The Entertainer (retailer)

The Entertainer (Amersham) Ltd

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Type	Limited company
Industry	Retail
Founded	1981
Number of locations	116
Key people	Catherine and Gary Grant (Co-founders)
Website	www.thetoyshop.com

File:The Entertainer, Southside Wandsworth.jpg

The Entertainer, Southside Wandsworth, London

The Entertainer (Amersham) Ltd. is the UK's largest independent toy retailer, founded by husband and wife team Catherine and Gary Grant in 1981, when he purchased a local toy shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. The group operates 116 stores, mainly in the Midlands and southern England

History

The Entertainer began when Gary and Catherine Grant took over The Pram and Toy Bar located in Amersham, Buckinghamshire in early 1981. The shop was renamed The Entertainer in May of that year. In 1985, they purchased their second shop, located on The Broadway in Beaconsfield. In April 1991, ten years since the acquisition of the toy shop in Amersham, the chain opened its third shop in Slough, although this shop has since closed. From here on the company underwent massive expansion, and by 2001 the chain had opened its twenty fifth shop located in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham.

Store details

Branches of The Entertainer opened before c.2002 generally support a red fascia with a Times font bearing the name 'The Entertainer', often alongside the legend "[location]'s Toy Shop" (e.g., Amersham's Toy Shop), usually in areas where The Entertainer has the largest all-round toy shop presence. Stores from this period characteristically had a 'shopping aisle' format with one or two large open areas for demonstrations or stacks of products during busier periods. This format has now been discontinued. The flagship store bearing this format is the Coliseum store.

In c.2003, a new store format was devised in an effort to modernise the chain alongside the opening of the new flagship store in the Bull Ring near Birmingham. The company's primary colour was changed from red to blue, with the company's name now inscribed in the font 'VAGRounded'. Stores now have a more complex layout with false protruding walls and curved shelving gondolas. New stores often have the company's new slogan 'mad about toys' inscribed on the store's fascia.

Stores from the pre-2003 era are continually being refitted and relaunched on a needs basis (stores considered to be more run-down are given preference), the latest (as of August 2007) to complete the change has been the Nottingham branch. Stores are often given brighter lighting and new 'unified' signage that runs all the way around the store, along with the new company fascia. The latest store to open was the Torquay store, the Grand Opening of which was on 4 July 2015.

Christian Ethos

Owner Gary Grant describes himself as a "charismatic evangelical" Christian. Hence, unusually for British retailers, The Entertainer retail locations do not open on Sundays. The business does not sell products deemed to have a connection to the occult, including Harry Potter merchandise. Toy machine guns are not stocked, although toy firearms of other kinds are sold.

The Grant Foundation

The Grant Foundation is The Entertainer's charitable wing. In line with biblical practice The Entertainer tithes its profits. In 2002 alone, The Entertainer donated £100,000 to several children's charities, including The Toybox Charity, a charity Gary Grant was a trustee, which supports street children in Guatemala.

In 2005, The Entertainer launched its own Charity Wristband Partnership with 15 charities raising over £300,000 for a range of different causes.

Other charity fundraising

In August 2011, The Entertainer switched on Pennies, the electronic charity box in all of their stores, allowing their customers to round-up their purchases and donate the change to charity. They were the first high street shop to do so, joining Domino's Pizza, Zizzi Restaurants and Travelodge. In November 2015, The Entertainer announced that Pennies donations had raised £1m for charity.

External links

• Official website