RETAIL INTERVIEW MONKEY FISH TOYS
‘ Every day is like being at the North Pole!’ Michael Olafsson, co-founder of Monkey Fish Toys, shares his experience of the Stateside toy retail scene from his store in Philadephia What’s your career background?
Tell us about your business.
My 30 year-plus journey has included sales, product development, business development and retail store development with major brands including ExxonMobil, Starbucks, Nestlé and Applebee's. Interestingly, these experiences have been quite synergistic in my efforts with my [co-founder] wife KC to grow Monkey Fish Toys - in other words, the experiences have fed off one another.
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Why did you decide to open a toy shop?
If we can provide joyful memories to parents, grandparents and children, we've hit our main goal!
Toys have been a life-long love going back to childhood. I can still remember the joy I felt when my mom would take me to my favourite toy store: Mr. Big Toyland in the Massachusetts suburb of Waltham. We strive to replicate that every day with our customers. If we can provide joyful memories to today's parents, grandparents and children, we've hit our main goal!
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We are a speciality toy retailer in West Chester, a quaint college town outside Philadelphia. We started as an onlineonly retailer over 20 years ago and evolved into bricks-and-mortar retail about 12 years ago. This evolution was almost by accident: we had outgrown our basement and garage and needed to find a new place to operate. This led to us finding a small retail/warehouse space nearby, which basically ‘forced’ us into retail - and we haven't looked back! Our store is 2,600sq ft with another 1,600sq ft of warehouse and activity area for parties and events.
What’s the ethos behind it? Our goal is to put smiles on the faces of our customers - adults and kids alike - by providing a great in-store experience highlighting cool, fun toys and games, with the icing on the cake being our talented and eclectic team.
Why is it called Monkey Fish Toys? I asked my daughter, who was five years old or so at the time, what
would be a cool name or mascot for the store. For some reason, she blurted out ‘monkey fish’ (perhaps they talked about monkey fish in school that day). The name stuck because it puts a smile on everyone's face and people remember it. I will admit we get calls about once a month from people thinking we are a pet store!
Are you a member of any trade associations? Yes, ASTRA [American Specialty Toy Retailing Association] and The Good Toy Group, which is a fantastic group of 100-plus independent toy retailers from across the US. These groups are a key factor in our ability to not only stay on current trends but to establish great partnerships with the brands we represent.
How would you describe the range? Spanning from infant to adult. Adult has been a newer and growing focus since the pandemic - in addition to kids, we're striving to make sure tweens, teens, parents and
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