Industrial Death
I'm working on a project and part of my research has lead me to toy rockets. The closest hobby store to me was closed thanks to the 8 inches of rain we had over the weekend. So I went to another store, an independent hobby store. Once inside, IÂ saw that everything was discounted 40% or more and then I saw the "Store Closing. All Sales Finale." (and yes, it was spelled "finale"). This made me sad. Not because it was my store, or I know the owners, but for a few other reasons.
Independent retailers are constantly being squeezed these days by the franchises and the megacorps. More than that though, I saw an industry that is dying. I'm not saying that the Toy industry is dying, but certain segments seem to have an impending doom, unless someone comes up with a plan of salvation. What I saw was toys that were once played with by pre-teen early teenage boys. Things such as rockets, large remote control planes, railroad sets and models. These things have been replaced by video games, ipods, IM – you name it. To me, that is what is sad. Maybe its the romanticism of a simpler time – I don't really know.
The question is, how do you present the concept of a railroad train and building a landscape for it to a kid that is so engulfed in technology? How do you get him to turn his ipod off long enough to listen to you try and convince him that spending hours if not days, on this model boat will be so much fun?
The remote control car companies seem to get it. They've taken the import tuner idea and made RC cars out of them. You can fully customize the cars – bodies, paint, shocks, engines –whatever. These other sectors seem to have a tougher road ahead of them. I realize all businesses have their ups and downs, but this looks like more than a trend to me. I think that the above mentioned are going to end up in the same museum with the Milkman.
March 21, 2006
6:48 pm
