04/18/2025
Thinker Toys Vineyard Town Center location in Morgan Hill is permanently closing. Our flagship physical store in Carmel-by-the-Sea will continue as it has since 1969 . Thank you to all of our wonderful customers over the last decade and a half, the generation we watched grow up. We are deeply grateful for all our amazing staff, the vast majority of whom worked for minimum wage and a love of toys. Truly this space was an act of community service.
Thank you to our Land Lord John Kent of Pacific Oak Properties, who generously subsidized us with below-market-rent for the entirety of our time in Vineyard Town Center. Unfortunately, like so many, this year we learned our subsidy would be lost: Kent has decided the center would be better served by Monterey Credit Union. The toy store will be replaced by a bank. We have not been able to find a retail space of any size in Santa Clara County that we can afford. It is not the fault of a single person but a system. We join a long list of beloved small local businesses lost. This is the mechanism by which gentrification occurs. The only way small, independent, community-oriented businesses can survive is via the willingness of a Land Lord to accept below “market rent", a number set by financial institutions and fast food - soon that is all that will be left. These systems were not made to serve us.
Thinker Morgan Hill was founded out of a desire to provide thoughtful toys and indoor play space for the diverse people in the Horner family’s hometown - toys for ALL. Since opening we have carried dolls of many skin tones, picture books depicting a wide range of diverse identities, stim toys for neurodivergent people, and other items catering to historically under-served communities. Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility have always been at
the heart of choosing what merchandise to platform in this space, down to the messaging on each individual pin. Our educational QUILTBAG display is our pride, and has allowed us to support the work of dozens of LGBTQIA artists. Especially for those often cut off from the acronym: Trans people, Q***r people, Intersex people, Ace people: there is power in representation. We see you. You are real. You are valid. You are loved. You are our community.
As our inventory clears out, there will be more and more empty space in the store. We have decided to focus that space into the center of the store and start adding tables & chairs with games & coloring pages. Please use these spaces to hang out and meet each other. Bring fliers for your nonprofit groups. It is so important to make connections in this time, to not lose track of community. Make friends & take time to cultivate your existing friendships outside the bounds of social media. Make plans to meet, somewhere physical if you can: a park, library, local coffee shop or bookstore. All we have is each other; we keep us safe.
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