shop your competitors, shop stores that are not competitors, shop online. See what others are doing, how they are doing it, whether it works for them.
2 – The Why of the Buy – the Picker, the Buyer and the Price
What kinds of merchandise to stock and why
3 – People
It is easier to get good customer than it is to get good people.
4 – Advertising and Promotions
Where and how to do it. 87% of customers come through word-of-mouth advertising.
5 – Selling and Service
Selling is Service and service is selling.
6 – Ecommerce
According to Rick, “This is the most lucrative time for small business to succeed than any other time in history”
7 – Knowing the numbers through Point of Sale.
Do your homework. Track your sales, How much does each customer spend? How many items do they purchase? Which days are your busiest, which are the slowest. It’s all in yoru POS Info.

I’ve read his book – The Retail Kit for Dummies, and it’s good. I would encourage any retailer to check it out.

ASTRA Conference approaching

We've been members of ASTRA (The American Specialty Toy Retailers Association) for years, but I have never made it to one of their conferences before. The location of the conference moves each year, and is often out of reach for us. This year, however, it's going to be up in Connecticut. My sister-in-law lives in Providence, so I'm crashing there for several days to attend. I'm excited to go to a conference that's aimed directly at independently owned toy retailers. As much as I love Toy Fair, you frequently get the idea that you're not exactly the most important person there. (At one booth, the first question asked me was "you know our opening order minimum is $5,000, right?)

So, it should be good - there's featured speakers and presentations aimed for us little guys and a exhibit floor with 250 toy companies presenting their stuff. The conference runs June 22-25 and I will do my best to update the blog with new and interesting stuff.

ASTRA meets with co-sponsor of toy reform bill

According to an e-mail sent out to ASTRA (American Specialty Toy Retailers Association), ASTRA Prez Kathleen McHugh met with Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) to talk about the new federal Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) Reform Act of 2007. The act was passed by the US Senate and, according to ASTRA, "is expected to be signed into law in April following some minor changes that will happen in conference when the House and Senate meet to iron out the difference between their two versions. This is the bill that is most friendly to the toy industry, and one that attempts to establish federal standards that will supersede any state standards that are legislated around the country. "

McHugh met with Senator Durbin following a news conference he held at an ASTRA member store - 'The Toy Connection' in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

According to McHugh:
"Our meeting was productive and accomplished these things:

1) Senator Durbin promised to make sure that the language in the final federal law makes it clear that retailers cannot be held liable for safety violations committed by manufacturers. He agreed that this is an important distinction and he appears sincere in his support of our position on it.
2) Senator Durbin committed to making a strong case for strong language that will establish the federal law as pre-emptive of all state laws on standards. Surprisingly, he was unaware that there is legislation on toy safety standards pending in thirty states. It seemed clear that the information I gave him about the various state efforts was of considerable concern to him and underscored the urgency in making the pre-emptive language clear and effective. "

This is great news for the consumer, the manufacturer and the retailer. We need federal standards that protect our children from potentially dangerous toys and also to make it feasible for small companies to comply with one standard - instead of 30 different laws. Kudos to Kathleen McHugh, Senator Durbin and the hosts of the event, Dan and Ulla Koenig of The Toy Connection. Let's hope this gets done the way it sounds like it should.

Green Toys

I have to say, these toys look pretty cool. They're from a company called Green Toys, Inc. The main ingredient in the production of these toys are recycled milk jugs. They're also made entirely in the United States.

According to their website, each pound of recycled milk jugs saves energy of the equivalent of 3000 AA batteries, saves enough electricity to power your TV set for three weeks or saves enough electricity to power your laptop for a month.

And they don't forget the packaging. The packaging is made of 100% recycled cardboard with no plastic and no annoying twist ties.

Are we ready for green toys? Members of ASTRA (The American Specialty Toy Retailer Association - we're a member!) voted the tea set (above) one of the top 20 toys at Toy Fair. My only hesitation is the price tag - the tea set will retail for about $35. Otherwise, I'm sold...

Toy Fair-A-Palooza!

Toy Fair officially starts on Sunday. I'm headed up Sunday morning to check out the piles and piles of toys that someone will try to convince me are not chock full of lead or PVC or some other toxic cocktail of danger. Should be swell. I can see it now, "hey, this red looks awfully red, are you sure there's not lead in it?"

We're headed to the official ASTRA Party with the Stars event on Sunday night at FAO Schwartz, what used to be the greatest toy store in the world (until some ultra high brows took it over and made it the most expensive toy store in the world). Then, Monday night is our annual attempt to broadcast live at Toy Fair from the YoYoNation reception at PS450. We've attempted to broadcast live via YoYoRadio.net each of the last two years and have been foiled each time. Things don't look too promising this year as my official YoYoRadio laptop was at the shop and only got back today in worse shape than it went in. Nevertheless, we'll tape the show and broadcast it when we get back if we can't do it live.