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Locked out of the Toy Box. Went to A to Z instead.
Posted by violet12roses on 04/06/2009
I have not frequented The Toy Box enough to give it much of a review, but I'm still gonna stick with my one star. This rating is based on a recent encounter of the ugly local business kind and based on the fact that I have certain expectations, unreasonable perhaps, of local businesses, specialty shops, downtown business owners; down economy or boom economy, no matter. I have these expectations. Call me crazy, call me spoiled, call me a trouble-maker. It's how I shop and how I determine where to spend my money and who to give my stars to.
The Toy Box never really captured my fancy. I can't say I'm much familiar with the inventory any more because my kids have reached ages beyond what is available here. A to Z has a bigger inventory and spans a broader age range-- a huge selection of books, science kits, puzzles, animals, stuffed and otherwise. They have all kinds of games for all ages and still the same tchokes that you find here at TB.
But here are the details of my ugly encounter. I reached TB at about 6:02 one weekday evening, not sure when they would be closing, but dammit, I thought I'd try to head downtown for something I REALLY needed within a day. (Really, I had a deadline). I was looking for a child's ceramic tea set, not sure if they'd have it, but guessing....
The door was locked, but a woman was still behind the counter, on a cell phone (I think it was a cell phone) and I just waited and motioned a bit to her. I'm sure by the time she was off the phone it was 6:07 or so--definitely past closing time. I motioned for her to come over and sort of yelled through the glass "do you have tea sets?" She answered yes that they did and I said (rather pathetic, I know) "I know you are closed and I don't want to buy anything now, but could you hold what you have up to the door so I can see it? I would come back and buy it in the morning probably." No luck. Her reply (this is not verbatim): "No, I can't do that. I was just on the phone with the owner and the register and cash are all put away. I can't do that." Me: "I don't want to buy it now. Can you just show me what you have?" Her: "No. I can't." Hmm, can't hold a product up to the window when I arrived just a couple of minutes late, you say? Interesting approach.
Now, my 13-year old daughter thinks this was just fine. Rules are rules, boundaries are boundaries, up is up, down is down. But my daughter doesn't have an INCREDIBLY busy life schlepping kids hither, thither, and yon, day in, day out. One supposes that Liz, the owner of The Toy Box, has children and understands the busy life of mothers the Valley 'round and the importance of building community in a small town when you run a small specialty business.
Well, you can bet that the next day, I flew across the river in my magic mini-van (128,000 miles and counting) to Noho, 5:45 it was for sure, arrived at "A to Z" at about 5:56 to scope the tea sets. Yes, the doors were still open, it was not closing time yet. The Special Order of the Advanced Yo Yo Club was about to begin its meeting so all of the racks in the back room (where dress-ups and tea sets reside) were pushed aside. When I asked, so meekly and kindly, if they could show me what they had in tea sets, not one, but two, people who worked there rearranged the carrels to show me every single tea set they had for sale. And so I bought one.
Was A to Z closed? No. Had The Toy Box been closed? Yes. You decide. I will be spending my dollars no more at The Toy Box. You know what I like to hear from local businesses? "YES WE CAN "and "YES YOU CAN." Thank you A to Z!
