Playtime no more at Alphabet Moon
The message on the easel out front always said it all: “Come and play.”
And for nearly two decades, the children did.
Because Alphabet Moon Toys & Treasures was never just a toy store; it was a Davis destination, a favorite place to visit, where to browse was to play, and where current owner Christine Hildebrand and her employees earned raves for their selection of toys and customer service.
It was the place to go to buy a birthday present, and rare was the child’s birthday party where the blue-and-gold Alphabet Moon sticker wasn’t seen on a gift.
But Hildebrand, who bought the store nearly 10 years ago after having worked there since it opened in 1993, said Alphabet Moon took two big hits about three years ago: the economy tanked, and Target opened in Davis.
Had it just been one and not the other, Hildebrand said, the store might have survived. But not both, especially with the ongoing loss of business due to Internet sales.
“The decline began in 2008 when everything crashed,” she said. “And Target definitely impacted us a lot and continues to do so.
“Before Target opened, people would go to birthday parties and everything was from us. Now it’s only one or two gifts. And birthday parties were huge for us.”
Christmas of 2008 saw a 28 percent decline in sales, she said, and it never picked back up.
“We’ve experienced declining sales for three years,” she said. “It’s been three years of struggling to survive.”
Moving in 2010 from the old site on F Street to the current spot on Second Street bought some time, thanks to lower rent, but as the holiday season progressed this year, Hildebrand said, “I knew we really couldn’t keep going.”
And so on Tuesday night, she put the signs up in the front windows of the store: “Going Out of Business.” She will close up by the end of the month.
“This is so horrible for me,” Hildebrand said, fighting back tears. “This whole month will be horrible.
“I’ve spent everything to keep the store alive, hoping it would get better, but it isn’t. I’m already losing everything.”
And there was no question of selling.
“Nobody in their right mind would buy a business that’s losing money,” she said.
Hildebrand has already laid off her four employees and will run the store on her own until it closes. Everything was marked down 20 percent on Wednesday, and she’ll keep marking it all down until it’s gone.
The impact of the store’s closure will be felt widely, customers say.
“I’m sad for downtown,” said parent Sara Reinhart, who was shopping with her 3-year-old son Oliver on Wednesday morning.
“For kids’ presents, it’s been really great.”
Cindy Dolan, who was there with her children to choose a birthday present for a family friend, rued the store’s closure as well.
“We always come here when we’re downtown,” she said. “We always come here to pick out birthday presents and it normally takes us a good hour to pick something out.”
There’s just so much to look at and play with, she noted.
“Right now,” she added, “I don’t even know where my daughter is … but I know she’s in here somewhere and she’s safe. I could never do that at Target.
“I think we take small businesses for granted sometimes,” she added.
Even out-of-towners expressed dismay over the store’s impending closure.
New Yorker Mark Donnelly visits Davis every year around this time. His brother, Harper Junior High School teacher Brian Donnelly, and sister-in-law, Ann Moylan, live in Davis with their children. And since 1994, Mark Donnelly remembers coming into Alphabet Moon to browse and purchase toys.
“It’s such a shame,” he said as he stood outside the store before it opened on Wednesday.
Each year he visits, he noted, more downtown stores seem to be closed.
It won’t just be the shoppers who feel the impact of Alphabet Moon’s closure. Community groups, schools and youth sports teams have all benefited from Hildebrand’s community support.
Alphabet Moon has long been known as a sponsor of youth sports teams, and for donating to school auctions and projects, as well as to the Davis Schools Foundation. Over the holiday season, Hildebrand offered 15 percent off to anyone purchasing a toy for the Davis Community Gift Project.
Also feeling the hit, Hildebrand said, will be the small companies and vendors who won’t survive without Alphabet Moon to sell their goods.
“They don’t have an Internet presence,” she noted, “so I’ve been carrying them.”
It is, she said, the likely future of the toy business: Customers want a huge selection to choose from at prices that independent retailers simply can’t afford to provide.
“I just don’t think a store like this can survive anymore,” she said.
— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=122663
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Posted by Anne Ternus-Bellamy
on Jan 4 2012.
Last Login: Sat 19 May 2012 03:43:19 PM PDT
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You captured it so well, as usual, Anne. Sad. :-(
Best wishes to Christine and her family, and her former employees. This is a sad day. Thanks for being a part of downtown Davis for so long.
Great job, Anne. Touched on all the important issues.
This is what we all do to our independent businesses, every time we shop at big box stores. We save a few dollars and independents go out of business. We are so short sighted. Pretty soon big box stores will be the only ones available.
This is exactly what we all knew was coming when Target came to town; the shuttering of long loved local businesses like Alphabet Moon. This sucks. It was a wonderful, signature store and now we’re left with the plastic and cheap cheese of Target. But, I’m just as hypocritical of the many others who will lament this development, I made a point to try to buy toys and gifts at Alphabet Moon but many times I opted for the convenience of Target — just as I knew I would once they opened.
That is the problem, isn’t it? That we all opt for the cheap/easy solution. We are all short sighted.
No, it’s not a “problem” it’s a choice, and no, not everyone is “shortsighted.” It’s very easy to simply bash Target and anyone who shops there. But that’s how business works. As a consumer I have a “choice” as to where I shop. Alphabet Moon was fine. If you or others want to shop there, please do, that’s your right. But don’t tell me where I need to shop. Alphabet Moon had a more limited selection and was more expensive than chain stores such as Target or (brace yourself …) WalMart. Why should I be compelled to spend more and have a worse selection of items to choose from? And Target’s items are not “cheap.” Is the Thomas the Tank Engine toy I buy at Target different than the identical toy at Alphabet Moon? No, other than it cost me less money. It’s the same toy. Opening a business is no guarantee you will make money and stay in business. It’s a risk. No one wants to see any business fail, a store owner cry and have to lay off employees. But it is a risk anyone running a business faces. Target faces the same risk. Look at other chains that have gone out of business, such as Mervyns or Circuit City. Being a chain is no guarantee of success.
While it is true, as you say, that we have a choice and buying at Target and Walmart saves us money, it is also true that if we drive the independents out of business we will just have Walmart and Target. Then we will complain there is no choice. It has happened so many times in small town America, all across the nation. Walmart has the right to open, as does Target, and we have the right to shop there. But do we feel no obligation to our neighbors to help them stay in business?
You take the closing of one independent store to the extreme of there being nothing but Targets and Walmarts left. That’s not the case. It’s up to the store to compete, which doesn’t just mean price, but also service, selection, delivery etc. Don’s prices at Redwood Barn are in the ballpark of other locations that sell similar items, such as Home Depot. But, in general, not always, the Redwood Barn’s service and selection are better. So depending upon what my family needs, we go to one or the other. As to your last sentence, no, there is no “obligation” to our neighbors to help them stay in business. Again, if you or others feel that you want to help them stay in business even though it costs more and has not as good a selection, please go ahead and do so. That is your right. But it is not my obligation. Redrum stays in business despite In-and-Out and a multtude of other burger places because it is competeively priced and offers a different product. Mishkas competes against Starbucks and Peets. The chain doesn’t always knock out the little guy. Lastly, when people “complain” that all we have is Target and Walmart, then a new business will open to compete against them, to serve that customer base that doesn’t want to go to Target or Walmart. And they will compete not just on price, but in other aspects of business such as selection and service.
I understand Robert’s argument (shop at the stores you like if you want them to stay in business), but I don’t get Nancy’s argument at all. We should restrict the shopping choices of consumers to force them to buy from places like Alphabet Moon when they clearly don’t want to? And to what end? So that we won’t be “forced” to shop at Target? Seems to me like you’re argument boils down to your opinion that it’s better to force people to shop at Alphabet Moon than it is to allow them to choose which store they like best.
Not to mention the fact that people will just drive to Woodland to go to Target…
Not force, not at all. Just realize that when we bypass our local businesses, they will soon go out of business.
It is easy to blame the big box/peripheral retail on the demise of the downtown. Small shops like Alphabet Moon could readily survive if their rents were more affordable. Unfortunately, since the City has chosen to subsidize the downtown land owners by blocking retail outside the core area, there is little incentive for these same landowners to lower their rents or improve their properties, for they know that if someone wants to start a retail business, they will have to come downtown. One store closes, another will open up, the rents will stay the same (or more likely rise). It is simply a function of supply and demand. It may be counter-intuitive, but if you want to save the downtown as a shopping district, you need to expand retail throughout the City.
Don’t worry–I’m sure the Davis school district, which often benefits financially from downtown business sponsored fund-raisers, will themselves raise money from teachers to provide Alphabet Moon with the financing it needs to stay in business….or is it just a “one-way street?”
So sad. The selection at big box stores pales in comparison for the kinds of toys I value. I was a no on k supporter but I get no satisfaction whatsoever in saying I told you so. What does it say about our community when a TOY store can’t survive? I suppose the co op is next?
Alphabet Moon was about so much more than picking up a toy or gift, it was about community. My children grew up with toys from A-Moon and I’m sad to hear that the next generation of Davis children will miss out on the simple pleasures of having a toy store where it was safe and fun to play. We bought wooden toys, fun games, and Legos by the score there. We saw it move through all its different phases, and now as it wanes, we mourn what was truly a treasure for Davis.
Davis Dad. Meet Woodland Mom. Maybe you are right that people shouldn’t be restricted in their choices of where to shop. But maybe everyone who thinks target and Walmart are just fine should take a stroll through downtown Woodland. Competition? There is no competing with those stores in the long run. It’s a matter of choice as you say but awareness too–I wish Woodland had the downtown that Davis has. Convenience is nice but it could ruin your downtown and property values in general.