Toy sales slid 3 percent in 2008
By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 2/11/2009 3:43:00 PM
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.—U.S. toy sales fell 3 percent in 2008 following a 5 percent decline in the all-important fourth quarter, market research firm The NPD Group announced today.
The year’s $21.64 billion tally compared to a 2007 result, worth $22.32 billion, that included an extra week, worth approximately 2 percent of annual dollar sales.
Among 2008’s bright spots, NPD said, were buildings sets and plush, which had sales gains of 26 and 22 percent, respectively, compared to 2007. The year’s largest losers were vehicles (-16 percent), youth electronics (-14 percent) and dolls (-10 percent).
At retail, all of the major channels experienced a decline in sales except for food/drug stores, which recorded a 1 percent gain.
The year’s best-selling licensed properties were Star Wars and Disney Princess, according to NPD. Other top properties included Barbie, Crayola, Tranformers and Webkinz.
In response to g.martin:
Unfortunately, NPD did not release info about specialty stores' performance.
What they did say, but was not included in the original story, was that of the channels that declined, the two with the "most modest declines" were Mass Merchant/Discount (-2 percent) and Online/Internet (-4 percent). So, specialty stores must have fared worse than 4 percent.
Cliff Annicelli - 2009-02-12 10:34:00 EST
Unfortunately, NPD did not release info about specialty stores' performance.
What they did say, but was not included in the original story, was that of the channels that declined, the two with the "most modest declines" were Mass Merchant/Discount (-2 percent) and Online/Internet (-4 percent). So, specialty stores must have fared worse than 4 percent.
not nearly as bad as I thought they would be. channel performance
reflects what we have already tracked but why no mention of toy
specialty stores? is npd protecting tru or what?
g. martin - 2009-02-11 21:01:00 EST
reflects what we have already tracked but why no mention of toy
specialty stores? is npd protecting tru or what?
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