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ISSUE 204
April 2019
www.toynews-online.biz
TOY NEWS APRIL 2019
No. 204 | April 2019
What chance have the small guys got?
Editor Robert Hutchins robert.hutchins@biz-media.co.uk
Sales Manager Rob Baker Rob.Baker@biz-media.co.uk
Designer Nikki Hargreaves nikki.hargreaves@biz-media.co.uk
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E
arly this month, the formidable board game designer Rachel Lowe got in touch with ToyNews to pitch an article documenting the closure of Portsmouth's 96 year old joke and toy shop U-Need-Us. Her touching tribute to the store she spent so much of her childhood (and pocket money) in, before becoming one of its best-loved suppliers, garnered fantastic industry response in a stand of solidarity amid this chrished shop's final chapter. An emotive piece, Lowe's account fiercely called out today's dependence on 'convenience' and online shopping to the detriment to businesses like U-Need-Us'. "If Toys R Us couldn't make it, what chance have small shops like this got?" she asked. It's here that I feel her question is worthy of response. Because my answer, like many I've been talking with these first months of 2019, is: plenty. This month I've been exploring the Board Game Café scene, one that has grown substantially, to total more than 100 now across the UK - with more cropping up year by year. It's been an inspirational look at just what a High Street bricks and mortar name can achieve in creating and fuelling an entire community around an industry, and one that I hope can inspire something in our own to take charge and become that destination spot for the generations that grow up around them. It's the chance the small guys have been waiting for. Robert Hutchins, Editor Robert.Hutchins@biz-media.co.uk
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