1990 Ad

Discount Store News, Feb 12, 1990

Toy Fair Steps Up in Size, Length

Extra Day, 75,000 More Square Feet to Greet Exhibitors

NEW YORK -- The 1990 International Toy Fair is getting bigger and longer, even though the estimated gain last year in retail toy sales lagged behind the inflation rate.

The Toy Manufacturers of America has increased by 48 percent the square footage at the Jacob Javits Convention Center for toy vendors who lack permanent exhibition space and added an extra day.

To accommodate a substantial waiting list, TMA has reserved 230,000 square feet of space in the Jacob Javits Convention Center, up from 155,000 square feet for Toy Fair '89. Moreover, exhibitors at Javits, who tend to be smaller, newer vendors, get an extra day to show their wares, from Friday through Monday, February 16 to 19. Previously, they had Friday through Sunday.

For those who retain permanent showrooms, either in their buildings, such as Hasbro and Mattel, or in the two TMA buildings, the show opens today, February 12.

Leave your kids at home is a strong message the TMA is sending to the expected 17,000 attendees. The TMA board has increased the attendance age to 18 from 14 and promises to strictly enforce both the age minimum and requirement that even 18 year olds must provide W-2 proof they work as a toy buyer, say for a mom and pop chain, before they will be allowed in.

Space is tight in crowded showrooms, and a youngster is an extra body who would take up space that vendors want only buyers to occupy, said a spokeswoman for TMA show management.

Because the Toy Fair stretches over the extended President's Day weekend, attendees might be more inclined to bring their youngsters to the Toy Fair.

"Toy manufacturers want to see buyers, not children," the spokeswoman said. TMA raised the age minimum to 18 because attendees try to pass a 13-year-old off as age 14, and it was too difficult for show security to tell the difference.

A new TMA president will deliver today's show opener address and release 1989 retail sales figures.

David Miller, previously owner of Eden Toys, has replaced retired Doug Thompson as TMA president.

Early TMA estimates of retail sales suggest the total will come to between $13 billion and $13.25 billion, compared with $12.75 billion in 1988. Those figures do not include sales of Nintendo and other video games vendors, which add perhaps $2.5 billion more.

Even at $13.25 billion, 1989 retail sales would show a 3.9 percent increase over 1988, or less than the inflation rate last year of 4.6 percent.

Indicating the generally flat toy year, Christmas toy sales for Child World, the second-largest specialty chain, dipped 1.9 percent from 1988. Comparable store sales for Kay-Bee Toys, No. 3, were down 14 percent for the entire year.

At Lionel Leisure, fourth largest, comparable store sales for Christmas 1989 fell 3.5 percent from a year earlier, although sales overall gained 3.9 percent.

Of the four major specialty chains, only industry leader Toys "R" Us reported a good Christmas season, with sales increasing overall by 22.7 percent, 10 percent for comparable stores. Sales for the 11 months through Dec. 24, 1989 rose 19.2 percent to $4.48 billion from $3.76 billion the previous year.

A controversy involving Wal-Mart and toy manufacturers over who is to pay the costs of Wal-Mart's new toy testing program apparently has been settled in favor of manufacturers in time for Toy Fair.

Last November, Wal-Mart opened its own toy testing lab in attempts to curb customer lawsuits over defective toys. And it said it would bill manufacturers for the costs, a move that the TMA opposed on legal grounds that this might favor one chain over another.

Aaron Locker, TMA counsel, said that Wal-Mart now is willing to accept a manufacturer's certification that a toy is safe. Alternatively, if Wal-Mart still tests the toy, it won't try to bill the manufacturer, Locker said.

In 1985, ShopKo, Green Bay, Wis., began its own toy testing program through Consumers Testing Lab, Akron, Ohio, for toxicity, flammability, compressibility, sharp edges, small parts and dangerous projectiles, a spokeswoman said.

ShopKo absorbs the costs. The chain declined to release the test failure rate on toys.

PHOTO : Toys at Auchan, Houston: 1989 retail sales figures are expected to exceed $13 billion,

PHOTO : compared with 12.75 billion in 1988. The totals do not include sales of Nintendo and other

PHOTO : video game vendors.