Here’s a story that ran today in the Townsville Bulletin about my wonderful family; and how they are fab toy testers for Entropy. Reilly has already nabbed the paper to take in for show and share tomorrow 
While children count down the days till Christmas and Santa’s little elves take it up a notch in their magical workshops; our staff at Entropy have spent hundreds of hours testing thousands of toys. Today we release a series of comprehensive gift guides with the best-of-the-best for children of all ages and families of all budgets. These individualised guides outline the top choices for babies, toddlers, girls, and boys, to ‘big kids’, games and stocking stuffers; and we think we are well-placed to understand what children want and need. The guides are based on our experience with thousands of toys, which we’ve tested throughout the year. No-one has paid to have these toys in our Christmas guides, and they all complement our key philosophy to encourage active play for children in both body and mind.
Christmas Toy Guide – Toddlers
Christmas Toy Guide – Big Kids
Our super eight page Christmas Catalogue is out now. There are more than 100 items; with products for youngsters, some classics; and everything inbetween. Download your copy of the catalogue, or check the items out here.
Now who would have thought you would have seen a toy store product featured in the very stylish pages of Vogue? Really, honestly truly we have been. Here are our Australian made quoits in a great escape nautical feature.
Wow – Australian Homespun the Kids issue just came across my desk. There are some simply amazing projects in it – from gorgeous oriental Kikoshis to a Cupcake the Clown cushion. I’m looking at it and feeling seriously inadequate. For those of you with crafty genes you can check out the homepage here. Entropy made an appearance for this Pirate Treasure Chest in a Shiver me Timbers feature that is perfect for swashbucklers.
The elves are busily working their way through packing almost 200 orders that came through yesterday. So if we are a bit slower than normal with our dispatch, please forgive us. The orders definitely had a Christmas feel about them (plus the fact that so many of you requested Christmas gift wrap was a bit of a giveaway). Yesterday was really helpful actually, as it gives us an idea of what is going to be ‘hot’ this Christmas. So what was popular? The two best selling brands were Janod and Djeco. We have large ranges of both these brands in stock, and the sales were fairly evenly spread across Djeco craft kits and puzzles. In Janod the confetti music range was a hit plus many of the role play toys.
We were impressed that so many of you ‘love your brains’, with 26 Nutcase helmets being sold. These were accompanied by 19 microscooters, 30 Flik Flak watches and 8 Wishbone bikes.
All up 1266 fantastic toys went to good homes yesterday. Phew!
The elves are busy as usual around here. I thought I would let you in on something we are working on at the moment which we think (and hope) will be popular. We are creating ‘themed’ gift bags that will make buying a present even easier. There are around 40 themes – for example; princess, mermaid, fairies for girls, and robot, monster, pirate for boys. Each gift bag contains between 3 and 5 items around this theme, and suitable for a particular age group. We gift package all the goodies up in a reusable cloth bag and decorate it with a gorgeous Entropy ribbon. Voilá, your present for a loved one is sorted. These gift bags will retail for between $69.95 and $89.95. We are busy getting photographs done at the moment, and expect to have them ready in the next few weeks.
How awesome – Entropy has made the final in three categories of the Bio-Oil AusMumpreneur awards. As Chief Poobah I am super pleased to have made the final of the judged category for Rising Star of the Year. This is for mumpreneurs that have been in business for between 2 and 5 years. It’s a really competitive category and I am thrilled to have made the final, up against some awesomely talented mums. I’ve got a phone interview next week with the lovely judges from Connect to Aussie Mums.
Entropy has made the final in two categories of the People’s choice awards – for best customer service and best boutique. This is voted on by you people of the public, and we would really appreciate your vote. It’s easy to vote – you just have to become a member of the Connect to Aussie Mums community (which is free), then follow the links to the People’s Choice awards, then click ‘like’ underneath our photo.
Thanks so much
Deborah
I’m often asked in store how we manage to compete with the two majors. The reality is that we can’t, but more importantly, we don’t. This is because precious few items we stock can be found in the majors. Now is a good time of the year to look at this in a bit more detail, as the majors all have their mid year catalogue sales. I’ve looked through all four of the majors’ catalogues online, and in all those pages of specials, there is only one solitary item that we also sell. We have around 3500 items in store, so that leaves plenty of scope for choosing outside the mainstream. Don’t get me wrong, I think there are some good value products in these catalogues. If you are looking at a sturdy outdoor play set then this is definitely the time of year to buy. However, there are also some less than attractive things on offer. For example, for the life of me I cannot see the attraction in these ‘dolls’.
I think a young girl would get much more pleasure from the stunning Les Cheries range from Corolle. What do you think?
I was reminded today of how perceptive and readily influenced children are. Master 6 said to me – “Mummy, there was a commercial on TV this morning that didn’t tell the truth”. By way of background, my children watch very little TV, but given that it is school holidays at the moment, I cut them a little slack. Turns out he was watching one of the kids’ channels and there was an advertisement for some new beaut commercial toy. “You know Mummy; at the end of the commercial it said that it was available at all good toy stores. That’s not true Mummy, because we don’t have it in our shop”. Ah, how sweet of him to realise. Given; he has grown up exposed to good quality toys his whole life; and knows the difference between a plastic throwaway and a keep forever toy. But even at the tender age of 6 he was astute enough to pick up the marketing ploys companies use with children.
It’s a juggle this week with school holidays; but there has still been time to unpack plenty of new products in store (the junior elves have all been in working hard). I am super pleased to finally be able to bring you the B. range. I know, it looks like I made a typo; but this range from Battat is really called B. (b dot). B. is a toy gift range which looks a little different, with packaging that is a little different. They make toys which inspire individuality. They use colours which are unexpected. They like to surprise by using intriguing patterns, inspired die cuts, easy to use, try-me windows; and beautiful reusable bags with rubbery moulded handles. These products are earth friendly, with every item scrutinised to minimise its environmental impact. B. source recycled materials, and create reusable bags. The inks are soy based, and the varnishes water based.
Many of the toys in the B. range are already gift packaged, and most come with gift cards attached. My favourites are the super bristle block sets, Spinaroos and Stackadoos. The soft blocks are so squeezable; they come in a number set (one two squeeze) and an alphabet set (elemenosqueeze). The other two items I just have to mention are Pop Arty and Parum Pum Pum. I have not seen anything similar to Pop Arty before. It is snap together jewellery that you can pull apart and build however you want. The pieces are very stylish and in great colours. It would be great as an older girl’s birthday party activity. Parum pum pum is gorgeous and quirky music set for young marching band fans. Everything stores in the drum, you’ll love it!
