BUSINESS
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.
