Makers & Sellers

Do you remember the last time you purchased a toy? Where did you buy it? How did it get there? Where was it made? Who made it? Your answers to these questions are no doubt quite different than they would have been for a 19th-century (1800s) Ohioan.

The Beginning of the Toy Business
People made toys at home before they began writing history. In Europe, toy making as a business began as early as 500 AD. Factories as we know them did not exist at that time. Instead, skilled craftsmen such as wood carvers devoted some of their time to making toys.

Gradually, factories replaced individual craftsmen as the main toy suppliers. The laborers continued to work by hand, but large numbers of them gathered in one place to make toys.

The rise of factories led to a huge toy industry in Europe. It all began in Germany, which would be recognized as the toy capital of the world by the 19th century. As late as 1914, one half of all of the toys sold in the United States were made in Germany.

American Toy Makers
American merchants imported many foreign toys during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but the United States also had a large toy industry of its own. But after the Civil War (1865), large-scale toy manufacturing took root in the United States.

Throughout the 19th century, America's population grew, more leisure time became available, and beliefs about play changed. These factors prompted a rise in the demand for toys, and American companies responded to that demand. By 1900, millions of toys were being made each year in the United States.

However, the real boom for the American toy industry came with World War I. Imports from Germany, including toys, were cut off. American manufacturers stepped in to fill the void and the import toy business never recovered. The Toy Industry Association estimates that the proportion of foreign toys sold in the United States declined from 50 percent in 1914 to about 5 percent by 1939. Today, Americans spend over $30 billion on toys each year. Even with the rise of Asian imports, more than half of those dollars are spent on American-made toys.

The Selling of Toys
The way toys are sold has changed a lot in the past 200 years. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, takers [can you explain this term?] sold most of their items to middlemen or agents who, in turn, distributed them to retailers.

During the first quarter of the 19th century, some toy agents printed catalogs with pictures that they gave to toy sellers. About 1850, a few toy makers began printing merchandise catalogs displaying their own wares. This enabled them to contact toy sellers directly. By eliminating the agents, manufacturers increased their profits without increasing the cost of toys. As time passed, more and more toy makers adopted this method. Today it is the common practice.

Prior to the 1870s, the two major types of toy sellers were stores that specialized in toys and other businesses that sold toys as a sideline. During the 1870s, two events occurred that dramatically changed the way Americans buy toys.

In 1872, Montgomery Ward's mail order house was founded in Chicago. By 1877, Ward's mail-order catalog offered a full page of toys that could be bought through the mail. Sears, Roebuck and Company followed suit in 1890. The mail-order method quickly caught on and it continues to be a highly profitable way to sell toys in the United States.

In 1875, Macy's of New York established its first permanent toy department. Prior to that time, department stores commonly featured toy displays only during the Christmas season. Macy's success encouraged other department stores to set up permanent toy departments. Today, department stores and discount department stores are the biggest retail sellers of toys in the U.S.A.

Your Next Toy
Most likely, you will buy your next toy from the toy department of a discount store or from a national toy store. The store buyer probably will have purchased the toy directly from a manufacturer. Also, the chances are great that the toy will have been made in America.

The toy you buy will be the end product of what has grown to be a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. According to the Toy Industry Association, American toy makers now sell nearly $20 billion worth of toys in the United States and over $900 billion worth of toys overseas each year. The American toy industry has risen from its meager beginnings in the 19th century to a commercial giant throughout the world.