Comment by voidUpdate
3 days ago
What country are they in? The list of shops seems to suggest belgium/the netherlands. Because in the UK, I often go to toy shops with my partner. There's probably two shops in the same shopping centre you could call "toy shops", as well as a GAME which sells video games. All three of them sell lego, as well as quite a few other shops. There's also a Cex and a mini Cex if you want to buy video games and get ripped off. Also quite a few other shops tend to have a "toys" section, such as WH Smiths or B&M, though I wouldn't call them "toy shops" At least in my area, brick and mortar toy stores are very much alive and well
GAME is bankrupt and was a shit for a long time, WH Smith is also closing lot of stores, B&M is selling tat and is half empty. But none of these are toy stores.
Retail in the UK is very much dead, unless you need barber and vape shops.
Smyths toys is doing pretty well in my town, in an out of town centre retail park admittedly. It is situated in a fairly new retail park that got built exactly behind the old one where Toys R Us used to be. That got knocked down and replaced with warehouses. Must be cheaper to tear down and start from scratch than try to modernise after being vacant for a few years.
Town centre is lots of barbers, vape shops and betting shops. Few new independent bars and restaurants seem to be breaking through thankfully.
As I said, I wouldn't call any of those three "toy shops". But all three of my local ones seem to be going strong, and sell toys or toy-adjacent things
The blog writer is in Belgium, just like myself. Can confirm that there are almost no brick and mortar toy stores left in my area (which from what I can tell is the opposite side of Flanders).