Toy Store and More: The Prize Booth for Youth
Co-owner of The Prize Booth, Erin Fritts, tends to a customer in front of a bright colored mural.
In a world becoming more digitized by the minute, kids have begun to miss out on the off-screen fun in life. Now, a new toy store has opened on Seven Hills Road to bring the magic of toys and games back to Castro Valley youth.
The Prize Booth's grand opening was on July 13, and was very welcome in the community. Castro Valley’s last official toy store—the Village Toy Shop—closed back in 2007.
Co-owner Erin Fritts shared how her family has been in Castro Valley for generations and how she loved the Village Toy Shop when she was growing up here. She wanted to give her 9-year-old daughter, Emerson, an enchanting toy store experience but said there were no local toy stores as the closest ones were in San Francisco and Alameda.
The idea came about when Erin was at a toy shop in San Francisco and said that “it was the most joyous and exciting place. Everyone was just so happy to be there.”
With the lack of a local toy shop, combined with the increasing usage of screen time from the COVID-19 pandemic, Erin and her husband, Tim Fritts, saw an opportunity for something great. They aimed to bring happiness to their community's youth by opening The Prize Booth.
Erin expressed concern for kids with too much screen time, saying it "leaves no room for boredom. Boredom leads to imagination, and imagination makes creative kids who grow up to be creative people."
“Today, kids are on screens all the time. I want to encourage them to play outside in the sand, grass, and mud. That’s where the best memories are made,” Erin says.
The store offers a variety of toys, educational and fiction books, games, and even clothes. With the goal of getting kids outside in mind, many of the toys are geared toward outdoor play.
There are also items geared towards building life skills and creativity, such as cooking toys and art supplies.
Erin acknowledges that there are also plenty of benefits for kids with today's technology, especially given that it is such an important part of modern culture, but that it must be used wisely and in moderation.
“It is a big part of parenting these days to decide how much screen time to allow your children. Though they may whine and pout at first when you say no, it will be better for them, in the long run, to use their imaginations to play and create their own stories,” says Erin.
The store is located at 4270 Seven Hills Road. Their website is opening soon (theprizebooth.com) but is taking email subscriptions for that launch.