I'm in a Northern Virginia suburb of the sprawling Washington metro area. Our Ames store provides an interesting view of dolls, different from Walmart, because Ames seems to be always trying some new doll line to complement Barbie. Walmart doesn't get creative with its doll selections, at all. The local Ames has always included Integrity playline baby dolls but the fashion dolls are expanding with Janay, Alyssa Alejandro. (My K-Mart is too far away for me to watch regularly, but my visit last week there were a few Alyssas and Janays.) As a matter of fact, I'm starting to notice that Ames has cut back a lot of the Barbie doll line and is now carrying another playline called Steffi Love dolls--they don't do much for me, but I always welcome variety to the doll shelf. Problem is, they've started carrying too many of these dolls. They seem like a cheaper-made doll and no imagination with face sculpts and screening or ethnicity.
Integrity's dolls, however, have long been a staple, albeit in small numbers, but present on Ames shelves. Within the year I've noticed the Integrity fashion dolls are slowly increasing visibility and their numbers on the Ames doll shelves. Integrity is a welcome alternative to Barbie because I think it's evident that Integrity can make a doll whose quality is comparable to any Barbie and the dolls offer some relief from the seemingly all-white dolls on most shelves. I think it's curious that Walmart hasn't put any of Integrity's fashion dolls on its shelves (at least here), but they put Kid Kore on the shelves. It must be their off-brand name of toys and dolls. I'd speculate, that once Walmart discovers Integrity fashion dolls do sell, watching Integrity prove itself a formidable contender to the Mattel fashion dolls throne will be a fun match to watch! Is Integrity publicly traded? Regards, Pat Brown ----- Original Message ----- From: Mroczko mroczko@verinet.com To: candichat@dolls.de Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 7:57 AM Subject: Re: ot: dolls & thoughts
Went and looked at the new Integrity stuff. Interesting playline
dolls.
Too bad there is absolutely no one who carries these in our retail area.
I
think it will be hard for Integrity to really be taken seriously as a
rival
for Babs till they are easily available everywhere. Our K-mart
occasionally
has some, but I bet ours will be one of those that closes, and don't even mention our TRU to me. I think the dolls are a lovely alternative to Babs grins, but I wish they would market them better. I don't mind ordering
the
collectors dolls, but the average parent won't see the playline and be
able
to get them for their kids till they are more widely marketed.
Kathy M.
At 08:11 AM 1/22/02 -0800, you wrote:
I don't know about sickness, but my house is pretty full, too. Melissa
Am I the odd collector out here? My house is so sparse, our new game warden came over and thought no one even lived in my house.
I could write the book on simple living. My one exception is my doll collecting, my one splurge in life. I wouldn't say I have a small collection but certainly no where near as large as others. Candi dolls greatly outnumber any other dolls.
sisu
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