My Wooden Toys is based in Denmark Western Australia and run by husband and wife Margriet and Douglas Walker, and "assisted" with great enthusiasm by their 4 year old daughter Hannah..
Douglas and Margriet have both worked extensively with young people over the past 10 years, as community artists, providing drama and arts workshops for young people, and as tutors and teachers within the formal education system.
Why a Toy Shop?
My Wooden Toys came about as we tried to find good quality toys for our daugter that would really invite play as well as have some educational value; academic, creative, imaginative or otherwise. We were quite disspointed with what was available to us. We lived in Holland and the UK for a couple of years and toys that are so readily accessible in Europe, were unavailable or unaffordable here.
Affordable toyshops, in our experience, stock mostly low-quality plastic toys that look really attractive to small children, but that they will only play with once or twice. We spend a lot of time online, finding toys that would attract our daughter, as well as stimulate her mind, imagination and creativity. We found shopping online a much easier experience and avoided the grab and run senario which we experienced in many toyshops. (What on earth did we buy this for?)
Wooden Toys are Affordable!
Converting these efforts into the online shop My Wooden Toys was a natural progression. We discovered that quality wooden toys did not have to be more expensive than the alternative and that, in fact, we could easily compete with big chainstores, in price. We may not always buy for the same low rates as big chain stores, but we get close: we do not use agents, but buy directly from importers, in bulk, and, more importantly, we have much lower running costs. We do not have to pay staff and shareholders, rent for shopspace and so on; and can afford to work on much lower profit margins, therefore competing and often beating the prices of these stores.
What to Stock?
When we choose toys we think about our daughter and all the children we have worked with in a professional setting, with main considerations attraction, quality, material (wood, natural) and educational value. We try to stock toys in all price ranges but always of high quality. If we don't like the quality of a toy when it arrives we will not put it in the shop. We keep a display model of most toys (we do markets quite often, in Denmark WA) and Hannah tests these extensively, putting them through their paces as only a 4 year old can. At the moment, our toys come from Europe (i.e. Djeco from France and Kathe (or: Kaethe) Kruse from Germany), as well as a carefully selected range from China. We are currently developing our own range, to be produced in Denmark WA and are trying to source Australian made toys that meet our criteria and are still affordable.
A User Friendly Website
In designing My Wooden Toys we have tried to make the shopping and checkout experience as quick and easy as possible.
You do not need a membership to shop here. You don't at physical shops, so why should you online?
Payment is very simple, just follow the checkout steps. The idea of online shopping is to save you time, so you will not be asked to complete ridiculously long forms.
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