Izilla Toys announced it was closing its shop in a very sad email to its customers this morning titled, “Thank you and goodnight…it’s been big fun, mostly.”
Here’s the announcement:
Ugh. This whole thing hurts.
It’s over. The economy, internet shopping and our inability to find the answers to some pressing questions have forced us to hear the truth that has been yelling in our ears for the last couple years. Izilla Toys isn’t needed these days.We wish it wasn’t so. We love and will miss the shop and all of you, but love, while immensly valuable, isn’t the currency that feeds our family and keeps the heat on.
Our plan to go forward in partnership with the Peace Play Collaborative hit a poorly timed road block and without that partnership in place we see little chance of recovery.
Thanks to all of you for your support over the past 9 years. We cherish the friends our family has made through the the shop. We have poured our hearts into Izilla Toys and that investment has paid immeasurable dividends.
Our children have grown up in our shops, interacting with all of you, delighted to share their favorite toys and activities with you. They regard the community we worked hard to build as an extension of their family. These are memories I am certain they will hold dear as they grow into adulthood. Thank you all for your gracious appreciation of their importance to Izilla Toys.
As we struggled with this decision, many thoughtful people asked what they could do to help. Here is the simple answer. If you want interesting and unique local shops to survive and eventually thrive you must do your shopping there. Go to your local shops BEFORE you go online. Go to them with the understanding that you may not get the same diversity of selection, but what you DO get is so much more important. You get expertise, passion and equity in the growth of your community. Locally owned business are the first to donate to your schools. Locally owned business are the first to reinvest in your neighborhoods. Locally owned businesses believed in your unique tastes and values enough to risk it all. They invested both in their own dreams and in the belief that you value your community’s uniqueness. Please shop local. It’s really, really important.
Now what? Well, I’m not sure what I’m going to do exactly, but for now we plan on having a big sale. It all goes. All of it. Here’s how it will work:
Starting today all merchandise is 25% off, on Thursday and Friday it will be 40% off, Saturday and Sunday it will be 50% off and after that-Let’s talk!Need some shelving? Talk to us, it’s all for sale. We’ll try to price it all, but I have a lot going on right now so I can’t promise it will all happen in time. See something you want? Just ask.
But Wait? I ordered something!
Did you order something from us are still waiting? Don’t worry. I’m on it. Please email me at [email protected] with any questions you have about it. Thanks.
Ugh, indeed! We are deeply saddened to see you go, Jen, Jude, Isaiah, and Mira!
That sucks. This is the best store and has been a refuge for my kids during the rain. Best of luck to the owners.
I’m so sad about this. I wish this wasn’t so.
its ok when subpar places close, but popular (apparently not popular enough) places like Izilla and Bandolero are hard to take.
First Not a Number, now this. 🙁 Awful.
I am sad to see it go but not surprised. I loved going to Izilla when it first opened. Closer than Top Ten Toys. I could make quick trips there to buy last minute birthday party gifts or take my kids so that they could spend their own money on special things. They had great stuff covering a wide age range of children – and they wrapped the items!! But about a year ago the selection dwindled such that I could no longer find the things that I needed. I had to go elsewhere – sorry, Izilla.
Terrible, terrible, terrible
Running a small, independent business in Seattle is no fun. People talk local but usually shop chains
Bad week for Wallyhood businesses. I’m very sad to see these local folks go. This recession is terrible for everyone but the mega-banks and the super-rich. And have to give on-line shopping (which I am guilty of) a big share of the blame for Izilla’s closure.
Wait a minute. So do they make the toys they sell there? No they don’t. They buy them from somewhere (probably even online!) else, mark them up over 100% in most cases and resell them to local folks. What makes this a “local” business? It’s an antiquated model that is going away everywhere and rightfully so. Real local businesses thrive. Look at Zaw, Satay, Trophy Cupcakes. You can’t get their products online so people have to visit their stores.
They were lovely people with great kids and we wish them all the best.
Neighbor–what, only restaurants and hair salons count as “local” businesses?
Any retail outlet, even if locally owned, is no good? You want everything retail–toys, hardware, clothes, furniture–to come from “online”? PS–online merchants mark stuff up nearly 100%, too. It’s called retail. Plus shipping cost.
And it sends your money who knows where. Locally-based retail keeps the money local. Fortunately, some people like to touch merchandise and see it up close before they buy, preferably from a locally-based retailer who not only keeps the money in the community, but, oh, hires local workers. What makes a local business? Keeping the money local.
Neighbor – Even if they’re purchasing them online and their customers are only once-removed from the terrible beast of e-commerce (which, btw, supports thousands of local employees), they’re providing a buying service and sticking their necks out on the line with the products they sell. Question: If you buy a toy from a store like Izilla and it breaks before it’s in your kid(s)’s hands, do you call the toy’s manufacturer and complain? No, of course not, you return it to the store. That markup (which when given as a flat percentage is absurd… there’s almost always a function which considers many more variables than you’ve considered) goes into the service they are providing you, their valued customer.
Izilla featured toys from local toy companies; they weren’t just hawking the same stuff you find at Target. I used them often for birthdays and they were a great store up until the down sizing. It’s sad they’re gone- Wallingford is now tilted a bit further towards boutique shops and chains and away from a locally owned and sourced main street.
I think Neighbor’s point is that there’s no way to get Amazon to bring you a nice hot satay. (Yet. I hear they are working on an elaborate system of pneumatic bank tubes.)
And I think we’ll see things even out over the next few years when internet sites are required to collect state sales tax based on the purchaser’s address. Right now shipping is usually offset by that lack of tax so you are competing on price
But that said, retail is forever changed and margins still have to come down and/or you have to completely differentiate your store from the mainstream and your customers would need to view it more as a service than a purchase. I think izilla tried to do that, but somehow fell short. (I wonder why for example, Top Ten Toys is doing fine, expanding seasonally even, but Izilla had to close? )
Even if you get people into your store, 22% of people change their purchase intent while in the store based on information they get on their mobile. And only 25% of Americans have smartphones, so this will obviously go up dramatically and soon.
People know if they’re paying more, and the difference needs to be made up in the service, whether it be curation, guidance, purchase experience, what not. Personally, I never felt that at Izilla. I do feel that at Top Ten, but I can’t really articulate the difference.
It’s pretty daunting to be a brick & mortar retailer these days. Much easier to throw up a yahoo merchant site and work out of your garage than to pay Wallingford Center rent and commercial liability insurance. (which by the way is what’s holding up the Amazon Satay trials. -Pointy sticks and pneumatic tubes = liability).