For this installment of our holiday shopping series, we stopped into The Toy Chest at 101 Main St. on Monday afternoon and talked to Carlos Sedeno, a co-owner.
Here’s our interview.
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The Toy Chest: “The Planetarium Projector is really great. It projects a variety of celestial bodies.” Priced at $39.99. Photo credit: Michael Dinan
New Canaanite: How has it been here this holiday shopping season?
Carlos Sedeno: We cannot complain. It’s just enough to keep up—it’s not like other years, but we’re still here. We tend to all these good customers, they’re supportive of the town, they shop local.
And what kind of things are people interested in buying, generally?
They’re asking for puzzles, games. Animals, maybe Jellycat. They like football cards, baseball cards, Legos.
The Toy Chest: “The Hot Wheels set, the Formula 1 we have two different sizes. The larger one has been the most popular. It basically allows kids to build their own version of a Formula 1 race track.” Priced at $99.99. Photo credit: Michael Dinan
How do you describe The Toy Chest to people who haven’t been here?
We serve all ages here. You’re never too old for toys. We sell all ages, for adults, we have puzzles of 3,000, 5,000 pieces. Games. We describe it like a specialty store, and we try to keep as much here as we can. We help people, we wrap, we give them good service. That’s what makes people come back to us, our service. We’re polite to customers and we truly appreciate the people that come here. We always say ‘Thank you’ because it’s thanks to all these customers that we’re still here.
The Toy Chest: “The Calico Critters Red Roof Cozy Cottage is a starter set that’s been very popular. It’s great for kids four-and-up that would enjoy playing house.” Priced at $49.99. Photo credit: Michael Dinan
How long has the store been here?
More than 20 years.
We had some changes to parking in downtown New Canaan recently. Are you seeing any knock-on effect of that here?
No, we haven’t heard anything.