Mud Puddle Toys
Mud Puddle Toys
A feel-good place to shop in Marblehead, MA
Just over a year ago during the height of the Covid pandemic, a toy store that had been one of the core stores of Old Town, Marblehead decided to call it a day. This store had played an important role over the past two decades in the tight-knit Marblehead community, and it was a shame to think it would be missing from the downtown landscape. A local resident, Cassie Watt, came to the rescue and purchased Mud Puddle Toys before it could close for good. As a librarian, she had no previous experience in running a toy store or operating a retail business. However, Cassie decided that she couldn’t see her three children’s favorite toy store close, and she felt it was necessary to hold on to one of the core reasons her family moved to Marblehead and found it so charming in the first place.
The Challenge of Covid Toy Shortages
Cassie took on this challenge despite Covid-related toy shortages, shipping delays, and limits on when and how small retail shops could operate. She took on this challenge, and then took one step further, and decided to go ahead and challenge the prevailing retail structure of the small toy store while she was at it. Her strategy, ironically, was to challenge the new conventions with old school, mom-and-pop methods.
Front Room at Mud Puddle Toys
Her fresh point of view has proven beneficial and rewarding, not just for herself but for downtown Marblehead and the greater North Shore as well. This past February, the store expanded their floor space when the shop next door became available. They broke through the wall, which provided a great opportunity to increase their book inventory and make room for more products in the main space.
We don’t compete with Amazon
The fact that Mud Puddle Toys has expanded their floor space while so many shops and stores are closing is validation her business model and strategy is working. “People ask me how I compete with Amazon. I don’t. I tell them that we’re not in the same business, so there is no competition.” Cassie’s goal is to transform the customers’ relationship with the toy store. It is apparent her store is not just about toys, games, and books, but rather the experience a customer has while selecting a gift for a child, and the feelings–joy, whimsy, curiosity, surprise– that experience evokes. This is what differentiates her store from the large stores and the mainstream internet findings, and what evokes memories of times past when neighborhood toy stores were as ubiquitous as they are now rare.
Every decision, from what inventory to bring into the store to her support for her team members, is defined by this core value. The team, consisting of two full time managers Naeemah Adams and Jenn Brooks and a handful of seasonal moms, dads, and grandmas, is committed to Mud Puddle Toys being an experience where customers will feel welcome and appreciated. Buying a toy, game, or book is the easy part, but selecting the item that is relevant in terms of interest and age bracket is far more challenging. The unique items and her knowledgeable team know how to make the experience not just easy, but unique and enjoyable.
Culture of Mud Puddle Toys
Cassie had a special childhood growing up in rural Maine. She did not have restrictions bound by a long menu of planned activities. Her days were based on freedom of imagination and creativity. Her father was a retired Air Force engineer turned inventor and her mother a local public school teacher, and she was encouraged to explore, create, and play. Her toys were often things she and her friends had to create and explore. It was her curiosity that pushed her thoughts, and this is how she grew up seeing the world. This fundamental up-bringing has provided her with her own internal identity that reflects and amplifies the culture of Mud Puddle Toys.
At the heart of her story is a strong opinion and point of view about what a shopping experience should be, what matters, and what does not. She has taken this position on a deep-seated belief that children need to have opportunities to be free thinkers and explore without limitations. Every toy, game, or book should be selected on individualism and not conformism. Cassie says that one of her most common questions is to recommend a toy that will keep a Really Smart child challenged. She chuckles that her response is always met with surprise, “Oh, Jenn, Naeemah, and I love to point them to a toy that will allow that kids to be a little bored. We’re huge fans of boredom here – open-ended toys and games that let children solve past that initial boredom and use their imagination are so much more popular long term.” Think of why cardboard boxes are often more popular than the fancy toy that was inside. Boredom, she adds, is a gift, it allows children to access the creativity and problem solving they are always so desperately looking for.
Mud Puddle Toys represents a bit of nostalgia, dovetailing into the community to fulfill the classic needs that used to make toy stores such a staple of every lively downtown. People want a place to bring their kids to experience wonder and whimsy, and they want a place to see and discover new toys and ideas. And they also want to be able to find toys and gifts without the stress and confusion of too many choices. Interestingly classic toys, games, and books are as popular as the more modern and unique toys. Right along cutting edge toys like Bunny Hopkins, Minikane, and Starlux are Barbies, Hasbro, and Lego. For many customers, it brings back wonderful memories of playing with Barbies or Legos, or classic games like CandyLand, Chutes & Ladders, and Monopoly.
Cassie says she came into this with the sole purpose of saving the toy store, and finds herself surprised that the vision she and her team at Mud Puddle have developed has lead them to a physical expansion of the store and a more meaningful metaphorical expansion of what it means to be a store that supports children at play.
Mud Puddle Toys
“People ask me how I compete with Amazon. I don’t. I tell them that we’re not in the same business, so there is no competition.””
