October 6, 2013, admin, Family, Play, Thoughts & Feelings, , 16
Over the past few weeks I have been looking into buying Little Miss A a wooden pram for her first birthday. We wanted to buy her something special that hopefully she will be able to use for a long time and keep for years to come.
I have looked around all of the big toy shops we have been in near to home; Toys R Us, ELC, Mothercare, Smyths, The Entertainer and none of them have any wooden prams, or many wooden toys full stop for that matter. All of the prams I have seen are plastic/metal ones that, although nicer for an older child, aren’t really appropriate for a 1 year old. The only ‘first’ prams you can find in these big shops are plastic, pink monstrosities that are so expensive and really don’t look that nice.
I wracked my brains but just couldn’t think of an independent toy shop near to us that might sell wooden toys. As we haven’t had many family weekends recently we decided we would go for a trip to York. Surely there would be a few nice, traditional toy shops in a city like York? Well, if there was, we sure as hell couldn’t find them. We found one nice little shop, however, they only had one wooden pram in the window that was very overpriced and I knew that I could buy something similar online for half the price. They did, however, have lots of other lovely wooden toys in the shop and we spent a little while having a good look around.
After trawling the streets of York with no luck we decided to stop at a couple of little towns on the way home which we knew had independent toy shops. First up, Pocklington. There was quite a large toy shop to look around, however, it was mostly full of the plastic toys you can buy in any large toy shop, nothing special and no prams! Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against plastic toys, however, we have a house full of them and for a first pram I want something a little more special.
Next stop was Beverley as we knew they had a nice little toy shop that sells some amazing wooden toys. Although they had lots of great stuff, again, there was only one wooden pram to look at and, like the other shop, it was twice the price we could pay for it online.
After another unsuccessful trip out today, I have had to relent and buy the pram from Amazon. I knew I could buy one online but, for something as special as a first pram, I would really have liked to have seen it in ‘real life’ first for a bit of a play and hopefully be able to buy it to take away with us.
I think it is sad that the traditional toy shop seems to be dying out. Although the Little A’s love to go to a big toy superstore it’s not the same as a nice little toy shop that often sells things that are different. Little Mr A absolutely loved looking at all of the wooden toys in the shop in Beverley and loved that he could actually touch things rather than just looking at rows of boxes.
It seems traditional toy shops just can’t compete with online prices and before long I fear they will be impossible to come by, not just difficult!