Mom and Pop toy shops need our support

I’m not going to lie to you. My kids and I spent 90 minutes in Target yesterday, and all we bought was toilet paper and tissue. I went there because it was raining, I needed those two items, and I thought we could waste a good hour not touching the holiday decorations. And we did. (I did not buy anything that wasn’t on our list, so a round of applause please.)

We didn’t even hit the toy aisle, because if we did, well how would we ever leave?

So now I want to remind myself that we’ve had just as good a time and spent just as long in some of our local mom and pop toy stores. They carry brands and styles that the big box stores don’t, and I appreciate that. They make our shopping destinations fun and interesting, and without them, we’d have only strip malls. So this is just a little plug for us to remember the mom and pop toy stores when we do our holiday shopping.

Cute mobile, right? Not from Babies R Us. No ma'am.

I may curse their prices, but I don’t want to lose them in my town. So I pledge to spend some dollars next month with my favorite specialty toy retailers. Please join me and shop local!

Berkeley favorites that you can shop from your own house: Kid Dynamo, This Little Piggy, and The Ark (coming soon).

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.