Coldwater Creek is out. Creative Kidstuff is in. The space in the south wing of Mall of America next to Lego Land is now filled by Creative Kidstuff's temporary pop-up store. The new store opened Wednesday and will be open through mid-January.
"This is our first pop-up store," said CEO Roberta Bonoff. The Mall of America store is the company's 7th store, along with an additional five airport terminal stores. Bonoff said the company has been approached by Mall of America officials for years to open a store. The temporary digs may turn into a long-term lease depending on business and rent negotiations, she said.
Bonoff is hoping for a big weekend of business during MEA this Thursday and Friday. But one thing customers won't be shopping for is the HOT TOY of 2014. It has yet to surface but that's no surprise. Although many toys have been popular sellers, the last HOT TOY was Zhu Zhu pets in 2008, complete with people checking stock via social networking and adults stealing the pets from the hands of babes. (No holiday season is complete without the story of a greedy adult ruining a child's Christmas just to score a few bucks on eBay.)
Still, parents are grabbing best sellers such as Magna-Tiles, Teeter Popper, Squiggs and anything Frozen, said Happi Olson, director of sales and marketing for Creative Kidstuff,
But the lack of a HOT TOY isn't hurting business. "We still have the volume," Bonoff said. "Our sales have increased for the last several years."
In 2013, Creative Kidstuff acquired Sensational Beginnings, a Michigan-based catalog and online retailer, to boost online sales. CK was originally founded in 1982.
