Stores Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 24)

COVER PEOPLE EXECUTIVE SUITE / RETAIL STORY Back in the Saddle Entrepreneur re-purposes classic kiddie rides Damon Carson President, Kiddie Rides USA Denver conic kiddie rides are making a comeback, thanks to entrepreneur Damon Carson. He found his latest venture, Kiddie Rides USA, while browsing online for distressed companies. He now heads the only stand-alone kiddie ride company left in United States. At present he warehouses more than 300 vintage rides – kid-sized ponies, cars and space capsules – ready to be restored and redeployed. I Carson wants to recast the classic kiddie ride as a billboard for savvy retailers and brands, and not solely a diversion for Junior. In just three years, he’s sold hundreds of rides to a range of retailers (and collectors) including a specialty toy store, a car dealership, a family fun center and a homebuilder that bought a customized horsy ride for its Western-themed development. His rides have also gone Hollywood. They can be seen in the remake of “Fun with Dick and Jane” and “Astronaut Farmer”; TV’s Comedy Central used a jet-ski ride in a commercial; and Carson and his crew also re-crafted a ride for ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Look for them as props in the background of catalog photo shoots – and, soon, in the windows of a certain high-end apparel retailer known for cheeky chic. Carson finds vintage rides at auction or through word of mouth, which can then be stripped to their bare Fiberglas and restored to customers’ specifications. He also has many original molds for making new rides. Finished products cost anywhere from $995 to $5,000. Do the rides still have universal appeal? Back in the ’50s, the business model was for the vendor and the retailer to split the profits from the quarters dropped in the coin box. That’s not really a profitable business model today, and [is] one of the reasons we sell directly to retailers who use them as loss leaders [a penny for a one-minute ride] to distract children so parents can shop. How did you/they make that determination? Often what dictates how long a customer spends in store is the child’s behavior. If mom has some ready thing — I hate to say bribe, but — to bribe the child with, like the promise of a ride, she can shop longer. Instead of being in the store 10 minutes she can stay, say, 17 minutes. A retailer could tell you over time what that’s going to translate to in sales. That’s why many retailers choose to make it a penny a ride. Again, what’s more valuable is not quarters in the machine, but the seven extra minutes in the store the ride bought. It’s not unlike tracking any other type of advertising. It gets people’s attention and it’s a little billboard that can be a branding opportunity when customized to a specific retailer or brand. Care to guess how many rides are out there? I get asked that a lot. It’s in the thousands, probably in the tens of thousands. I still find rides I’ve never seen before. I just got a picture of one shaped like a shoe. It just screams Nike, or a shoe store. Got a personal favorite? Kiddie rides haven’t changed in 50 years, and that’s part of their continuing appeal. When you get on the horse, you’re imagining riding through a pasture or when you’re on the fire truck [you imagine that you’re] heading toward the fire. What’s the history of kiddie rides? Probably horse rides from the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry days back in the 1950s. What kiddie ride is in your own home? They come out of the vending industry. They started appearing after World War II. Kiddie rides have been — for lack of a better term — a stepchild. For instance, we found a pool table manufacturer who made kiddie rides as a sideline. We also found vending folks making their own kiddie rides. 24 STORES / DECEMBER 2007 We have a little carousel. Only one? Well, they do take up a lot of room. StORES — Janet Groeber WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stores Magazine - December 2007

STORES - December 2007 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Holiday Shopping Extravagance What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Niche Marketing Eight Predictions for 2008 Concept2Watch Merchandising Strategy Sourcing E-Commerce Supply Chain Warehouse Management Software Contactless Payments Marketing Marketing Online Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

Stores Magazine - December 2007

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