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Community Corner

Who's Who: Toys Go Round (and Round) and Teach "Green" Values

Every week we'll feature a brief chat with someone who lives, works or plays in Albany.

Name: Gail and Tyler Smith

Ages: 64 and 29

Occupation: Owner and manager, respectively, of , a consignment shop for toys

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How long has Toy Go Round been in Albany? (Gail) Since 1976. The two women who started it, Joy Ernst and Dora Freeman, had the incredible foresight to see that there was a need for this. Our business model, which was created by them, is to keep toys out of the waste stream and [back] into the “play stream.”

[My son] Tyler’s worked here since he was 10, I mean officially. In between [there’s been] other stuff – high school, college; he’s also a chef.

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When did you take over the business? I don’t know, 25 years-ish. I don’t pay much attention. It has become a family business. There were 10 other people who bought in when I did.

How long did the 10-way partnership last? Fifteen or 20 years.

How’s business these days? Just like everybody else, we’re struggling. This store is bigger than the two women who founded it….. It’s a community resource that stretches from Sacramento to Santa Cruz, out to Hercules and Pinole – I’m talking regular customers. It’s huge.

Our customers love us. We wouldn’t be here if people didn’t drive across town to shop here.

We have people who recycle from Hawai’i and Chicago. They come back once a year to visit friends or family, and they bring a suitcase full of toys. They’re really hooked into recycling. That says a lot about how the mindset has changed in the last 35 years.

We have a changing but fairly constant group of volunteers who’ve worked to keep the store alive. One volunteer has shelved books for 25 years, three times a week. Another volunteer is a grandmother with an autistic grandson. She comes and gets the puzzles; he does them, and he never makes a mistake. (We have to check every puzzle to make sure all the pieces are there.)

(Tyler) We’ve had several people from Workability at .

What changes in toy and book preferences have you seen in your time here? (Gail) Kids are a lot more media-oriented. Brio trains were our most popular back then; now [it’s] Thomas, that’s battery-operated and [also] a T.V. show. 

(Tyler) Most of the tastes have remained the same. We focus on the classics. Styles have changed in Lego, but we still stock a lot of that. There are definitely more media-oriented toys and more with batteries.

(Gail) We’re sort of famous for our classics. We carry about 60% recycled toys and 40% new. We don’t buy anything with batteries – just yoyos, wagons, tricycles, art supplies – the classics of childhood.

 It’s been interesting to watch it for 25 years; it’s been fascinating. We have one family that’s [been coming here for] four generations; they own Earthly Goods. It says to me that they can shop anywhere, but they come here.

(Tyler) We’ve been doing the “green” thing since before it was a buzzword.

(Gail) I bet we’re the only retail store that’s never purchased a bag for our customers to carry home and throw away.

Are there other stores that specialize in reselling toys and books? It’s really hard. It takes the right mentality. People have tried and failed to do this. As far as I know, we’re the only such toy store.

Are there any all-time favorite toys? Legos, American Girl dolls – that’s a thing you can only buy new on-line, but you can get them here used

(Tyler) Wooden tracks, like Thomas and Brio. Our Green Toys would qualify.

(Gail)  Some of the Green Toys are made out of plastic milk jugs, by a local company from Emeryville. We try to focus on anybody that’s local, just like the local food thing.

What happens to non-selling toys? When toy sets come here, they’re not always complete. We have a kitchen full of pieces; if we have the parts, we complete the set. If we don’t, we donate it to Bananas [in Oakland]. Bananas donates to low-cost child-care providers and low-income families.

As a business we always have some project at Christmastime for the Berkeley Women’s Food and Housing Project. Every year we find out how many kids they have in their shelter two weeks ahead of Christmas. We get a list for each family; we fill that list every year. We take them toys and household goods – sets of dishes, hats, mittens. Step One Nursery School helps with that. There should be more partnerships between public and private, business and non-profits. It’s important for everybody.

What do you do in your free time? (Gail) I garden; I have a third of an acre organic garden.

Tyler, what was it like to grow up with this store? I’ve been here more than half my life now, which has been a mixed bag.  I’ve enjoyed it. I feel good about it – the amount of toys kept out of the landfills and teaching the value of conservation. When kids hit age 5, parents can make it register that if they take good care of their stuff, they can bring it in here and trade it in for money or a different toy.

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