Santa may have a workshop in Logan
If Santa had a special toy shop in Logan, it might be something like Magical Moon Toys.
One step inside and it isn’t hard to see why this shop attracts customers from distances far beyond the valley.
It is possible for customers to find themselves standing in one spot for 20 minutes as they take in the maze of puzzles, games and brain teasers or the display of marbles, shiny rocks, beads and musical instruments.
A rush of nostalgia can be felt walking though the store when spotting the shelves of Hello Kitty, wooden kitchen toys and a large selection of Playmobile toys.
“We’re a specialty store, so we try and bring in the stuff that no one else has or that is hard to find,” said employee Hilary Anderson, a senior majoring in Family Consumer and Human Development.
Steve Shelton, owner of Magical Moon Toys, has taken his ardent love of toys and made his dream of owning a toy store a reality.
“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Shelton said. “When I got my degree in marketing, all my plans and analysis were always done on Toys ‘R’ Us, Noodle Kadoodle, FAO Schwarz and those types of things.”
After graduating from Utah State, Shelton went on to work in commercial printing. He said he moved to Seattle for a while but returned to Utah with the plan to buy Magical Moon Toys sitting in the back of his mind. When the former owners were looking to sell, Shelton said he was there with open arms.
“I loved the old store – it had this really cool ambiance,” Shelton said.
After buying the store in June 2003, Shelton said he quickly realized that it did not have the space needed to allow the hands-on toy experience he wanted.
Within a few months, he relocated the store to its present location at 1451 N. 200 East in Logan, just south of Wal-Mart.
Since the move, Shelton said the inventory has increased drastically – from 2,000 active items to 10,000.
“I have this big problem. I look at things and I think, ‘That is really cool, we’ve got to have this.’ And I buy it,” Shelton said.
Floor space seems to be one of Shelton’s greatest challenges as he progresses toward the future he envisions for his store.
“I wish I had the money, I wish I had the space, I wish I had everything I could do to have it the way I see it in the deep, dark recesses of my mind,” he said. “We’re about one-fifth of the way to my business plan.”
Shelton said his plans include more room for interactive displays to fill his store. While these plans motivate him, he also said they also keep him up all night.
As his business has grown, Shelton said he finds the demands of the store taking him away from what he loves most, getting to know customers. But he said his plans for the store motivate him to reach his goals.
“There’s all the business stuff, and once you get through all the bills and all the headache of business management, why not do something you enjoy? I really enjoy toys. I love to collect toys and I love playing games,” Shelton said. “It’s something that I hope will never grow out of me.”
Anderson said she enjoys working in a toy store with all the bright colors and things to do. She said she enjoys seeing the new games and toys that come out. Often times, she said she can’t pass up buying a few items for herself.
“I struggle with keeping a paycheck,” Anderson said. “I work and then I don’t get to bring much home. I always tell people it’s a good thing I don’t have kids yet, or that’s where it would all go.”
Anderson said college students are no strangers to the store.
“They’re the ones that will come in and play with the toys,” Anderson said. “They’ll come and try on all the crazy hats we have back there. You’ll see them playing as much as the kids are playing.”
Customer Lori Arnold, a Logan resident, takes her kids to Magical Moon Toys after they visit the dentist. She likes it because the selection is not “run-of-the-mill” toys.
“It’s all good,” Arnold said. “The quality of the toys is better than anywhere else.”
Not only can people find creative and unique gifts and toys in Magical Moon Toys, customers are guaranteed a product that will last, Anderson said.
“We don’t have that plastic stuff that will break a week after you buy it,” Anderson said. “Everything here is good quality-wise.”
Out of the 10,000 items Shelton carries, he said he can give an unconditional lifetime guarantee in writing for half of them, while the other half is of such high quality that Shelton will guarantee it himself.
Shelton said he wants to show kids that they can use their fingers and thumbs to do more than just play video games. He also said he wants people not to be scared off because they think it is expensive.
“We have nearly 10,000 items in this store and about 7,000 items are $15 or less,” he said. “It surprises customers that they can go through the store and find that the majority of things are $10 or less.”
Anderson said customers don’t have to spend their time trying to figure out what a game is like by staring at the cover for 20 minutes. Magical Moon employees are trained to know about the games, the company that makes them and they most likely have played it, she said.
“Distributors will send demos so that we, as employees, can try them out, so that we can say ‘I’ve played this’ and this is what I thought,” Anderson said.
“You can come in with your kids. We have things that are open on the floor that they can play with,” she said. “So you can look around while your kids are playing and that gives you a little time to yourself. You also get to see what your kids play with.”
-ashleykarras@cc.usu.edu
Magical Moon Toys has over 10,000 items in inventory, and owner SteveShelton said he can give an unconditional lifetime guarantee in writing for half of it.