Lakewood 'go-to' toy store closing after two decades
LAKEWOOD — When Hershel Herskowitz bought the house at 310 3rd Street more than two decades ago, it was a rundown slum rumored to house crack addicts and other troublemakers.
Within two years, it was renovated, repainted and reborn as a colorful toy store specializing in special needs children, as well as parents wanting more than a video game or smartphone app for their kids.
“We trained everybody to know what they’re selling and not give a kid a toy that is just going to occupy his time, but help him grow,” Herskowitz, 58, said about Toys 4 Thought, which opened in 2002. “We have had autistic children who won’t talk or react to anything and we got them to laugh and enjoy life, you can’t beat that.”
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Add to that the multi-colored building that resembles something out of Santa’s workshop or Pee Wee’s Playhouse and the playland offers a toy-buying experience rarely seen around the Jersey Shore.
“It is a go-to place for toys in Lakewood,” said Abraham Goldberg, who spoke as he shopped with his toddler daughter. “I grew up here and it is an iconic place.”
Yosh Finkel agreed: “There is a flavor here that other stores don’t have. I have been coming here for 20 years.”
But the fun will soon come to an end.
Herskowitz recently announced plans to close the business after Sunday, June 9, claiming it’s been losing money for more than a year.
“The toy business in general is sad, it is Amazon, it is very simple,” he said about the cause of retail demise in many places. “I don’t care how gorgeous your store looks, how inviting it is, there is nothing like being able to order a toy and having it delivered the next day.”
Herskowitz also blames some Downtown Lakewood issues, claiming it has not been a good retail space for years due to parking and needed improvements.
“I believe in a downtown and it is kind of a black eye for Lakewood, our downtown,” he said. “It is a shame. I kept it open all these years without making money.”
Mayor Ray Coles said he was sorry to see the store go, noting he was looking forward to bringing his young grandchildren there when they reached toddler age.
“It was a very unique place for people to come to town,” Coles said. “I was looking to take them there at some point, let them wander through the store.”
Coles, who has recently promoted improvement plans for downtown, said he understands Herskowitz’s concerns.
“I have worked with him on numerous arrangements downtown,” the mayor said. “He has been critical and I have shared his concerns.”
Herskowitz is also known to local voters as a political activist, having lobbied for business improvements and run for the Township Committee three times, most recently in 2023.
His main issues have always been improved business conditions and helping local retailers make the best of the township’s assets.
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“The only reason I got involved in politics was so we could have a downtown to be proud of and make the town nice,” said Herskowitz, a 35-year resident.
He recalls the first time he saw the 3rd Street house when he was living blocks away on Lexington Avenue and visited the newly opened Bagel Nosh around the corner.
“As I walked by, I saw this house and it was a crazy place in the middle of our downtown, it was a crack house,” he recalled. “I did a little research and found the owner, a woman in Brooklyn, I called her up and offered to buy it.”
After purchasing the building in 2000, Herskowitz first planned to demolish it and build a new structure. But things changed during a closer inspection.
“I was going to knock it down, but when I walked through it I noticed the wallpaper and under it was a newspaper from 1906,” he said. “I felt funny knocking it down and we redid it and it started it as a small little toy store.”
By 2001 the store opened with one floor and has since added a second floor of items and more rooms, eventually reaching 11,000 square feet of retail space.
For nearly two decades business thrived and many regulars would come for holiday shopping, birthdays and other needs, even from out of state.
“About 30% of my customers were non-Jewish, people from as far as Kansas,” he said. “I had one woman who would come before Christmas when she would visit her sister and drop $200 and take the toys back home.”
He also sought to provide toys that were not just entertainment for kids, but learning tools, especially for special needs children. Few purchases require batteries.
“The whole point was to buy a toy that will do something for their child,” he said. “Interact and help them grow. We did not carry toys just to entertain, no Marvel characters or something that has Spiderman on there. We wanted to differentiate ourselves from Target and Walmart.”
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hen Covid shut down all local retail for most of 2020, Toys 4 Thought took the hit as much as any, he said.
By 2023, business was so down Herskowitz could not continue and had hoped to break even until the economics became a losing game.
“For the past year and a half, two years, it got bad,” Herskowitz said. “I stopped breaking even, I started losing money.”
Several regulars who spoke while shopping this week offered condolences when told the store was closing soon.
“I’m so upset,” said Esther Bee, a repeat visitor for years. “I really love this store, it is my favorite place in Lakewood.”
Chaya Miller, who has six children, said it’s the first place to go when toys or birthday gifts are needed.
“I always find something here I didn’t know about,” she said. “When I want a different type of game, this is the place.”
Herskowitz had thought of selling the building when he closes the store for good but chose to lease the house to a tenant who plans to open a day care center.
“Toys 4 Thought will come back in some form,” Herskowitz, who also owns and rents out other properties, said in a video he posted last week. “I don’t think we are going to open a retail store anywhere in the area because the point of making the store was to improve our main street, our downtown, which it didn’t seem was able to happen so this seems the time to call it quits. I hope the downtown begins to prosper but we will not be around for that.”
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of four books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at [email protected] and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lakewood store known for colorful building is closing
