Today we’d like to introduce you to Sage Macklay.
Hi Sage, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
My husband, David, and I are initially from Minnesota. After graduating college, we moved to many different places and worked many other jobs, searching for a good fit. We’ve lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia and spent five months in Poland and Romania. We’ve both worked in different retail positions and had a long-held dream of opening our store. We love kids and have always loved toys and games, so the toy industry seemed like a natural fit for us. I also make hand-knitted stuffed animals, which I have previously sold online and in a shop. We were living in Virginia and decided to move back to the Midwest and settle down, but not back to Minnesota, where it’s too cold! We did a bunch of online research and made many road trips, searching for a place to set down roots and open a toy store. We fell in love with the St. Louis area and Alton. We loved being so close to an awesome city but living in a place with its downtown and character, not a suburb. We moved here in November 2020 and opened our store in July 2021. We have received a warm welcome from the community, including customers, other business owners, and the Alton Main Street organization. We also sell toys and gifts, hold knitting classes, crafter’s community nights, and Mahjong game nights at our store. We picked the perfect home for ourselves and our store.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Opening our store in 2021 presented unique challenges. We started renting our retail space in May, and shortly afterward, our block was closed off to traffic as a part of a huge sewer improvement project. Our road was torn up for two months, and noisy machines were pounding away outside our doors! This made it very difficult for us to receive deliveries of products and fixtures as we were getting ready to open and for customers to find us and get to our store after we opened. However, many people still made an effort and found us, and now we have a beautiful, freshly paved road! Supply chain disruptions and inflation have also presented challenges. Most of our suppliers were back ordered and out of stock of many items last year, making planning for our first holiday season very difficult. We have seen a lot of price increases this year, so we have had to rethink some products and companies we carry. We try to be affordable and competitive with online retailers, so we have had to drop some suppliers and search for replacements as prices change.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Funky Planet Toys & Gifts?
Funky Planet is a toy and gift store that carries fun, unique products for the young and young at heart. When you enter our store, you are sure to find things you’ve never seen before and things you remember fondly from your childhood. Our store offers creative building toys, STEM toys, arts and crafts kits, outdoor and active toys, fidgets, plushies, board games, puzzles, cute stickers and stationery, pranks, novelties, and more. We are always getting new things in and rotating our offerings. We chose Funky Planet because our store is a place to visit and experience, not just to buy something. We have tabletop games out to play, a free arcade machine, tons of toys that you can test out, and a kiddie ride. We provide a hands-on interactive experience you can share with your family and friends.
What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
As content creators on social media gain more clout, young people are increasingly influencing the toy industry directly. Rather than tastes and trends being exclusively decided in corporate board rooms, they are being determined by consumers. Last year’s silicone popper craze is a telling example. The original popper was invented as a board game, and the Simpl Dimpl was initially marketed as a baby toy. But kids of all ages found them satisfying to pop. Seeing what kids wanted, manufacturers filled the market with poppers of every shape, size, and color. Regarding trends, it always takes effort to tell the next big thing. The continued normalization of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese pop culture within our society will lead to more and more toys adopting their aesthetic tastes.
Contact Info:
- Website: funkyplanettoys.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funkyplanettoys
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunkyPlanetToys
