The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current, November 25, 2018, Image 17

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The times., November 25, 2018, Image 17

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Newspaper Page TextBUSINESS Submit items for Sunday’s Newsmakers in Business to community@gainesvilletimes.com. ®h t kitties gainesvilletimes.com Sunday, November 25, 2018 Filling the toy void Photos by CHRIS WALKER I Tribune News Service Janie Goldberg-Dicks, right, of Glencoe, III., plays with her granddaughter Sophia Plowden, 2, of Highland Park Monday, Nov. 19, at Beanstalk Toys in Highland Park, III. The store is sending out catalogs for the first time this season. Toys R Us is gone, but local toy stores have more rivals than ever Pam Hillman, owner of Beanstalk Toys in Highland Park, helps a customer Monday, Nov. 19, at the shop, which recently expanded. BY LAUREN ZUMBACH Chicago Tribune For the first time in decades, parents won’t be able to rely on a trip to Toys R Us to check off items on their kids’ holiday wish lists. While there may be fewer toy stores this holiday season, there will be more retailers with expanded toy departments. Amazon, Walmart, Target, and even chains like Party City and Kroger are rushing to fill the void left by the demise of the nation’s largest toy retailer, seeing an opportunity to pad their bottom lines while stuffing kids’ stockings. But it’s not just national chains — neigh borhood stores also are gearing up to fight for their share of the money parents spend on L.O.L. Surprise dolls, Scruff-a-Luvs and other toys this holiday season. Chicago-area toy stores say they are spending more on marketing to bring in new customers, add ing locations and doubling down on efforts to provide expert service. “I think there’s a percentage of people that automatically went to Toys R Us, and now they need another solution,” said Katherine Nguyen, owner of Chicago’s Building Blocks. Nguyen wants Building Blocks, which has stores in the Lakeview and Lincoln Park areas and Wicker Park, to be that solution. She estimates she’s quadrupled the amount she spends on marketing to encourage Toys R Us customers to give her stores a try. Those efforts include mailing advertise ments to families in areas where the big-box chain used to have stores and sending emails to parents at a local school. Beanstalk, a store in Highland Park, Ill., that encourages kids to play with toys like glowing blocks among packed shelves under a toy train track hanging from the ceiling, also has been trying to boost its profile since the Toys R Us about a mile and a half away closed this spring. Owner Pam Hillman is sending out cata logs for the first time this season and plan ning promotions like a Willy Wonka-themed event. She also began sponsoring a local youth hockey team. “I think this is the year people will decide, ‘Am I going to run to Target or Amazon, or this place that supports my son’s team?”’ Hillman said. Hillman said Beanstalk has been attract ing more new customers than usual in the months since Toys R Us closed all its U.S. stores. But other toy store owners, like Toys et Cetera’s Nancy Stanek, said they haven’t noticed much of a change. Shoppers who had already picked big-box Toys R Us over an independent shop will likely switch to another big chain, like Walmart, said Stanek, who has stores in Chicago’s Hyde Park and Andersonville neighborhoods. Lora Wright, owner of Pinwheel Toys in Wheaton, Ill., hoped the absence of Toys R Us would send more business her way but suspects most of the chain’s former shop pers have gone to online sellers and national retailers. Because they sell far more toys than an independent shop like Pinwheel, they can set prices Wright can’t afford to match. Now she’s worried about competing with even more big retailers that are putting a new focus on toys. She’s waiting to see whether people will be willing to make a spe cial trip to a toy shop when chains and online retailers offer one-stop shopping. “I think people have good intentions to shop local, but when you can hit that button and have it delivered the next day, it’s too good,” Wright said. “It’s nerve-wracking, but this year will tell us a lot about where the toy industry is going,” she added. There really are more retailers battling for consumers’ toy dollars this year, said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Toy Asso ciation. In July, the association reported a 23 percent increase in the number of retailers planning to send buyers to its Fall Toy Pre view show. Registrations for a toy fair in Feb ruary also are up significantly, Pasierb said. ■ Please see TOY, 4D Ikea plans to slash 7,500jobs worldwide BY JAMES RUFUS KOREN Los Angeles Times Furniture giant Ikea plans to cut 7,500 jobs worldwide as part of a plan to cater more to online custom ers, the company said Wednesday. The shakeup at the Swedish firm, first reported by the Wall Street Jour nal, shows that even Ikea — known for its massive suburban stores and affordable assemble-yourself furni ture — is not immune to the online competition that has affected other brick-and-mortar retailers. Most of the job cuts will not hit Ikea’s retail workers, but rather those in office positions including human resources and communica tions, the Journal said. Meanwhile, the firm plans to cre ate thousands of new jobs — 11,500, or 4,000 more than it is cutting — by opening 30 new stores in urban cen ters and by investing in its e-com- merce and delivery offerings. In Wednesday’s statement, Lars Petersson, Ikea’s manager for U.S. retail operations, said the company wants to “create the IKEA of the future by ... being more accessible and fully embracing technology.” In a financial report last month, the company said that during the 12 months ending Aug. 31 its website drew 2.5 million visits but accounted for only 5 percent of sales. The same report noted that Ikea has been experimenting with retail concepts aimed at expanding beyond the massive suburban stores the company is known for. In the past year, the company has opened smaller stores — ones that essentially serve as showrooms but not warehouses — that make sense in city centers or smaller communities. NEWSMAKERS IN BUSINESS Stewart Melvin & Frost add new trial lawyer Andrew Gould, a trial lawyer with expertise in jury focus groups, has joined Stewart Melvin & Frost to part ner with attorney Mark Alexander and form Northeast Georgia’s newest litigation team spe cializing in cases involving victims of serious injury and wrongful death. Gould most recently was an associate with The Keenan Law Firm, a plaintiff’s practice based in Atlanta. He remains a faculty member of the Keenan-Ball Trial Lawyers Col lege, where he teaches rules draft ing, case selection, focus groups and mediation. Combining their respective talents, Alexander and Gould have formed a personal injury practice that will utilize a team approach on behalf of clients. Gould Uber adds wheelchair-accessible rides in several cities CLEM MURRAY I Tribune News Service Theresa Yates prepares to board an Uber for a ride to the grocery store. BY JASON LAUGHLIN Philly.com PHILADELPHIA - Uber is allowing riders to hail vehicles run by a national paratransit company, to increase the number of wheel- chair-accessible vehicles available in Philadelphia. Since July, MV Transportation vehicles have been taking requests for rides through the San Fran- cisco-based tech company’s plat form. Uber won’t say how many wheelchair-accessible vehicles are now operating in the Philadelphia region, saying only that there now is three times the volume of ser vice and that the average wait time in the city is slightly more than 12 minutes. The state requires a mini mum of 70 wheelchair-accessible vehicles operating in Philadelphia between Uber and Lyft. The contract allowed MV Trans portation to also offer service through Uber in New York City, Boston, Washington, Chicago, and Toronto. MV Transportation is expected to begin partnering with Uber in Los Angeles and San Fran cisco in 2019. “We are invested quite heavily in this,” said Uber’s Malcolm Glenn, who leads efforts to improve the company’s accessibility in under served communities. “In the first year, we are likely to spend tens of millions of dollars on this.” Under the contract, MV Trans portation recruits, pays for, and puts drivers through the training needed to be eligible, Glenn said. Uber continues to allow other drivers with accessible vehicles to provide service to customers in wheelchairs. The improved service has been noticed. “The last couple of times I rode Uber, my wait was under 10 minutes,” said Theresa Yates, who uses a wheelchair. “Previously I had to wait 15 to 20 minutes.” She noticed speedier service on a recent trip to Magee Rehab. On another trip to Montgomeryville to get repairs to her wheelchair, she had no trouble taking an Uber there, but the return trip was complicated when a driver didn’t show up for 20 minutes and didn’t respond to calls, she said. She canceled the ride, she said, and ordered another without trouble. She uses Uber at most two times a month, she said, when bus travel is impractical. Lyft, too, has partnered with private companies to aid disabled customers, specifically through a contract with a company that provides assistance to people who are blind or visually impaired, a spokesperson said. Public transit for people in wheelchairs has been an ongoing challenge in Philadelphia. SEP TA’S bus fleet is fully accessible for wheelchairs, but recently a woman in a wheelchair was unable to board a bus because a passenger wouldn’t vacate the area where wheelchairs can be secured. There also have been complaints about drivers who won’t stop when they see a person in a wheelchair at a stop. SEPTA operates a paratran sit service, but reservations for a ride must be made 24 hours in advance and travelers must accept a 30-minute window within which the ride may show up. In Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Transpor tation Authority contracted with Uber and Lyft to supplement its paratransit services, but Uber’s contract with MV Transportation represents a step beyond using a public transit agency as a middle man. Uber does not intend to com pete with public agencies, Glenn said. “We look at MV as a supplement to existing options,” Glenn said. MV Transportation did not return a call for comment Tues day, and it was not clear whether the company hired drivers or bought additional vehicles to fulfill the contract with Uber. According to Uber’s statement, the company operates in 30 states, and in this region, it is one of three companies contracted to provides paratran sit services for SEPTA. Its most recent agreement with SEPTA, which went into effect in Septem ber, was for nearly $41 million for five years of paratransit ser vices. SEPTA did not anticipate MV Transportation’s contract with Uber would interfere with its own service.