Children’s toy rental is a trend that is not very popular at the moment, but may become more and more popular in the future. How many parents have ever thought of renting toys? Well at least one parent did, therefore we have sites like BabyPlays, BrickRental, Rent-A-Toy, ToyBox, etc.
BabyPlays is a website where parents can choose from over 200 different toys for children up to 5 years old. The company stocks up to 30 models of each toy.
Subscribers to this service generate an online list and have a box of toys delivered to their home. When they are done with the current set of toys, they return the toys and wait for the next shipment. This process is similar to the system used by the very popular Netflix DVD rental service. BabyPlays currently offers four plans with prices ranging from $ 34.99 to $ 64.99 per month. These plans require a three-month commitment and include four to 10 toys per month.
Parents understandably want their children to experience a variety of educational toys, as well as toys just for fun. BabyPlays also understands that there is no need to invest money in a variety of toys that your child will grow up or get bored with in a short period of time. This makes toy rental a good alternative for many parents.
This idea of renting toys is good for parents who feel like they are wasting money buying toys that don’t need to be kept. They may also feel like they don’t want to clutter up their home with things they don’t need. However, this show is certainly not intended to replace the classic toys that kids will want to keep forever. Instead, it provides an opportunity for a continuous stream of stimulating toys that children will want to play with.
BrickRental offers Lego toys for rent. They have two schemes, one that allows the rental of six toys and the other of 12 toys in a year. They ship and collect toys using USPS for free.
At a time, they send only one toy. You can keep the toy as long as you want. (Of course, knowing how the children are doing, you can be sure that the games will not stay in your home for long.) However, they will not ship the next toy until you return the first one.
Rent-a-toy is another popular site. The best part about this site is that they allow you to carry up to 8 toys at a time! And just like other sites, you can keep the toys for as long as you like. Another nice feature is that you can even buy the toy if your child never wants to part with the toy, a kind of “try before you buy”.
One issue that has come up is cleanliness. How clean are the toys? As parents, you will definitely be concerned about the germs and diseases that could be transmitted through these toys. However, most of these companies claim that their toys are cleaned with a sanitary product that is used in some hospitals and day care centers. After cleaning, the toys are wrapped in plastic to keep them clean during storage and shipping.
So the question is: Are the major toy retailers concerned about this new company that is catching on and on the rise? Until now, major retailers such as KB toys and Toy’s R US have not seemed fazed by this new trend. Even if it gains a slightly larger consumer base, the toy industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, so major toy retailers probably won’t be affected by this new trend.