This Saturday is Neighborhood Toy Store Day, an opportunity to support your local toy and game retailer before the peak of holiday shopping pressure. Organized by the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, Neighborhood Toy Store Day also has participating shops running family-friendly activities and offering in-store specials.

Take the opportunity to support a small business in your community.

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ASTRA, the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association’s Marketplace & Academy, is an annual show focused on the needs of small, independent, local toy and game stores. This year’s event was earlier this week (June 25-28) in Philadelphia.

The marketplace aspect of ASTRA refers to an exhibit hall with approximately 500 exhibitors (a significant increase since the last time I attended in 2012). Among them I found on display a number of new products, which I will share with you over the coming few days.

ASTRA’s academy aspect features a range of professional development workshops for retailers, including lessons on predicting trends, managing employees, marketing to local communities, negotiating with sales reps, and much more.

Overall, the event feels like a smaller, somewhat more relaxed version of Toy Fair with a larger educational component—a good fit for the independent retailers, as well as the manufacturers and publishers looking for business in that market.

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A program of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association offers certification as a Play Expert. Training and testing for the certification is available online ($600) and in-person ($800) and consists of modules on child development, types of play, play advocacy, and more.

Certification as a Play Expert is open to all but ASTRA also has a program just for retailers, Certified Master Retailer, and is planning to launch soon programs for Certified Toy Manufacturer and Certified Toy Sales Representative.

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