Parents are buying a lot of toys for kids during the pandemic
Parents are buying a lot of toys for kids during the pandemic
The holidays and the associated gift-giving will be here before we know it, which has us wondering how toymakers have been faring recently. Mattel just reported one of its best quarters in a decade, and Hasbro on Monday shared results for quarterly revenue and profit that beat analyst expectations.
Parents have been buying toys to keep their kids occupied, and this holiday season is likely to be a big one for toy companies.
When the pandemic started and so many people were suddenly stuck at home, a lot of them responded “by buying games, buying puzzles, buying building sets, arts and crafts,” said Steve Pasierb, CEO of the trade group The Toy Association. “So you saw huge growth in the toy industry at a time where normally the toy industry is fairly quiet.”
Pasierb said he expects that trend to continue right into the holidays, especially since it’s harder to give experiences this year.
“What we hear from families is that they want to preserve the holidays for their kids. They want presents under the tree,” he said.
In a normal year, Cara Santos Pianesi and her husband, who live in Virginia, try not to buy their two kids a lot of presents for the holidays, “just because we don’t want to spoil the kids,” she said, who are 10 and 12.
But this year?
“Would we think about getting more? I think that there’s a good case to be made for that this year for sure,” Pianesi said with a laugh.
Because, she said, they’re looking for ways to keep the kids sane, bring them some joy and get them away from screens.
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