Toy ste

Sarah Woodend
Contributing Writer

WHEN Pat Gallaher found
out he would have to move
his store from its Marine
Drive location of 20 years
he had a plan.

“I knew I wanted to come up the
hill and had looked fondly at
Edgemont for over a decade,” says
the owner of BC Playthings.

The problem was he only had
one month.

He started following up on every
“For Lease” advertisement he could
find from Lonsdale to the Capilano
River.

Then on Dec. 21 he got a call
from his real estate agent.

A vacancy in Edgemont. But not
until Feb. 1, so he still had the prob-
lem of finding a place for all his mer-
chandise.

He started to get the word out
on the temporary closure of the
store, then on Christmas Eve his
luck got even better.

His neighbour on Marine Drive
had a warchouse for his overflow
stock. When he handed Gallaher the
key and offered to store his mer-
chandise, he knew everything would
work out.

Now, not only is he in
Edgemont, but he’s located between
Ridgewood Drive and Highland
Boulevard across the street from
Delany’s (voted favourite coffee bar
in the recent News’ Readers’
Choice).

Jennifer James, who has worked
at the store for two years, says it’s a
great location because of ali the
schools in the neighbourhood.

Teens come in after school to
spend their pocket money on .49
cent figurines and .99 cent stamps.

NEWS Brad
BC Playthings owner Pat Gallaher has eyed Edgemont Village as the location for his toy store for over a decade. This year he final-
ly made the move after getting notice at his old Marine Drive address.

Gallaher’s store is famous in Canadian toy stores to take part ina Japan, especially items like BRIO third the size of the original store,
Canada for it and alsoin Japan. — mail order conference in Japan. wooden trains which cost much less — both Gallaher and James agree it's

Three years ago the Japanese and Since that trip, Gallaher has been worth bumping into cach other
Canadian governments chose six shipping boxes of merchandise to Although the store is only one — once in a while for the location.

. London Optical invites you to the

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Th 1 April 15

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