Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
December 13, 2007 issue
The Incredible Toy Company, Inc.
—High Quality Toys Promoting Imagination, Creativity
and Fun for 15 Years
Story by Sam Calhoun
Kathleen Rowell is the proud parent of three men.
One of them is an aerospace engineer, one is a sailor and business major in college, and one is an actor studying at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
That is, of course, where the men are today—15 years ago, those men were boys and had toys on the brain as opposed to working on airplanes, sailing across the ocean and treading the boards.
But 15 years ago was before the Internet had fully entered all of our lives and questions still existed such as, “Where can I find quality toys?”
Rowell asked that question too many times in 1993, and she was sick of going out of her way to answer it.
“If you wanted quality toys back then, you had to order them through a magazine or go off the mountain,” said Rowell. “There was nowhere you could go.”
So Rowell changed all that. In 1993, Rowell left a job at the Mast General Store after 11 years and started The Incredible Toy Company, Inc.
“I wanted to try and bring quality toys up here,” said Rowell.
Rowell was born in New York, but grew up in Asheville. She attended North Carolina State University where she met her husband, John. After graduating in 1980 with a degree in floriculture, Rowell and her husband moved to the High Country because it was a good median between Bristol, Va.—where John’s parents lived—and Asheville—where Rowell’s parents lived. Also, the two often camped in the region during college. The couple’s children are now 23, 21 and 18 years old. Rowell’s children probably wish they were still young, just so they could play in their mother’s store.
Everywhere you look, The Incredible Toy Company is stacked with dolls, science experiment games, jigsaw puzzles, board games, Playmobil toy sets, Brio train sets, Thomas the Tank Engine products, infant toys, dollhouses, sleds, wooden toys, remote-control cars and music and art supplies.
“It’s a toy store,” said Rowell, “but we go for very high-quality toys, not the cheap plastic stuff.”
Rowell’s most popular toys include Playmobil toy sets, wooden toys by Melissa and Doug and Thomas the Tank Engine products. As a testament to the high-quality merchandise found at The Incredible Toy Company, Rowell’s inventory survived all but one of the recalls that are making headlines across the nation. One of the red Thomas the Tank Engine toys was recalled because “it might have lead paint,” said Rowell. She took the toy off the shelf and has not had a problem since.
“Games is where we shine,” said Rowell. “We carry a lot of unique games. You’re not going to find a regular Monopoly or regular Scrabble here—we try to stay a step ahead.”
Rowell stays a step ahead by attending the annual International Toy Fair in New York City every February. She takes ideas from the fair and then brings them to Boone, helping High Country parents stay a step ahead of the game as well.
“[Going to the fair] is really fun,” said Rowell. “I get to see how something that is really weird is so popular.”
An example is the Bilibo—a popular Christmas gift this year—that Rowell and her employees call “Better Than a Box.” An unassuming children’s seat, the Bilibo is as much fun as a child’s imagination will allow and costs $27.99 at The Incredible Toy Company. The product—best described as half an eggshell painted in bright colors—can be a seat, a mask, a toy train tunnel, a spinning seat, a sandbox or whatever children come up with.
In the winter, Rowell sees mostly local people at her store. In the summer, she estimates that 80 percent of her business is from tourists. As an interesting phenomenon, in the weeks following Christmas, Rowell estimates that 85 percent of her customers are people from Venezuela, Costa Rica and Brazil. She was stumped until she asked one of the Spanish-speaking customers. It turns out that many South Americans fly to Charlotte after Christmas to go skiing—for one-third the price of traveling to Colorado—and shop for the Three Kings Day holiday.
Rowell prides herself and her employees on listening to what customers want and then making it happen. Rowell often will learn of a new toy from a customer and then order it that day. Rowell trusts her customers’ wants and needs and works to meet them.
Also, Rowell tries to keep the atmosphere upbeat in her store. You won’t see any “No Parking” or “No Smoking” signs at her store, and Rowell and her employees do their best “to keep everything in the positive,” she said.
Now, around the holidays, The Incredible Toy Company is a busy place and Rowell does her best to make shopping easier for parents. Free gift-wrapping on one item is available to every customer, and the 12 Days of Christmas Sale begins Thursday, December 13. Aside from reminding everyone just how close Christmas really is, the 12 Days of Christmas Sale puts a new toy on discount for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. All the toys featured in the sale are in stock. Rowell stocks enough so the toys won’t be gone when customers arrive.
With almost 15 years under her belt at The Incredible Toy Company, Rowell isn’t thinking of hanging up her hat anytime soon.
“My hair is almost gray, but it will be all gray and up in a bun before I leave,” she said. “There’s no stress in this job. People don’t know how much fun we have here—we laugh every day. I have great employees. I wouldn’t do anything else.”
The Incredible Toy Company, Inc. is located at 3411 Highway 321 between Boone and Blowing Rock. The store is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. After Christmas, the store is closed on Sundays. For more information, call 828-264-1422 or click to www.incredibletoycompany.com.