About Us

OUR STORY: In 2008, right after my wife and I got married, my parents bought The Toy Shop from the original owner--a subtle hint that my mom was ready for us to have kids! Over the years, I helped my parents with the store and often was more interested in their small store than my own job. In 2010, my wife and I both quit our jobs to start another small business. When my wife became pregnant with twins, the writing was on the wall that my mom was ready to be a full time grandmother and possibly close the store, so my wife and I decided to buy it in 2014 so Florence would not lose such a fun and unique place. We committeed to keeping it open for five more years. In the fifth year, my wife became pregnant with our fourth child and I decided it was best to close the store. I called all my reps and one of them said he could tell in my voice I wasn't ready to close the store. I decided to give it one more year and that's when God started to reveal His plan for our store--it wasn't for us but for the community. He did this thru Covid by showing just how much children needed fun and eudcational toys to inspire play and imagination, and how we could serve as link to getting them in the hnads of not just our customers, but kids throughout the community. So now we've committed another 10 years to a larger space where we can remain a physical retail store, but also a place where our customers and the community can expereience the power of play and we can learn to trust in the plan God has for it!

FUN FACT: The new name "hakabohu" is the first two initials of each one of the store owners' children's names. When pronounced, it also sounds similar to the language the oldest two spoke to one another as infants. (read the full article)

We are a locally owned and operated retail business dedicated to providing quality, educational, and unique products, along with personal customer service.  

We try to align our mission with that of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA), which is to build our business around specialty toys, which generally are "designed with a focus on what the child can do, rather than what the toy can do."  This is important, because it then passes the focus to features of play over features of the toy.  

We think a child's play area should should be filled with curiosity, creativity, discovery, exploration, and imagination, and where even hands on learning and instruction are disguised as play.  Our goal is to help you create that environment specifically for your child(ren) and their friends.