Top 3 Toys We Learned About from our Customers

One more thing that differentiates us from the big box stores is that when you walk into our store and talk to us, you're talking to the people who determine what toys appear on our shelves. Try to talk to the toy buyer at Walmart and make a suggestion on what toys they should sell. I dare ya!
Over the 10 months we've been opened, we've had lots of suggestions on things we should sell in our store. In many cases, we ordered the products and in several cases, they've turned out to be great selling items! Here's our choices for the top three items we've been suggested to sell in our store.

3 - Sandy Feet - A customer came in our store in July and said that she would buy several of these if we got them in and raved about how awesome they were. So, we just got these in last month, and they've sold well despite how late in the summer it is. This ingenious kit allows you to create foot castings from footprints in the sand. Use the sand & water from your beach, add their special powder, wait 20 minutes and get a footprint keepsake! $15.99

2 - Kids on Stage - This charades game for kids was suggested to us by a customer as "the best game they ever got." We've sold through on our first order and have placed a reorder for them. The nice thing about this game is that every child acts on every turn, and the game requires no reading! For ages 3-8. $18.99

1 - My Little Sandbox - These 10" x 10" sandboxes come in different themes (Beach Party and Big Builder are the two most popular). Each kit includes a 10" x 10" box, micro-sand, and accessories depending on the theme. The Beach Party set includes a sunbather, towel, beach chair, little dog & mini bucket, shovel and rake. The Big Builder set includes trucks, rocks, mini shovel and rake. It's a little zen garden for kids! A customer came in last November and raved about these, telling us how she would travel 45 minutes away to stock up on them for gifts. We ordered them, and in our first 10 months, they've been one of our top selling items! $27.99. Ages 3 & up.

Elf on the Shelf Author coming to YoYo Joe's

Well, color us pretty darned excited. We just received word from the publishers of 'Elf on the Shelf' that we were selected from over 200 applicants to have an author visit by Carol Aebersold, one of the authors of 'Elf on the Shelf.' She will visit the store on Monday, November 2nd from 5-7 pm.
Now, Elf on the Shelf was our number 1 selling item at YoYo Joe's up until February 19th, 2009 even though the last one we sold was in January. It's still in our top five selling items seven months later!
If you're not familiar with the story behind 'Elf on the Shelf,' the kit comes with a book and elf. The book explains that Santa knows who is naughty and/or nice because he sends a scout elf to every home. The elf watches the children by day and reports to Santa each night. When the children awake, the elf has returned from the North Pole and can be found hiding in a different location each morning. Finding the elf each morning is half the fun. There are rules, such as children are not allowed to touch the elf.
The elf comes alive after the family has named the elf.
We're so excited that Carol Aebersold will be visiting us!

Another Uglydoll article

If you've been following the blog, you know I'm a fan of the Uglydolls. You can read about them in 8 past entries here . If you like Uglydolls, you're in luck - here's another article about them. If you're not a fan, move along - there's nothing more to see here.
This is a nifty little article about the origination of the Uglydoll in the LA Times this week. I know the story, but it never gets old. Read it here

Party Time!

Tonight is the Delaware Today Magazine's Best of Delaware party at the Chase Center at the Riverfront. We're totally stoked to be going - for a bunch of reasons. Which are:

1 - We're the Best of Delaware! Woo-Hoo!
2 - Um, it's a party...with free food & liquid happiness.
3 - The party benefits some of our favorite causes - Delaware Guidance Services for Children & Youth, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Delaware, The Delaware Children's Museum and also the Light Up The Queen group.
4 - The party has lots of our favorite places Dogfish Head, Harry's, Orillas Tapas, Pizza By Elizabeths, Sweets to You by Ginger, Grassroots, Hansel & Gretel & dozens more! (A complete list is here)

If you need a ticket, the door price is $70 a person, but if you click this button, you can save $15 off the ticket. If you're going, stop by (rumor has it there's some free yo-yos). If you're not going, follow Joe's Twitter updates from the party.

Yo-Yo's make the national spotlight...

Just over a month ago, the Washington Post did a cover story on yoyoing, spotlighting former YoYo Joe's employee Tyler Severance as well as other YoYo Joe's Yo-Yo Club members. If you missed it, check out my blog post here.
Since then, yo-yos have been prominently featured on the cover of last Friday's Wall Street Journal and also on Monday's edition of the Today Show.

Dog Days, indeed...

For those who are fans of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, there's reason to rejoice. Today, the cover art of the anticipated 4th book in the series was released. The new book is titled 'Dog Days,' and has a release date of October 12th. Based on the success of the previous titles, it's a safe assumption this will be a very good selling book.

Check our previous posts on the Wimpy Kids books and check out this picture of our son, Ethan, with Jeff Kinney - the author of the Wimpy Kid series.

Consider Me Ignited...

Civic pride in Wilmington usually amounts to jokes about how the city closes at 5 pm. Last night, however, at the studios of the Archer Group something exciting took place - the first Ignite Wilmington event.
I initially heard about this event thanks to our friend, photographer Laura Novak and her Twitter feed. It sounded good, so Emily and I headed down last night.

First, a little about the history of the Ignite events. I took this from the Ignite webpage:

"If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.

Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006 by Brady Forrest and Bre Pettis. Since then 100s of 5 minute talks have been given across the world. There are thriving Ignite communities in Seattle, Portland, Paris, and NYC."

Sounds intriguing, right?

Last night's initial Wilmo event was emceed by Mark Mobley, the Director of Community Engagement at the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. There were 12 speakers - each with a 5 minute presentation. As it was the first Wilmo event, the speakers had varying successes meeting the 15 second slide rule. Some missed entire slides as their 15 seconds went way too fast, others waited for the slides to change.

The presentations covered a wide range of topics - ranging from IT stuff (cloud data) to brewing your own beer to Wilmington artist Jeff Schaller comparing and contrasting his career path with that of David Hasselhoff (his presentation was entitled 'Me and the Hoff' which was exactly as funny as it sounds) to Chris Winburn relaying his tales of the dizzying heights and bottomless pits of riding the 90's internet boom and bust to San Francisco & back. To finish it off, we all took a quiz on just how 'White N Nerdy' we were (Chris won an eronomic keyboard for being the whitest and nerdiest).

The presentations were entertaining - no matter what the topic it never gets boring listening to someone talk about their passion. They were also informative. They gave me ideas - they sparked my creative juices - which is precisely the idea behind the event!

Perhaps the most exciting part of the event was the vibe. Yes, this REALLY was taking place in Wilmington - AFTER 5 pm! Yes, these were all Wilmingtonians jazzed about their city. Every presentation was greeted by cat-calls from the audience in support.

We rounded out the evening by heading a couple blocks up to one of our new favorite Wilmington restaurants - Orillas Tapas Bar. What a great night to be a Wilmingtonian!

Don't miss Ignite Wilmington #2 - which will be coming up - check ignitewilmington.com for details.

Thanks to the people who put #1 together and to the Archer Group for hosting it and to Laura for informing us about the event.