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Q: Is this place running out of joy ?
Hi all my internet friends. Specially those of you with kids, you may have noticed same thing as me.
There was plenty of shops, plenty of shelves in the toy sections of supermarkets or in shopping centres.
But the trend is, that the shops stuffed with cast car toys and Lego boxes are simply closed down and replaced with some "branded" cloth. for women. those shelves in toy section reduced dramatically from 4 long into 2 short, with obvious few remote controlled cars and other common stuff, everywhere same. Some places adopted more different kind of toys into one store, but in general, there really is trend of reducing the toys variability and availability. at Least here in Shanghai, at not in the center, but also not on the suburb. Lot of new shopping centers pop up every where, but the only things for kids is : "art classes, and every kind of preschool training and weekend money spending parent show off activities"
What is wrong here ? Are the kids really not allowed to play and rather study hard to get good marks, attend good uni and get a good job in future ? ( in my opinion - really not every one can be millionaire, that would be very utopian state of earth ).
What is going on here ?
It is really hard to buy toys for kids, and it drove me mad last days, as i tried to get gifts for more kids in our circles, but not all of them play with same stuff and simply then is not easy to find and have to travel all around shanghai and that is energy draining and lost all of the joy ...
kids are taight early about bragging and jealousy. toys have to look fancy, expensive, and be brand name. those are ordered off taobao or perhaps imported.
for a shop, stocking up on costly inventory is a big risk when the target demographic cannot be arrested on shoplifting charges.
It is the new gubbermint anti-terrorism measures coming into force. Lego can be used to construct a firearm or a bomb. Die cast toy cars can cause severe injury when thrown from the upper tiers of shopping malls.
And besides, having too many toys in the office distracts officials from important daily tasks such as lunchtime banquets and afternoon sleeping.
As one Beijing spokesman pointed out, toys are damaging the national stability and safety of the citizens. They must be controlled at all costs.
Shining_brow:
"DIE cast toys" - says it all, doesn't it???
Lego... le' go.... let go.... Let us go... ie, independence!!!
I'm surprised those shops haven't been closed down and the owners made to disappear somewhere with all the terrorist gear they're housing!
In order to run out of something, there had to be a supply of it to begin with, so no.
In in a country where children spend over 12 hours a day at school, allowing a child time and things to play with is "a waste of time."
Nessquick:
That's right, no joy before no joy after 
So obviously I am wrong here, while we play as much as we can instead of sending him to classes to be prepared for school time, not paying hongbaos to teachers so we can get " special attention " ( means just not complaining from teacher, nothing else ).
Oh dear, now I know , I do everything wrong here :-)
Toys will only stimulate the imagination at a time when children should be dedicating their childhood to rote learning and suppressing the imagination in order to fulfill the Chinese dream.
Nessquick:
Yeah, the chinese dream ....
when I think about it deeper, the kids have to play together, with their toys, but given that the families have usually just on baby and visiting with neighbours each other is such a hard job, with long working hours, long school hours and "training classes".. really no time to play, no time to develop.
that's the chinese dream - all millionaires trough hard study and getting best paying jobs. hmm, what they will create in order to make money ? selling houses to other millionaires who made money by selling houses to other millionaires ? sounds perfect. 
Actually this isnt about the Chinese ways at all. Its a supply and demand thing. As kids nowadays are drifting towards electronic games ( PC, PS, Xbox, Ipad etc...) the demand of such old fashioned regular toys is diminishing. So if you are selling 2-3 toys per day and have 2 long shelves for them, you will surely cut back as its a waste of space. This trend is not only in shanghai, its all over the world.
Nessquick:
yeah, the thing with electronic toys i have not taken into account, thanks for it.
for sure is a big part of this "problem". 
Don't forget that the consumer market is based around the mistress market. That is why most of the shops are for designer clothes and expensive jewelry. Unless you are Gary Glitter giving your love interest a children's toy isn't gonna get you far.
Thats because eye doctors are making money off all those kids playing with iPads rather than toys. hint hint
kids are taight early about bragging and jealousy. toys have to look fancy, expensive, and be brand name. those are ordered off taobao or perhaps imported.
for a shop, stocking up on costly inventory is a big risk when the target demographic cannot be arrested on shoplifting charges.
Actually Zhuhai has gotten 2 Toys'r'us' in the last year. Not saying this is the answer to solve all problems, but at least it is real toy stores and not just 4 shelves in a supermarket
