With the rise of TikTok and shorter form video content, stores are now seeing the same fast-paced phenomenon in toy trends ahead of the holidays season.
One store owner says that kids and younger people are bouncing from trend to trend quicker than ever, making it tough to predict what kids are wanting.
“There hasn’t been one specific thing in the last two or three years,” says Kevin Krick, a store manager with Mind Games in White Oaks Mall.
“The last big time where there was a lineup of people was for Hatchimals and that was maybe 4 years ago.”
Krick has spent years in the industry, moving into his current job with Mind Games after working with Toys R Us. He says that after his time watching these trends, he believes the speed of online content is playing a major factor.
“I think with the rate that younger people are receiving media from, it’s going to stay that way forever now.”
He says that the fluctuation in popular online trends are being mirrored by the interests and toy purchasing trends of the children watching.
Krick says that the further integration of ads and brand deals into the content that they’re watching is making it difficult for kids to now differentiate the two.
“When I went to Disney, my niece got upset at me because there was a commercial and she’s never seen one before,” says Krick.
“She’s 7. I had to explain what a commercial was for the first time in her life. All of the stuff she’s getting from is from the little breaks on YouTube.”
He says that while things like Pokemon cards, Lego, and the like will always continue to be popular, it’s getting tougher to predict what the biggest popular thing will be.
Krick adds that while your kids may want one thing for Christmas, it may already be a past trend by the time it arrives.
