There's something about those first memories in your local toyshop that leave a lasting impression. I remember the excitement of being let loose among the different games and toys, with shelves bursting with colour and towering above me, neatly lined with Lego, teddy bears, dolls, boardgames and racing car sets.
Toyville in Bedminster has facilitated those magical memories for families for the past six years. The walls of the North Street shop are awash with colour with toys and games that owners Lindsay and Joel Meyer-Nicholas handpick with their team, selling old-time classics and future favourites.
Lindsay and Joel both left their jobs in financial services to set up their own toyshop on North Street. The couple had no real retail experience but felt like the area was calling out for a children's toys and games store.
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"At the time, our son was two-years-old and there wasn't really anywhere local to buy things for him," Lindsay explained when asked what drew them to toys. "There are a few nice toyshops on Gloucester Road so we'd head up that way, but we wanted to try offering something more local."
Bedminster is densely populated with a lot of young families and has a robust scene of independent businesses with the revival of North Street over the past few years. It seemed like the perfect place to set up a store for Lindsay and Joel in 2016.
With Christmas fast approaching, the toyshop is unsurprisingly in its busiest period, but there are still some challenges for local businesses to compete with e-commerce giants and the culture of convenience.
"Amazon is always there, isn't it? People like to order online and it comes quickly, a lot of time it's cheaper. A big part of it is us relying on people to support local shops."
However, the economic challenges for everyone have intensified this year as costs have risen out of sync with wages for so many people, meaning there is less money to spend. Lots of small businesses like Toyville now face another economic hurdle to overcome.
Lindsay added: "We really saw massive support for local in Covid times. I think people were super aware of the challenges that shops would be facing because of lockdown and also most people were job secure.
"I think with the cost of living, I've not seen anything like this and it is definitely affecting us, it's the same. The impact on businesses is much worse than Covid."
Toyville offers an online service but the experience is best enjoyed in person, will a team of experts on hand to advise It stays ahead of the curve by offering a mixture of bestsellers and more unusual options. The shop has since expanded into a second store further up the road on North Street where Storysmiths once was to offer a games-only store.
But what's all the rage this year? "Lots of fidget toys are popular on the toy side, that's been like that for a while now," Lindsay said. "And games for people to play with their families at Christmas time."
Lindsay added that Wingspan, a card-driven board game has been incredibly popular as well as the more unusual game of Kluster, which sees players try and win by getting rid of all of their magnets. This year, the couple has started selling Yoto, audio players for children's stories, which have been immensely popular.
"I try and think back to when I was young and what I would have liked and what my son would like. People who work here give us their input on what their children might like, as well as feedback from customers if they've heard of anything particularly good to recommend, we generally listen to that. It's a mismatch of what gets good reviews."
The store will be open until 8pm like lots of other shops on North Street for late-night shopping on Thursday, December 22.
Toyville is located at 9 North Street, Bristol BS3 1EN - open seven days a week
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