Achieving Success Through Play
By AMY GEISZLER-JONES | Photos by FERNANDO SALAZAR
Gwen Ottenberg is an expert at playing — and she has the certificate to prove it.
She transformed her love of creativity, imagination and play into her success as a local independent toy store owner. That’s something she backs up with a certificate, too.
Ottenberg earned both her Certified Play Expert (CPE) and Certified Master Retailer (CMR) certifications from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA), the major trade association for independent toy stores, vendors and manufacturers. As part of the CPE certification, participants learn about the many aspects of child development and working with children.
She’s also a past winner of ASTRA’s Retailer of the Year award. Today, she sits on the association’s Excellence Committee, helping select recipients of the same award.
FILLING A VOID
Ottenberg opened Imagine That Toys, which is located in the Comotara Retail Center at 29th and Rock Road in East Wichita, in 2007.
“I’ve always been in the kid world,” Ottenberg said, describing the time she spent working for both an amusement park and a family fun center when she was still in her home state of Pennsylvania.
She and her husband, Albert, moved to Wichita in 2005 for his aviation career. Ottenberg spent the first few years as the manager of the Explore Store at Wichita’s Exploration Place science center.
“When I was there, I would constantly hear, ‘Why doesn’t Wichita have a great toy store?’” Ottenberg recalled. “It took me a few years to convince myself that we could do it. So here we are — we have a toy store.”
Ottenberg, who earned a degree in communication with a minor in business from the University of Pittsburgh, was very deliberate when choosing the location of her store. Knowing that women tend to be the decisionmakers when buying toys for their children, she set up shop near other businesses that cater to women, such as the Beau Monde Spa and Boutique, Mike Seltzer Jewelers and The First Place gift, jewelry and home decor store.
Although Wichita did have two Toys “R” Us locations before the retailer went out of business in 2018, Ottenberg had the advantage. She hired and trained her staff to understand the products they were selling so that they could make the best possible recommendations to their customers.
RIGHT TOY. RIGHT TIME.
“We’re clear on what we do,” said Ottenberg. “My job is to put the right toy in the right hands at the right time. And people want that expertise. They want the best thing for their child at the time when they need it, whether that’s a game or they want to have the right birthday party present. That’s not something big box stores can offer.
“I’ve played with every toy in here. I know how it works. I know how to play the game. I’ve done the science kits. Plus, I buy stuff that’s quality and that’s going to last through the child. I want to have items that kids interact with and not things that just perform for the child.
”Imagine That Toys has 5,000 square feet of selling space. Working with about 1,000 vendors, Ottenberg has as many as 60,000 items in her store’s inventory. These range from plush animals and baby dolls to nostalgic items like lava lamps and kaleidoscopes. She also sells books, science kits and Lego sets. The one thing you won’t find in the store is electronics.
Several years ago, Ottenberg — who is an only child, as well as the parent of the only grandchild in the family — convinced her parents to move to Wichita from Pennsylvania. Her mom is now one of her seven employees, most of whom are full time.
PLUSH, FIDGETS & LEGOS
So, what are shoppers buying most often these days?
“A lot of plush. Kids still want to be loved and hugged and want the plush. We’re seeing a ton of fidgets and things to keep their hands busy. I can’t believe we’re still selling massive amounts of fidget toys, but kids need that decompression. Lego is going to have an incredible year, but Lego has had incredible years in the past. We just got to preview the 2024 new items for Lego and they’ve got amazing things coming out,” said Ottenberg, who attended the Toy Fair convention in New York City this past September.
However, the nondisclosure agreement she signed prevents her from sharing any insights about Lego’s new items.
It’s clear that Lego bricks are among Imagine That Toys’ most popular items. The store has a wall that is stocked from floor to ceiling with boxes of Lego toy sets for every age group.
For the past decade, Imagine That Toys has earned the distinction of being a Lego Gold Standard store. This is an exclusive recognition that The Lego Group grants to only a select group of independent retailers. For customers, shopping at a Lego Gold Standard store means they gain access to certain Lego sets before their official release date. It also means they can trust that they’re buying authentic Lego sets.
Many of Ottenberg’s Lego customers are adults. Even before the pandemic, the Danish toy company was already targeting the adult demographic by marketing their building brick sets as a way to destress. A January 2020 article in The Washington Post noted that Lego had not only revamped instruction booklets, but also created new kits meant to provide a “joyful, creative challenge.” These include Lego’s botanical collection, in which builders can use Lego bricks to create impressive displays of succulents and flowers.
Items like Lego bricks, puzzles and board games became hot sellers during the pandemic because people were seeking ways to alleviate stress and boredom. This helped Imagine That Toys stay in business.
“People found their love of play again,” Ottenberg said.
SUCCEEDING BY ADAPTING
As a United States Postal Service collection site, Imagine That Toys remained open throughout the pandemic. They increased their marketing for their concierge, online shopping and local pickup services, which they had always offered but had become more necessary due to social distancing.
Ottenberg and her staff created window displays where customers could simply approach the window and point to the item they wanted to buy.
The ability to adapt is not out of character for someone who makes a living by working in “the land of children,” as Ottenberg calls it.
“If you’ve ever talked to a three-year-old, you can be discussing dinosaurs and then aliens, or even at the same time and you just roll with it,” Ottenberg said.
Learning to “roll with it” is what also helped Ottenberg and her husband face an early challenge in their lives. When they were both 17, her husband, Albert, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“Because we were so young, he said, ‘We can get through this. We need to live for the moment.’ So, that’s very much how we’ve lived our lives because you may not have tomorrow. That’s what gave me the guts to start the store,” Ottenberg said.
Knowing that life can be challenging is also why she enjoys helping people celebrate life through play and imagination.
“Not a lot of businesses can say they show up for all the important events, like your birthday, Christmas, when you pooped in the potty and when you slept in your own bed. There’s nothing too big or too small that can’t be celebrated.”
