Thanksgiving or Black Friday: What's your Holiday?

Ok, so there seems to be a lot of social commentary out there right now about the whole Black Friday shopping day and the move by a lot of large chain retailers to open on Thanksgiving instead of waiting for Friday. There seems to be a lot of different viewpoints and of course as a business owner of a toy store I thought I would make a few comments.

First off, I personally think that everyone should stay at home and spend Thanksgiving Day with their family. Forget about the shopping to try to save some money. Saving money may be important but is it really more important to you than the time you have spent with your family? Which will your children remember more? That you saved $$$ on that “Hot” toy that they saw advertised on TV or that you spent Thanksgiving Day playing games with them and tucked them into bed that night? What are your priorities?

Now let me state here that Yes, Bee Active Toys will be open at 10pm on Thanksgiving night just like the other stores at Tanger Outlets. I know, I feel like a hypocrite for telling you to spend it with your family when I’m going to leave my family at 9pm to go to my store. Now before you start labeling me as one of those greedy retailers that is only in it for the money let me defend my position(if you are greedy, owning a toy store probably isn't the type of store to own).

I am opening for two reasons: First, I agreed to follow the mall hours for the benefit of all mall shoppers when I signed my lease and second, because even though I am the business owner, I too still have a boss and that boss is you, my customer. I know some of my customers actually want to be out there shopping at this time. Now, I am the store owner so I could just tell my employees that they have to work it while I stay at my home, but I’m not that type of boss. I believe the best way to lead is by example, (I also think that all the early openings would stop pretty quickly if the CEOS of the largest retailers had to work that Thanksgiving Night graveyard shift, but that probably isn’t going to happen,) so I am going to be there with my other staff members that volunteered to join me.

We are going to do our best, like we always do, to make sure that each customer has a great shopping experience at Bee Active Toys. In fact all of the staff is going to do that all day long on Black Friday like we do every day. We know our livelihood depends on your liking our product and the service that we give you in finding the right toy for your little girl or little boy. We take that very seriously. I like to think that is one of the differences between us as a locally owned toy store and one of the big box chain stores. We are serious about kids having the right toy and experiencing great playtime.

I'm also going to mention that there are a lot of other retail employees that are going to be working in stores everywhere that night. Give them a smile and say thank you to them when they do a good job and give you good service. They too are working because it is their job. Remember, they have lives and families as well.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for my very caring and understanding family. I really am nothing without them. I’m thankful for a great staff that does great things at Bee Active Toys. Stop in for a fun break and let us show you some those great things. I’m also thankful for you, our customer. Without you Bee Active Toys is not possible.
This Thanksgiving don’t be in that big of a rush to get to the sales that you forget about the reason why you are celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in the first place. We at Bee Active Toys will be here to help you with your Christmas shopping on Black Friday and each of the other 29 days before Christmas too.

Calling all Educators

Hey teachers out there, it is the last week of July and pretty soon you will be heading back to school. I know that a lot of you use toys and games in your classroom which is AWESOME! Don't hesitate to ask for curriculum guides and lesson plans. I'm always glad to help you with them. Plus a lot of game manufacturers offer curriculum guides and lesson plans for their games and with just a little tweaking for your classroom can help make learning a lot more fun and engaging for students. Here is a great resource and website called Games for Educators to get you started.

http://www.g4ed.com/

Bee Active Toys wants to thank you and wish you all the best as your starting to think about and plan your classrooms for the next school year. If we can help you in any way, let me know.

Travel Toys

Summertime is the time for road trips and vacations and while it’s tempting to just put a movie in the car DVD player or let the kids play on their DS for the whole drive there are other ways to help keep your child busy as you travel. Now I know as a parent that I can only play I Spy with my Little Eye, or sing “The wheels on the bus” so many times before it drives me nuts so here are a couple of other ideas that can help take the “Are we there yet” out of your children.

1. Wind-up toys can keep fingers active and provide amusement. Their small size makes them easily portable.

2. Dot –to –dot books from 1 -20 or 1-500 can be bought and keep kids interest as they anxiously connect the dots to find out what the picture is on the paper.

3. Travel games are available in a lot of different varieties. Plus games are a great way to help teach social skills like communication and good sportsmanship as well as reinforcing vocabulary, spelling and math skills. I still love the old Traffic Sign Bingo.

4. Magnetic play sets. These come in a wide variety of themes and allow children the ability to imagine, pretend and play while in the car and don’t take up a lot of room.

5. Drawing paper and stickers are a part of every household with children and have gone on many a road trip. Have your child keep a journal of the trip making notes about everything that they see. Have them exercise their creative writing skills by writing fictional stories based on what they see. Creating comic books can also really help those miles disappear.

6. And speaking of books, good old fashion books and reading are still great ways to pass the time on those long road trips. Better yet, take turns reading the book to each other and practice your flair for Drama. Kids will love hearing all the different voices you can make and you will love finding out how well your child can read.

These are just a few tips and ideals to help you pass the time on all of your trips. Whatever you do and however you choose to help your kids pass the time, remember that the importance of a summer road trip is to spend quality time with your family. So next time you’re heading on a long trip, I hope you remember to have fun and activate your child’s imagination.

Coming up next time: Summertime Learning Loss and what you can do to help eliminate it.