A new specialty toy store opened Saturday in east Owensboro. Santa’s Toys — which also has a location in Santa Claus, Ind., — will be open year-round and offer high-quality products for children of all ages.
The Owensboro store is located at 2928 Heartland Crossing Blvd., in front of Meijer. The store will be open throughout the year.
Hours through November are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 12-4 p.m. Sunday. For the month of December, Santa’s Toys will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Curbside pickup or private shopping times — before or after regular business hours — are available.
The store had a soft opening Saturday. While many of the shelves are stocked, owner Mark Schmidt said in the coming weeks they’ll pack the building from floor to ceiling.
“We don’t even have all of our orders yet,” he said. “We’ve still got truckloads coming. It’s going to be packed to the ceiling. We’re just step-by-step tweaking and adding.”
Schmidt said Santa’s Toys is somewhat unique for the area in offering specialty toys. That means they don’t have licensing such as Disney or Marvel. Schmidt said that ensures children won’t grow tired of a specific toy — like a certain superhero or princess — and ask for something new after just a few weeks or months.
Specialty toys are also typically higher quality.
“The quality of a specialty toy is better because there’s more money put into the toy,” Schmidt said. “It’s not mass-marketed. They don’t have to pay a middle man.”
Schmidt said he and his wife opened the Santa Claus location about 4.5 years ago, and they simply couldn’t keep adding to that store.
Owensboro was always the top destination for a second store. Though the pandemic delayed some plans, Schmidt was excited when he found out the space was still available when he was ready to branch out.
“The traffic out here is great,” he said. “The whole town has been great with us. We had a lot of support coming in, a lot of people helping and being kind.”
Schmidt said they’ll adjust the inventory moving forward based on what customers want. For now though, he’s wanting to fill the store to make sure plenty of gifts are available throughout the season.
“We put a bunch of really big orders in to make sure we have enough for both stores to get us through Christmas,” he said. “We don’t want to run out. I want to make sure the kids have toys. If we have too much we’ll have it for next year, so it’s a win-win.”
