Baby Gift Toy

Lenox toy store reaches 30 years

LENOX

Enter The Gifted Child, one of the town's longest-surviving retailers under one owner, and you've found a time capsule. Brimming with a cornucopia resembling child's Garden of Eden, it looks much the same as when it first opened on Church Street 30 years ago across the street from its current site.

That's just the way owner Randy Austin wants it, although she has made a few concessions to changing times. A native of Fall River and a former New Yorker, she set her cap for the Berkshires because she loved skiing at Catamount in South Egremont.

After taking a course at The New School for Social Research on how to open a small business and having earned a master's in social work from Columbia University, Austin was drawn to toy retailing as the mother of young children.

"I opened a pushcart in West Stockbridge on Memorial Day weekend, 1981," she recalled. After operating briefly in a storefront there, she relocated to Lenox and, after renting two shops with an original $2,000 investment, Austin purchased the 72 Church St. building in 1986.

She was among the pioneers of the burgeoning downtown shopping district. "We were dumb kids who didn't know any better," she quipped, "but we learned from experience."

She opened a spinoff Gifted Child store in Great Barrington about 16 years ago because of the town's economic rejuvenation fueled by the Triplex Cinema.

Unlike some Lenox business owners, Austin makes it a point to remain open year-round to service regular customers who patronize the shop for birthday parties and baby gifts -- "those don't stop for the winter."

Austin acknowledged that the addition of discounted specialty toys at Walmart and other big-box chains impacted her business. "But a specialty store is still very important," she maintained, "because a customer can walk into Walmart and be overwhelmed by five aisles of toys. We can guide a customer to just the right spot."

Internet sales have also taken their toll, so Austin's web presence is expanding.

The cozy Lenox location remains her first love -- "it's always going to be better, it's my baby, and there's more business in Lenox on a yearly basis than in Great Barrington, I find."

Her Lenox customer base splits 50 percent local, 25 percent tourists and 25 percent second-homers, Austin noted.

"The local people are the ones who make me stay in business," she said.

Sassy Baby's First Toy 6 Piece Gift Set | The Fuzzy Pig - Product ...

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

Great at first, July 11, 2009

By Katie O’Brien (NW IN, United States) –

This review is from: Sassy Baby’s First Toy 6 Piece Gift Set (Baby Product)

I have owned this set for about 6 months when today my 11 month old son was chewing on the coolin droolin teether in the set and it was leaking the fliud in his mouth! This is supposed to be made to be chewed on! I’m not sure how toxic the water in it is, but its still shouldn’t leak. No matter what is in there I don’t want my son drinking it! I have contacted Sassy so hopefully they will do something about it! Very dissappointed! *Update: I contacted Sassy, and after apologizing, they assured me that it was only distilled water inside and that they don’t use anything harmful in their products. They replaced it free of charge. I am happy with the way they handled it, but I wish it would’ve never happend. It wasn’t worth the worry, and trouble. Unfortunately I cannnot change my star rating but it would only go up to 2 stars.

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This review is from: Sassy Baby’s First Toy 6 Piece Gift Set (Baby Product)

I bought two of these sets for Christmas for my two grandsons, now ages 5 months and 10 months. Today I noticed my ten month old had little bits of plastic in his mouth. Confounded as to what he had gotten into, I looked at his toys. He had been chewing on the heart-shaped teether. On both of the two large balls at the top of the heart shape, the yellow and orange plastic pieces had been chewed off and easily peeled off when I examined them. This product needs a recall!!!

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