Shopping for toys with kids can be challenging.
But it can be exciting if the store where you bring your grandchildren is the same place you brought your kids, and where you yourself came as a child.
“Crazy, eh?” laughs Vicky Witkowski, who has been coming to Ted’s Hobby and Games shop since she was three. On Friday, she brought her grandson, eight-year-old Zack, because he wanted to get a gift for his little brother.
Ted’s is the last of the original stores at Plaza Pointe-Claire and it’s been around for 60 years. They’ll mark that anniversary in September.
Peter Grant started working here at age 19. He’s the third owner of the store that’s named after the first proprietor, Ted Bryant.
“Ted died in the early ’70s, I think,” Grant says, “and Dalton Pratt bought the store from Ted’s widow. Then I worked for Dalton for many years, and then I bought the store from him in 2001.
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It was called Ted’s Records and Hobbies at first, because records were popular. The new name pointed to the adjustments owners have had to make over the years, but it’s because of those changes that families keep coming back.
“They just keep evolving, so it’s really a lot of cool stuff,” says Witkowski.
Radio-controlled toys, for example. But for Ted’s, the biggest seller is boardgames.
“There’s always a segment of the population that wants to have something in their hands, that wants something tangible and not just on a screen,” Grant tells Global News.
But it’s more than just the boardgames that’s kept Witkwoski coming back all these years. It’s about the memories and passing on traditions.
“There’s things that you can point out that, ‘Oh yeah, this is what I bought, my dad bought me this,’ or, ‘I bought this for your mom,’ you know?”
She adds that kids learn through experiences, so the things adults teach them, even fun stuff, is valuable.