Toy Chest

Great small business toy store with all of the unique gifts. My go to place for all kid birthday parties that my kids are invited to. On-site gift wrapping is premium and the owner is very fun to banter with. Price point is a bit higher and the new location is a bit smaller, but the convenience and customer service keep me coming back.nTip- join the mailing list for monthly discount coupons.

I was just spending time with my friends in blue back square when we decided to go to Toy Chest. Toy Chest has always had a nice and helpful staff in the past but that night I saw how rude and discriminatory their faculty can be. We were looking around the store and having fun when a member of their staff came up to us and asked us what we were doing there. We told her we were just looking around when she then replied that this is no place to 'party' and that we could take our 'shots' somewhere else. She then asked us to leave the store. Although she was being very rude we respected her wishes and left the store. We were waiting to hear from our parents in the parking lot while she was watching us from the Toy store's back window. After 10 minutes of just watching us, she came out and started to make some very rude comments and accused us of waiting so that we could sneak back into the store. Before we could justify ourselves she got into her car and waited for 5 minutes before finally driving away. Another staff member also waited outside the back of the store and started to walk up and down the parking lot and was waiting for us to 'make our move'. We didn't feel safe so we walked around the block and when we ended up walking past the front of the store the staff member was there and started to point at us from inside the store. I do not recommend going to a store with such rude employees who would kick out teenagers for doing nothing and then also stalk them once leaving the store.

How disappointing to discover the rude and predatory behavior of the owner/manager of this store. My daughter and her friends were not only asked to leave the store but were followed into the parking lot. If they had done something wrong they should have been told of their offense instead they were reprimanded for being young and then watched and followed by the so-called adults who work and run the store. By the time a parent came, the owner had left the store, conveniently, most likely to avoid facing responsibility for her irrational behavior. It’s safe to say that this store has been taking advantage of customers by pretending it is a “mom & pop” shop, a neighborhood store serving the community. It is neither. kids are being watched and monitored inside and outside the store. I will not spend money there and I regret patronizing the shop for the past 9 years. Buy online or even at Barnes & Noble! don’t buy into the hype. There is nothing quaint about this store.

This is the best store for so many reasons! 1. Shop small and local! 2. So many options for all ages and interests 3. Staff super nice and helpful 4. Can find something different from the big box stores/sites 5. They gift wrap! Perfect for when you're on your way to a kids birthday party. I will shop here forever!

My family has, in the past, enjoyed this store...for it’s convenience and merchandise. The pricing of merchandise and rudeness of the staff has always been a “price” to pay for the “charm” of the public space they helped create in WH. But as my children get older, I am realizing that this may not be a corrupt place for them to spend their money. Today my daughter was chased out of there by a scared lady (owner? Staff? Concerned super hero?) who insisted that the store was no place for “partying”. My daughter and her friends are under 14, and assured me they had not yet ordered kegs. There’s no way the lady saw them flashing gang signals, as the initiation isn’t until next month. And this isn’t their turf. But I digress. This is not actually funny, as this angry lady is sending the signal to my children that they aren’t welcome in the public sphere. A horrible lesson for my children, and not the first or the last, but worth mentioning none the less. I think the public sphere could benefit from the kindness and cleverness of my daughters and their friends, but the old angry lady in store was never going to take the time to learn about them or see if she could help them buy something. She had seen enough at one glance and decided that she would go all suburban neighborhood watch on them. The truth is, they were in there, as kids are, to see if anything struck their fancy and to watch their younger sister who had often enjoyed talking me or her mother into buying some of the more amusing distractions for sale there. In short, this was a family outing with friends attached. The type of foot traffic you would think local business would welcome, rather than try to intimidate. But for now they won. My family will not be returning.