Our spotlight this week is on Sandy Galvin of Barclay Blocks, an Indiana company that makes well, blocks. I interviewed him about the block business and what makes blocks such a great toy for children.
Your website says “American Hard Maple Blocks Since 1943″, how did the company get started?
Actually a (great) uncle started this. Originally, he made wooden parts for Grumman Aircraft, and then made toys after the WWII. My wife and I bought the stock from a cousin in 1999. It’s been kind of a retirement scheme in our extended family, but I was the one who put it on the Internet and we now sell (about) three quarters of a million blocks a year and employ seven people.
What made you decide to enter the family business?
I was a college professor, and later worked at a boy’s ranch for mentally ill boys before I retired in 1998. I suppose that I’m the poster child for internet businesses that started in a garage. We rather thought I would be making a few thousand blocks a year; the reality is that we made about 75 tons of blocks last year, shipping them worldwide. We live in a bucolic little town just beyond the fringe of the urban limits of Chicago in an old farmhouse. (This house has so many rooms that some of the closets have closets.) We have a camper, a old MG, three Dachshunds, a 2400 sq. ft. building, a small female-type child, and a pickup truck.
Old MG
What is your favorite part of being in the block business? Do you make them yourself?
My favorite part of the block business is breaking even. The way a business like this works is scary – you borrow money and make blocks all year in order to get paid around Christmas. We sell about half of the blocks we make for the first nine months, putting the excess into inventory. In October, we can sell everything we make but owe a huge amount of money (low to mid six figures). In November and December we sell all we can make, plus the stored inventory, and about December 3rd we pay off all our loans. Hopefully we end up in January with no blocks in inventory and lots of money in the bank. Then, we start over. Think of it like shooting the rapids – ten months of boredom and two months of terror.
Do you have any interesting or funny stories to tell about making and selling blocks?
No. Not much that is amusing happens here. The business is pretty much like a cabinet shop, or any woodworking outfit – seen one, you’ve seen them all. Wood, sawdust, saws, boxes, dust collectors, computers . . . and the blocks are pretty much devoid of innovation – more of a tour de force. Short on the romantic; long on business savvy.
Here’s a little curiosity though. Somewhere around here in the paperwork is an invoice from (about) 1953 for a set of blocks that cost $10.95. It’s roughly like our current Toddler Kit, which sells for around $120.00. Big jump in price, you think? The stamp on the envelope is $.03.
What do your children think about your work? I bet all the kids want to have play dates at your house!
I have one child (Fiona) who is a college professor in Kentucky and Squeezy is only four. So I don’t know. Song doesn’t play with the blocks a lot, but I am building her a rather fabulous Doll House and I am sure she will like that very much. One of your correspondents has correctly expressed the view that all toys are educational – more, everything your child touches is a “toy.” This is true. Children are very interested in things like pulling all the Kleenex out of a box or unrolling an entire roll of paper towels. Right now Song is mostly interesting in playing in the dirt and is fascinated by worms. Fiona (at the same age) loved to play with roly-polys (Sow-bugs).
©Squeezy (Song)
As an old psychologist – let me add this. One key element when a child plays is the fantasy they are enjoying while playing alone. You’ll hear them talking to themselves and sometimes you can get the gist of what they are thinking. Any toy that stimulates appropriate mental stories is good. This is thinking-practice – kind of mental television. Along with this, some toys demand problem solving – like learning to balance a large block on a small one. This is problem solving practice. When you put the two together – child is building a house with ” . . a mommy and a daddy are talking about cooking,” and simultaneously learning to build walls and roofs and towers – you’ve got some very good stuff happening. Contrast this with watching television. The child learns to operate the remote – useful, but limited. And the story line doesn’t require much thinking – the thinking is done **for** your child.
The Galvin Home
What is your most popular product? Do you have any recommendations for parents who would like to start their kids off with some blocks? What makes your blocks superior to the cheaper sets?
Our biggest seller is the Beginner Kit A (in terms of total numbers). We sell the most Base Kit A’s (in terms of total money).
The quality issue is quite complicated. The first page of our web site speaks to this issue, though sadly, few people bother to read it. Too wordy, I’m afraid. There are a number of reasons that our blocks are better than most – and it’s the accumulation of differences that is important. Cheap toys are okay. Just don’t expect to get much “play” out of them. They end up in the toy box, forgotten. Blocks tend to appeal to a wider range of ages and so you get quite a lot of “play” for your money over a period of many years. We see lots of block sets that are fifty years old, having been played with by two or three generations of children. That’s not expensive; that’s cheap.
But here are some observations: (1) We think a smaller, high-quality set is better than a large cheap set. (2) Blocks can be purchased over a long period of time (like add-a-pearl). (3) Any set of unit blocks is better than no blocks, cheap or otherwise.
To learn more about Barclay blocks or to purchase, visit their website. You will find tons of information on what makes their blocks a good investment, contact and purchase information there.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Your house is beeutiful, so is your daughter! My kids love playing with wooden blocks.
Our kids inherited their Dad’s wooden blocks from the 70s. My daughter in particular loves building towers with them. You cannot tell from looking at them that the blocks are at least 35 years old! They are all still in excellent shape.
I didn’t think I was looking forward to my wife having another baby until I saw these blocks… My girl needs a castle!
I loved reading your story and Song is just adorable!
This weekend Song got a puppy. She (the puppy) is a piebald Daschund and has spent the weekend being hauled around in a baby buggy and held up like a small sack of potatoes. Hasn’t peed in the house yet – but it’s only a matter of time. She (Song) has been told that she gets to be the Mommy and it is amusing to see my wife reflected in the way she instructs the puppy – really a hoot.
Once when my older daughter was a little girl (perhaps five) we were looking at a copy of the New Yorker. On the right page was a large ad for Dewar’s Scotch and a young woman who had just finished her Doctorate in Astrophysics wearing a white lab coat and looking cute, but very serious. Practical shoes. You get the idea.
On the facing page was an ad for Guerlain perfume, Shalimar most likely, depicting a woman in a ball gown with tie up high heels and walking on a runway. She had that insouciant look that only models evince, one that says “Manolo and I are tight.”
I kept saying to Fiona “Look! Look here, you could be an astrophysicist when you’re older!” and while I was saying this, watching the incredulous look as her eyes wandered wistfully to this modern princess. Am I a bad man for thinking there’s only so much you can do?
Song is playing mommy. And she is very strict.
Your daughters sound great!