When you were a kid, you may have dreamt of being an entrepreneur.
As a child, the perks of this career path probably seemed endless.
Related: Amazon Prime gets bad news amid alarming customer issue
You get to be your own boss. You can make your own hours.
You can even enter into a field of your choosing, rather than having to work under somebody else in a line of work that may have no real impact on you.
Maybe you thought about opening up your own ice cream shop or toy store. Or maybe you just wanted to walk dogs for a living.
As you got older, however, these dreams may have been quickly dashed.
You probably realized an ice cream shop requires a lot of cash up front.
The ongoing costs of running a restaurant are sky-high. Labor is hard to come by. And people just don’t enjoy sweetened dairy the way they used to.
And dog walking or pet sitting probably doesn’t pay the bills — at least if you have plans to send your children to college and take them on vacation once or twice a year.
Hamleys is closing nearly 30 toy stores.
Image source: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Brick-and-mortar stores are hard business
You probably also quickly realized that toy stores aren’t the best kind of business to get into.
It only takes looking at the anecdotal evidence from past toy stores to realize that, while they had their run, many have since fallen on hard times.
More Retail:
- Lowe’s launches massive early answer to Amazon Prime Day
- Target has new plan to win back customers with big savings
- Home Depot makes clear statement amid boycott threats
- Famous retail chain makes two more alarming store closures
Toys R Us, for example, was a high-flying brick-and-mortar toy store during the retail boom days in the 1990s.
When Amazon and other cheap online alternatives burst onto the scene, however, busy parents opted instead for the path of least resistance.
It was far easier to shop for a wide selection of toys online than it was to traipse into a store for an hour or two at a time. Particularly if you had a busy toddler or two with you.
Another toy store closes down locations
And now, a historic toy store over 250 years old is closing down some of its stores.
Hamleys, a UK-based toy store founded in London in 1760, is closing down 29 stores across the country.
It still has about 100 locations internationally; however, the domestic closures represent a loss to its store fleet. It now has just 11 stores in the UK.
Related: Famous retailer closing 20 percent of stores amid alarming trend
The closures will also see about 34 jobs lost.
Despite the closures, Hamleys’ profits have been on something of an upswing.
In fiscal year 2024, profits were up £53.3million compared to £51.4million the year prior.
It has also opened over 20 stores in financially promising regions, and a company spokesperson said the brand is “cautiously optimistic on business growth” for the year ahead.