21/03/2023
Toys4All Alexandria closed permanently, Monday 20th March 2023.
Firstly, I want to thank all our incredible customers, friends and family who visit our store weekly and have supported us since day 1. It’s great to know there is so many amazing people who want to support small business and make the effort to visit us whenever they can, even to say hi.
The customer has always been #1. We put customer service and shopping experience above everything else in the shop, something I think a lot of modern big box retailers are lacking. We pride ourselves on little things, like fun interactions with children and parents, taking things to your car, no questions asked price guarantee, and helping you pick the best toy possible. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the store offered a free home delivery service to local families who were locked down and in need of toys.
In this day and age, a lot of people are just looking for the cheapest and easiest option, which is understandable. It is very hard to compete with major retailers like discount department stores, online only retailers etc that loss lead on toys and outprice the independent toy store market. It makes it very difficult when we can buy stock from major discount department stores cheaper than we can from our suppliers, often our cost prices are the same as their retail prices – there is something fundamentally broken with the market in this aspect.
The exponentially high costs of rent, utilities, interest rates and every day expenses make it very hard to stay ahead in these tough times.
Finally, thank you again to all of our customers, our suppliers, couriers, friends and family who helped us grow to what we became and stuck with us the whole way.
A big thankyou to the incredible staff members I had over the years – Shontelle, Corrina, Big Luke, Little Luke, Chris and Jack. Most of us are ex Toys R Us kids that stuck together and shared my passion for bringing the magic of a big-box toy store experience back to the world.
Its important kids play with toys as much as they can, for as long as they can - Albert Einstein once said that “Play is the highest form of research”.
Thanks
Nick
