A Toy Distributor

12/31/24 • 30 min

Forecasting demand for 40,000 different products, arranging for model kits to traverse the globe from Chinese factories to mom-and-pop hobby shops, and enduring random customs inspections with Alan Bass, a hobby kit and toy distributor. Why can't shops place orders directly with factories and cut out distributors? And what is it like to discover your childhood toys were actually samples given out for market research purposes?
The hobby kit and toy distributor business he runs is Stevens International. You can find his family’s brick-and-mortar hobby shop, AAA Hobbies and Crafts, in Magnolia, NJ, and an online store at MegaHobby.com.

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What It's Like To Be... - A Toy Distributor

Transcript

Dan Heath: Alan Bass is a toy distributor. He buys products directly from hobby kit and toy manufacturers. Plastic model kits, model train sets, model rockets that most of us shot off when we were kids. He sells them to brick-and-mortar hobby and toy stores in the US.
Alan Bass: The stores that we deal with are generally small. The smallest ones we deal with are about 1,000 square feet, which is about the size of a very small one-bedroom apartment. We're se