Sears Gets Back Into The Toy Business...finally

So Sears is getting back into the toy business. The company announced that it is putting toy departments in 20 stores in time for this year’s Christmas selling season. 

A July 29, 2009 Los Angeles Times article put it this way: "The department store chain — famous for its Christmas Wish Book of toys for generations — exited the toy business decades ago as price competition intensified from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other big-box chains."

Not so fast there, Los Angeles Times. When Sears took out the toy department their stated motive at the time was not competition but that they felt the department did not deliver enough dollars per ring.

It has long been my contention that by taking out the toy department, Sears went from being a family destination to a men’s destination. Sometimes narrowly focusing on criteria like dollars per ring misses the much bigger and far more important picture:  Toy departments bring kids and kids bring parents.  

This is good news for Sears and good new for the toy industry. Sears should not, however, waste too much time, expanding the department to all stores. They should have done this a long time ago.

Special Thanks to John Fermann of Spar Marketing for bringing this story to my attention.