RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Customers are already opening their wallets and doing their 2022 holiday shopping. But the owner of one Richmond store thinks inflation is one of the reasons people may spend less on gifts this year.
Cody Jones is the owner of Toy Lair, a Richmond store that buys and sells used toys. Jones said inflation has caused him to pay more for his wholesale goods, and as a result, increase the retail prices of his toys. He said that many people who come into his shop think his toys are overpriced, and may walk out and not buy anything.
“The rates of wholesale have increased pretty much on every item that I’ve purchased, I would say by 20% to 30%,” Jones said. “It’s pretty rough because people see the increase in prices and it really turns them off.”
To compete with online companies like eBay, Jones will price match his used items. But with new items, he sometimes charges more money than retailers like Target and Walmart.
“Sometimes new items are more expensive than what you would find at Walmart or Target solely because the more you order, the cheaper rates you get,” Jones said. “Plus, they order 500,000 units of an item, they get an incredibly good rate.”
Based on how business has been so far, Jones does not know how well his shop will do this holiday season.
“I don’t feel super good about going into December and increasing sales from last year,” Jones said. “Going back to a year ago, I think that it was a little bit steadier with numbers and you could kind of predict when people were gonna come in. It seems like this year, it’s not the same.”
