So, that’s it for another four years – the dream is over, and it isn’t coming home after all. There’s no doubt that the World Cup has given England a bit of a lift in recent weeks, despite the many controversies which have dogged the tournament and, in particular, FIFA, whose reputation has arguably never been lower. With any major sporting event, you want it to be remembered for the right reasons – and while the action on the pitch has at times been breathtaking, it’s also true that many questions will linger long after the Final is played out on Sunday (we’re all Spanish this weekend… si?). In truth, though I would love to blame Infantino for our exit (and there is some truth to the argument that Fernandez shouldn’t have been on the pitch to equalise), this one is (mostly) on Tuchel. Self-inflicted defeats really are the hardest to take.
So, onwards and upwards. We have had a good month: toy retailers sold a lot of football-related products, and consumer confidence was temporarily buoyed by our progress to the Semi Finals. At least the good weather is forecast to linger for a while; if outdoor toy suppliers aren’t happy and brimming with positivity this year, they never will be.
One retailer brimming with positivity right now is True Toys, the online operator formerly known as BargainMax. The business has been working behind the scenes for some while on a new brand identity, which was finally revealed this week. After breaking the news on Tuesday, we spoke to Alex Woolfstein to hear a little more about the rationale and thought process behind the name change. Having come a long way since its inception as a business selling clearance items on Amazon, the name change makes perfect sense – the website is far more than just a destination for bargain hunters these days, and the new True Toys identity reflects its ethos far more accurately than its original moniker (and if True Toys carries faint echoes of the Toys R Us acronym TRU, that’s surely smart SEO planning). Importantly, toys is not just one category among many for True Toys; they are its whole reason to exist. Just like specialist physical toy retailers, specialist online toy retailers are an integral component of the UK and global toy market: what’s more, you can generally trust them not to do the kind of daft things that mixed retailers can sometimes resort to.
Speaking of which…. Hey Sainsbury’s, (Yes, it’s them again), I was fascinated to hear about the Lego sale which has been taking place this week. It’s been suggested that the orange-themed grocery giant was clearing out excess stock left over from Father’s Day.
Read the rest here.
