This installment of our local holiday shopping series takes us to The Toy Chest on Main Street. We stopped by on Sunday to talk to co-owner Carlos Sedeno.
Here’s a transcription of our conversation.
1,000-piece dog puzzle from Ravensburger, $24.99 at The Toy Chest at 101 Main St. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
New Canaanite: For people who maybe don’t know The Toy Chest, could you give us some background on the shop?
Carlos Sedeno: We’ve been here over 25 years. We’ve been in this town. Yes. It’s a specialty store, for the most part. And we do try to carry some of the stuff that kids will see on TV, because you have to in this day and age. But we do rely on standard classics, like the Brio trains, the Bruder trucks, arts and crafts. Things that are a little bit more old school, traditional.
Bruder mack truck, $104.99 at The Toy Chest at 101 Main St. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
What has the foot traffic been like in the early days of this holiday shopping season?
The weather is a factor sometimes. But traffic has been really good. We’re always thankful because it’s very easy for people to shop online these days. So the people who stay loyal to the store that’s in town, it’s important.
Squishmallows at The Toy Chest at 101 Main St. in New Canaan. The narwhal top-right is $29.99. Credit: Michael Dinan
What kinds of things are people looking for? What are some of the hot items?
This year there’s no crazy runaway thing like a Tickle Me Elmo or something like that. But I would say super popular are the Squishmallows. Those sort of go across the board. They buy them for little kids right up to girls going off to college. So that’s a big thing to have. But then more traditional stuff this year like remote control cars we’ve been selling a lot of. Crafts, I would say, Lego is always a traditional big seller.
Catan—formerly known as The Settlers of Catan—is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It’s $59.999 at The Toy Chest at 101 Main St. in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
And what’s it like being a business in New Canaan at this time of year?
The nice thing is that you have a set group of repeat customers. We see kids here now that are going off to college that we were selling toys to their moms when they were little babies. You just get to know all the faces, you get to know everybody. It’s a lot different than being in a Toys R Us where you don’t have any sort of interaction.
The Toy Chest at 101 Main St. in New Canaan is open Mon-Sat 9:30am-6pm, Sun 11am-5pm.