Generations of Happiness: Inside Homewood Toy and Hobby with Tricia McCain

Imagine stepping into a world where toys ignite joy and nostalgia across generations. Join us on this enchanting episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast as we sit down with Tricia McCain, the heart and soul behind Homewood Toy and Hobby, a family treasure since 1950. Tricia takes us on a heartwarming journey through the store's history, from its founding by her grandparents to becoming a local gem that brings smiles to faces young and old. Discover the sophisticated charm of in-store shopping and the resurgence of timeless pastimes like board games and puzzles, especially during the pandemic.

Tricia shares her seamless transition into the family business and candidly discusses the unique challenges brought on by COVID-19. Learn how she leveraged social media to keep the community engaged and adapt to new sales strategies. The resilient support from local customers and her dedicated team played a crucial role in the store's success. We also get a peek into Tricia's personal life, including her love for traveling and hiking with her Australian shepherd, Eve. Don't miss her heartfelt invitation to visit Homewood Toy and Hobby and experience its magic firsthand, reinforcing the irreplaceable value of personal connections in today's digital age. #GNPBirmingham #HomewoodToy #HomewoodToyHobby #ShopLocal #FamilyFun #ToysAndHobbies #RCcars #ModelTrains #BoardGames #PlayOutside #GiftIdeas #BirminghamAL

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Patricia Blondheim, and today we have good neighbor Tricia McCain, and Tricia is the owner of Homewood Toy and Hobby in Homewood. Tricia, how are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:30

I'm great. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 0:32

I'm doing amazing and thank you so much for coming by. You have one of my favorite stores if not my favorite store in Homewood. So much fun. Tell us a little bit about Homewood Toy and Hobby.

Speaker 3: 0:46

Well, we are a locally owned small specialty toy store. We carry toys and hobbies for all ages. We've been here a long time. We have a little bit of everything for birth up to adults. We sell rattles and teethers for babies all the way up to board games and puzzles and remote control cars and things like that for adults. We have a little bit of everything for all ages and we enjoy what we do and we hope that people will come in and visit us.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Well, there's not a lot of toy stores anymore. What's up with that? I mean, toys are as closed up, and to me, the best store in the whole world is a toy store. Tell me why. Why do you think it's such a rare thing to find a toy store, especially?

Speaker 3: 1:32

one as great as yours.

Speaker 3: 1:33

I am really not certain, but I'm glad that we are still here. We've been here for a long time. My grandparents started this in 1950. We enjoy what we do. We enjoy watching kids come in and learn and play, and I think that the reason we're still here is because people like to bring their children in and let them pick out their own toys, whereas a lot of people have gone to online shopping, but for kids, for toys, it's fun to watch them come in and wander around the store and pick out what they really want for their birthday or Christmas or what they want to spend their own money on with their allowance, and let them spend time and pick out their own items, which is harder to do online, I think, than to come in and see it in person.

Speaker 2: 2:14

I'll bet you have a bunch of adults that just come in and sort of walk around kind of with you know, just because we never lose the need to play.

Speaker 3: 2:25

We do, we do, we do. We have lots of older men that hang out in the back of the store in the hobby department working on their RC cars or planes or boats or just needing help or information on how to get something going or something that they've broken, how to fix it or order parts.

Speaker 2: 2:39

I've noticed more and more interest in I'm going to call it just miniatures, you know, like models. It's kind of like an underground thing that's becoming. It's becoming a more visible thing.

Speaker 3: 2:53

It has. Yes, we sell a lot of plastic models and the paints and glues and all the supplies you need.

Speaker 2: 3:02

I think we need the space to slow down and and and be in one place, and I think one of the best ways to do that is to play.

Speaker 3: 3:13

I do agree.

Speaker 2: 3:14

And I do think people came back to that realization during COVID, when they had extra time.

Speaker 3: 3:19

It is amazing the amount of board games and puzzles and models we sold during that time period, the amount of board games and puzzles and models we sold during that time period and that have continued. The sales rose and have stayed higher than normal because I think people realize that it's kind of relaxing to sit down and do a jigsaw puzzle or play a board game. Takes your mind off all your other problems and what's going on and it's enjoyable.

Speaker 2: 3:40

And play is hardwired into our brains. I know I told you before we hit the record button here Playing is how we learn initially, but we never have that part of our brain never, ever shuts off.

Speaker 3: 3:56

Yes, that is true. Yes, and so many people before used to say, oh, I just can't get my child to sit down and play a game. They're always online or outside. And then I think when you actually take the time to slow down, pull out a board game and sit down and have a family night playing a game, you realize that, hey, they really will sit here and enjoy sitting down playing a game with their parents. If you just kind of force it on them every now and then, people enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 4:21

I'll bet you know all the good board games.

Speaker 3: 4:29

I really do. I don't play board games that often, but I do love to play board games and we have a lot of the classic ones and a lot of the newer ones. My son really likes to play poker. We play poker a lot in sequence, and my younger sister and her family play Monopoly all the time. But yes, we grew up playing games. I don't play a lot of games now, but I grew up playing games all the time.

Speaker 2: 4:49

I just listened to a podcast. It was a contemporary podcast with younger individuals that were doing it and they acted like they had just discovered game night.

Speaker 3: 4:58

Yes, it's been around forever. It's been forever.

Speaker 2: 5:02

But they were going on and on about game night and what a revelation it was to them, how much fun that they had, how it brought up that their life was full of work, as all of ours are, and that they weren't having fun. And discovered game night and suddenly fun happened.

Speaker 3: 5:21

Oh, yes, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 5:24

So tell our listeners. You kind of got into it a little bit when you were talking about how this is a business started by your grandparents, but what was your journey to become the owner?

Speaker 3: 5:37

Well, I have been working here since I could reach the cash register. I would walk here after grade school. I went to school right around the corner and I would walk up here after school and help unload boxes and price things and put things in the bag things for people and I just really enjoyed it. And then when I went off to college I had no idea what I wanted to do, and it ended up with a marketing degree.

Speaker 3: 6:00

But I worked here all the summers and over Christmas, and when I graduated it just seemed like the place to be. My dad was ready to retire, and so I took over the business and have been doing it ever since. It sounds.

Speaker 2: 6:14

Sorry, we've got a little bit of a delay. I'm talking over you. I'm so sorry, Tricia. I just wanted to say that it sounds like you know, it was just a smooth path. It was just a totally gravel free, paved road all the way to where you are right now. But I know that's not the truth. Is there something that has sort of confronted you or a hurdle that you had to jump, you know, to get to be the person in the business person that you are right now?

Speaker 3: 6:43

Well, it really all came pretty naturally, just because I grew up in the business and knew the ins and outs and saw what my grandparents attend and what my father had done and I grew up going to toy shows and going to market in Atlanta and really the hardest thing I've had to do since I have ended the business was dealing with COVID and it all worked out fine and worked out well and we survived and came out on top. Really we had two wonderful years, but just the worry of it all and all the paperwork we had to do to get the PPP loan and worrying about whether my employees were going to be here, whether they were going to be sick, whether customers were going to show up was very, very difficult and very stressful.

Speaker 3: 7:25

But it kind of forced us to up our social media presence on Facebook and Instagram and that type of thing, which I'm terrible at.

Speaker 3: 7:34

But I have a very good store manager who does that for me and she did a great job and we just had to adjust and rearrange some things and we learned a lot about our customers and about our business during that time. We had some very local, great local customers who really shopped local and supported us and came in almost weekly to buy games and puzzles to make sure we were okay. We didn't end up having to shut down completely, but we had to limit the amount of people in the store. So we did a lot of like going to the door where people didn't want to come in, we would go out to their car for them and take their order and come in and pick out their stuff and wrap it and carry it out to the car and take their credit card. So I feel like we worked twice as hard but we got it done and it all worked out. It was mainly just the stress and thinking about it. That was the hardest part.

Speaker 2: 8:29

Well, what does someone whose business is fun? What do you do for fun when you're not working?

Speaker 3: 8:37

When I'm not working, I like to travel and I spend a lot of time out walking and hiking with my dog, Eve, who is normally here at work with me. She's not here today, but people come in just to see my dog. Sometimes I have a adorable little Australian shepherd and we spend a lot of time out at Mountain Hiking and Red Mountain Park and I hike the Lakeshore and Jemison Trail almost every other day. So I like to hike and I like to travel.

Speaker 2: 9:05

What's the one thing you would like our listeners to take away about Homewood Toy and Hobby?

Speaker 3: 9:13

Really I would like them to come in and see. It's really an old-fashioned toy and hobby store that you don't see many of and you kind of have to see it to believe it. People that call to see if we have something. If we don't, it's worth a trip to come in and just wander around when you have some spare time, um. But I'd like to know that we we really enjoy what we do and and we like our customers and we'd love for them to come in and spend some time and ask some questions oh, I agree, your store is worth crawling, taking an hour.

Speaker 2: 9:40

I don't know Might be come to be very careful. Make sure you have time in your calendar.

Speaker 3: 9:46

It's amazing, the people that shop here regularly, women with their children that will come in the front door and buy what they need to buy and leave and never even realize that we have the hobby department in the back part of the store. Or the men that have come in for years in the back part that don't, and in the back part of the store. Or the men that have come in for years in the back part that don't. They're like oh, y'all have dolls up front. I'm like we've had those for the last you know 40 years. Where have you been? So you, just, you really need to wander through the store to see it all and see what all we have.

Speaker 2: 10:13

It takes a while to get through, but it is a complete pleasure to visit. How can our listeners find you and how can they contact you? They can well, we are at 2830 18th Street South in Homewood.

Speaker 3: 10:27

Alabama on the strip in downtown Homewood.

Speaker 3: 10:30

We're easy to find. We have a circus tent awning out front so we kind of stand out. Our phone number is 205-879-4444. We do have a website, but it is not very good right now so I'm not even going to give that out. We took everything down during COVID and we really never populated it again, so it's terrible. But the best way is to come in and see us. We really like to see our customers face-to-face and you can email us at homewoodtoyandhobby at gmailcom. But, like I say, we'd really like you to come in and talk to us.

Speaker 2: 11:04

Yeah, there's no substitute for going in there and honestly just getting your play on, exactly. Thank you, tricia, for coming by and for telling us all about Homewood Toy and Hobby.

Speaker 3: 11:15

I've enjoyed it. Thank you, I have too. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 11:21

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPBirminghamcom. That's GNPBirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148. You.