One of the Greater Cincinnati area’s largest purveyors of collectible toys is getting even bigger as it prepares to open the doors to its new location.
Fairfield's The Toy Department is moving into the former Harley-Davidson building on Dixie Highway, just about a mile from its old location. Store manager Kenneth Koepnick says they’ve spent the last seven months building it out and expect to open on July 15.
Koepnick says despite The Toy Department being a small business with fewer than 10 employees, it's become a destination for travelers in their five years in business. The Toy Department has been featured on the WWE Network, numerous YouTube channels – from both celebrities and local toy hunters – and will even be featured in the Amazon Prime series A Toy Store Near You. It's also hosted celebrity signings and toy giveaways, as well as celebrated and brought more attention to Cincinnati’s toy heritage, says Koepnick.
“We focus on fair prices and high quality and only sell our product in store – a non-traditional business model in the current era of a global economy. Folks have to travel to visit our store, and they do because of [our] reputation for quality and good prices,” Koepnick said in an email to CityBeat.
This isn’t The Toy Department’s first expansion, either. In 2020, just two weeks before the COVID-19 lockdowns, the store moved from its original 1,200-square-foot location into a 3,000-square-foot one. But even in a larger space, The Toy Department ran out of room for their inventory, with toys piled to the ceiling.
“About a year or so ago, we realized that our inventory was stacked to the ceiling and it was hard to shop a lot of product in our store, so we were debating a move or a second location, just to have some more space,” said Koepnick.
Other factors beyond inventory space played into their decision to move, as well, including a landlord Koepnick says let the property fall into disrepair.
“Broken signs, broken gutters, a sinkhole in the parking lot, trash and dirt everywhere...so that really got us hunting for something new. Then we happened to see that the old Queen City Harley location was available, [and] we thought it was a wonderful fit,” he said. “Location, size, and meeting the owner really convinced us that it was a great fit. Being a mile from our current location was great for both our customers keeping track of us, but also to be able to build it out while keeping our current store open. Once we met with the owner and his team, we were convinced that we'd found [our] forever home.”
The Toy Department’s new location is about 20,000 square feet, which means it will be one of the largest toy stores in the country when it opens, says Koepnick.
As for the episode of A Toy Store Near You, Koepnick says they initially filmed much of it during the COVID lockdowns to be aired in an earlier season, but delays on Amazon’s end will push it to a later season. And because the footage is three years old and was shot in the old location, the toy store is reshooting the majority of it.
“Our initial filming was really fun. It was interesting though because it's all self-filmed...then you send it in and they put the episode together from there,” Koepnick said. “The appeal of being on a show like that, though, is for our customers to get insight into our personalities and how the store operates. The takeaway we hope to deliver is that we're a small business, run by passionate collectors...not a faceless big business like most people are used to doing business with.”
The Toy Department, 5960 Dixie Highway, Fairfield. More info: toydepartment.net.
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