Not all Star Wars movies had a happy ending unless you were cheering for the Empire at the end of Empire Strikes Back.

 If I can't find something I can go to Amazon or Ebay and almost always get what I want. I have to agree with you on missing being able to walk into a store and look at something before you buy it.

I remember when I was a kid my Grandmom was friends with the owner of the local independant toy store and she had him hold one of every original run Star Wars figure and ship back in 1978 or 79 and I would get one or two a week. Of course, not knowing what they were going to be worth in the future, I proceeded to inflict battle damage on them and they ended up in the trash. The last survivor was the Boba Fett you got for mailing in proof of purchase from the action figure packages. I finally lost Fett a few years ago during a move to a new house.    

When I find a figure I like I usually buy two of them one for display out the box and the other in the box for collecting purposes.

I remember way back, when I would get a good report card my mom would take me to Models and I was able to get any toy I wanted.  I just loved walking up and down the toy aisle, usually getting a Dungeons and Dragons figure.  I was such a nerd growing up.  But I miss those times.  I walk into Target now, and the toy aisle seems like an afterthought. 

The best place now to check out toys is my local comicshop.  they have just about everything I could want.   Anime, Marvel, DC, Star Wars......  you name it,  they have it.

When I was a kid, I remember going to a place called Child World. The store looked like a castle. By the time I was in Jr. High, they were gone.  Aside from Toys R Us, most of the time I just shop on the internet for the figures/dolls I want. I also make rather judicious use of Ebay for older toys. For my children, I use a combination of Target/Walmart/TRU (brick and morter) and Ebay/Amazon. It is sad to see all the toy stores like this, but no one can seemingly compete for long vs a discount bigbox type store.

I agree, the death of the toy store is a sad, sad thing.  I remember feeling just absolute awe going into one when I was a kid, and it was impossible to go to the mall without a stop in the eponymous KB Toys (usually the last stop, because my Mom would threaten to skip it if we misbehaved).  You can't do that anymore.  Even the aisles at Wal-Mart and Target used to be a lot more interesting than they are now.

Don't kids play with toys anymore???  Or is it all electronics now?

In some places opening a toy store isn't a financially sound thing to do anymore.

Here is something I have learned...

I moved right outside of Pensacola, Florida in 2008. I have always had a passion for toys and wanted to open a toy store. After looking into start up costs and talking to people in the area that have tried the same thing, all I got was horror stories about days with no customers and people telling them they are over priced..

I decided that I'd try out selling just toys at a local flea market and see how it went before I invested in a big store. I rented two inside booths and stocked up on inventory current and vintage. I had alot of traffic (100 to 200 people per day), alot of people were interested in what I had, but not very may people bought things...they just came in, looked around and wanted to talk about movies, toys from when we were kids and what not. Which is fine because eventually those people will find something they want and buy it.

What kills me is that each and every day I get no less than 25 or 30 people that say "I can get that cheaper at Wal-Mart" grab their kid in walk out, they are loud and very rude about it, which drives people out and/or makes other people think the same thing. The best part of that is...you can't get that at Wal-Mart because it hasn't been sold in a retail store in 30 years or Wal-Mart doesn't have anything from that line but Clone Troopers or Cobra Soldiers.

Wal-Mart has hurt toy stores owned by everyday people. They may carry 300 toys and it might be 100 each of 3 characters, but people see that $9.99 for a clone trooper at Wal-Mart and act like you offended them by having a figure priced at $12.00 which isn't available at Wal-Mart or Target.

Ok, well, I have gone on enough and could keep going, but I am tired. I just wanted to share some thought and my findings so far on the subject of brick and mortar toy stores.

Jarik05 and everyone else... thanks for sharing... anyone have toy stores that are worth going to in their area?

I learned the same lesson with the super hero squad, Nick Fury/Captain America pack, saw it as a local wal-mart and figured would get it later. Months later I still can make myself purchase it from the internet. FYI if you need the shirtless Wolverine inflip-flops/Hand Ninja pack there are still some there, even after being discounted to $4 a pack!!! Now a friend and I will text each other if we find something new so we can buy one for each. Always swim with a buddy they told us at summer camp, it applies here too.

And the local Toy'r'us is still carrying the Planet Hulk/Savage Surfer SHS pack here too, what happen? Our local comic shop only has the 90's X-men figures and both Target stores do not reorder anything until they sell there stock out or right before christmas. It took months for them to sell all the Nick Fury/Skrull Grunt packs. So I have to find an excuss to drive to Houston and hit up the better Wal-marts and Targets to go toy shopping.  

I've thought about this problem at great length also.  Even to the point of wanting my to open my own store, but not just toys but collectables, japanese imports and just weird off-the-wall items.   Right now it's not a stable venture.     There's one store south of me in Orlando that seems to be doing ok, but their prices are outrageous.   I'll have to stick to the internet for my toy purchases for now. 

S.

Littlemikey979, I too have a buddy system for toy buying. A friend of mine lives across the river in DE and we notify each other of what we are looking for. It doubles our chances and usually knock something down in less than a week. The BUDDY SYSTEM works!