The Toymaker of Williamsburg, between Danforth Pewter and Christmas Shop in Merchants Square, is closing its brick-and-mortar store in January but will remain open online with a streamlined inventory.
Sarah Gunn, the owner of Toymaker, said the poor economy has forced the decision to close the store after 48 years in Merchants Square. The business carries toy soldiers, rag dolls, wooden boats and colonial-themed toys and collectibles.
Her business, like many others, started struggling about the time the Great Recession hit and, she said.
“There’s not a lot you can do when you haven’t gotten a lot of business,” Gunn said.
Nine of her 10 employees will no longer have jobs at Toymaker when she switches to an online model.
“It’s not a very merry Christmas for them,” Gunn said. “These are good people that aren’t going to have a job anymore. I’d love to figure out how to help them.”
Though Gunn said she is sad the store is closing and her employees are out of their jobs, the decision came with relief. She said she will now have less responsibility and it’s a “new opportunity” to slim down her inventory to costumer favorites.
Tory Gussman, director of property and planning management at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which owns the building, said a new business had “not yet been identified” to fill the space. Gussman said the foundation “expects to be talking to prospective clients in the coming weeks.”
Gunn’s father bought the business in 1962 in a building that used to exist in the green space in front of Governor’s Inn. Three years later, CWF asked him to open his store in the location on Duke of Gloucester Street.
Sarah Gunn always worked at the business but didn’t start full time until 1978 when she moved to Williamsburg from Richmond, where she was working as a banker. In the early 1990s, Gunn took full ownership of Toymaker.
While she said the online model for Toymaker is still being worked out, Gunn plans on creating a way for customers to still pick up their orders if they choose. Her new and more selective inventory will still include store favorites like toy soldiers and rocking wooden boats. The phone number for the store will remain the same.
Gunn is aiming to close the doors by the middle of January and must have the building vacated by the end of the January.
