Home > The M.O. > Archives > 2008 > March > 26 > Entry
Your A-List: Best Toy Store
With 44 percent of the vote, the winner of the Your A-List poll for Best Toy Store is Kid Genius. With locations on Bee Cave Road and South Congress Avenue, the stores have anything a kid or kid at heart would want to keep himself or herself occupied for hour after pleasurable hour.
Kid Genius, owned by Jill Scott, originally opened in 1996 at the Bee Cave location and expanded to the 1700 block of South Congress in 2004. The Congress store moved up the block in July of last year to its current location at 1400 S. Congress Ave., in between By George and Mars Restaurant. In addition to its two locations, KidGenius.com, which got up and running two years ago, functions as the online arm of the business and is the fastest growing area of the company’s business.
I asked Richard Scott, Jill’s husband and the official “Stock Boy” for the business, about what led them to the toy business.
“We have always been involved with retail and have owned over 13 retail stores over the last 20 years,” Scott said. “KidGenius is definitely the most enjoyable type of store we have owned. It’s just a very fun environment. Parents love to pick out toys for their kids and we encourage the kids to play while they are in the store. We also have 3 kids ages 14, 12 and 8 and they have been more than happy to test our new lines.”
Check out the video link below (or click here) to see shots of the South Congress store and some footage of me enjoying one of the store’s top-selling items.
Others receiving votes
- Toy Joy, 29 percent
- Terra Toys, 17 percent
- Great Hall Games, 3 percent
- Whole Earth Provision Company, 3 percent
- Monkey See Monkey Do, 2 percent
- Atomic City, 2 percent
- BookPeople, < 1 percent
- Anna’s Toy Depot, < 1 percent
- Kerbey Lane Doll Shoppe, < 1 percent
Write-ins: Over the Rainbow, Kaleidoscope Toys in Round Rock, Hog Wild, Wonko’s Toys and Games
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.