SPOKANE, Wash. — It’s not even summertime here in the Inland Northwest, but some toy stores are keeping the holidays in mind when purchasing popular toys like Lego.
The U.S. economy has declined 0.3%, breaking a 33-month growth streak, and President Donald Trump has acknowledged that his tariffs will cause prices to rise.
“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. You know, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” President Trump stated.
Local toy stores are already feeling the effects. Toyland in Spokane’s General Store is ordering enough toys to last through the end of the year, hoping tariffs will decrease before customers face higher prices.
“We probably tripled our orders just to make sure that, you know, we even would have enough supply to get through January and February,” said Tom Barany, part owner of The General Store.
Toyland is stocking up now before tariffs on overseas goods increase the prices of popular brands like Mattel, which makes Barbies and Hot Wheels.
“Our strategy is basically let’s prepare for what we know we can sell and we know what we do well, and then whatever surprises come up, we’ll tackle those as they come,” Barany explained.
The General Store houses one of the largest selections of toys in the Inland Northwest. But keeping the shelves stocked got a lot more expensive since President Trump announced his second round of tariffs in March.
Some vendors are estimating their prices will increase 2, 5 or 10 percent. But others may be much higher.
“Where they’re strictly coming straight out of China and that is their bread and butter for manufacturing. You know, they’ve said that some items might be as high as 100% or more,” Barany said.
That’s why some vendors are encouraging stores to order now — so that come December, higher prices don’t catch customers by surprise.
“When they’re getting ready for their Christmas holiday shopping, coming in for toys that they can expect our retails to be more or less the same,” said Barany.
If tariffs remain high next year, The General Store will look for toys from areas with lower tariffs.
“Everybody’s been kind of, you know, pinching pennies and, you know, holding tight to their wallet because, there’s been a little bit less money around. So we’re trying to do everything we can to help out our customer base,” Barany added.
In the meantime, Toyland continues to offer products from local vendors, which are already gaining popularity.
“The saying of, you know, get your Christmas product in in July. Well, for us now it’s in May and April, which is kind of bizarre,” Barany noted.
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