Toy Store Full of Fun Needs Some Parents to Buy In

The Ewings were exploring Camp in Downtown Brooklyn, New York, a venture-backed “family experience store” — what would have recently been called a toy store — that blends play and product in hopes of reviving a tired retail toy scene. After high rents, low margins and intense competition brought down previous iterations of Toys “R” Us and FAO Schwarz, it seems like a risky time to bet on toys. But Camp is trying something different.

The first store opened on Fifth Avenue last December; the company has since expanded to three in New York and two more, in South Norwalk, Connecticut, and Dallas. The stores seem to hide the selling of toys in plain sight by outfitting their spaces in immersive themes that change every few months.

In Brooklyn’s summer-camp-themed space, Paul and Niyati Ewing trailed behind as their sons climbed a bunk-bed ladder toward a slide, shooting down into a room with glitter walls and a disco floor. The brothers paused to color before descending on a faux pond to overturn rocks.

It’s free to play in Camp’s stores, but the walls, tables and even floors are also packed with toys available for purchase. Their stock mixes the usual suspects, like kid-scale play kitchens and LOL Surprise! dolls, with books, balls, figures and craft kits from smaller vendors — a curated variety that helps Camp differentiate from Amazon.

There’s also a full schedule of ticketed programs running $20 to $30 each, including crafts (Mason jar snowglobe-making, animal masks), physical activities (musical yoga, obstacle courses), and entertainment (children’s comedy, live music). Meanwhile, parents can visit on-site cafes.

“I’m sure I’ll be here frequently,” Niyati Ewing said. “Especially on a rainy day or in the wintertime, it’s good to have an indoor space that you can come to and keep the kids busy.”

This is Camp’s promise to investors. It is also its gamble. “We’re competing for people’s time,” said Ben Kaufman, Camp’s chief executive, who co-founded the company with his wife, Nikki Kaufman, and a longtime colleague, Tiffany Markofsky. “And when people spend time at Camp, chances are we’re going to get some of their money.”

Camp owners are betting that the store’s combination of play space, toys, clothes and ice cream will not only make a profit but will grow the company into a national chain.

But experiential retail is, thus far, unproven. “I think the jury’s still out on how well they’re going to do,” said Richard Gottlieb, chief executive of Global Toy Experts, a consulting firm. “When you devote that much space to nonselling space, your challenges are greater in terms of turning a profit.”

Indeed. Although the Ewing twins had spent hours playing at Camp over three visits, their parents had yet to buy anything.

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But all of Camp’s stores seem to be located near young affluent parents. The original store sits just west of Union Square, and the company’s recent New York additions are in the high-end malls of City Point, in Brooklyn, and Hudson Yards on the West Side of Manhattan, both of which were built to anchor vast new residential developments. The Connecticut and Dallas stores are also in upscale shopping centers.

“FAO Schwarz had a big load in rent, so they had to sell a lot of merchandise at a really nice profit,” Gottlieb said. City Point and Hudson Yards present the same high-overhead challenge, which is heightened by the cost of constructing their lavish play environments.

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The company does have a plan to ease some of the pressure to sell. Ben Kaufman was recently the head of marketing at Buzzfeed, famous for its product placements. Drawing on his digital media experience, Camp is bringing brand sponsorships to the store, charging companies to weave their messages into the play space. A cooking program, for instance, had a promotional tie-in with Bounty paper towels this year.

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Regardless, Camp will need to move a lot of people through its stores. During the Ewings’ weekday visits to the Brooklyn store, which opened on Nov. 30, crowds were light. On a Friday, the twins shared the space with a handful of other families who stayed quite a while. On a Tuesday, they had the store nearly to themselves.

After rotating through dozens of activities, Krishna and Balarama battled their father in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game, resisting when their parents suggested they move on. From the sidelines, Niyati Ewing said, “We could spend all day here.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .