SOLON, Ohio -- The largest independent toy store in Ohio is coming to the Uptown Solon shopping center.
Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom will have its grand opening at the shopping center, at 6025 Kruse Drive, starting at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 24.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony, with Mayor Ed Kraus and other city officials, is slated for noon. There will also be Halloween-related festivities -- coordinated by the city and the Solon Chamber of Commerce and involving other businesses at the shopping center -- until 1:30 p.m.
“We’re excited to welcome a brand such as Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom to Solon,” Kraus said. “We are a city that loves our families, and we continue to be a city that is welcoming of family-friendly and family-owned enterprises.”
Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom will be located in the former Petco space, which has been renovated at Suite 159, next to Ulta Beauty.
Participants in the festivities are encouraged to wear their favorite family-friendly Halloween costumes. Businesses at the shopping center will pass out candy or other treats, and some will offer sales, discounts or giveaways.
Disc jockey Kris Koch will have limbo and dance contests. The city’s police and fire departments will offer activities for children, including a visit from K-9 Mack and opportunities for kids to sit in a cruiser and fire truck.
“We’re so proud to have this store in Solon,” said Angee Shaker, the city’s director of economic development. “It’s terrific for the city. It will draw more people to the shopping center and also attract them to other businesses in Solon.
“(Sir Troy’s executives) were eager to use this opening as a cross-promotional opportunity within the shopping center. The city and chamber are delighted to do our part to help make this an even bigger community event.”
Heather Marks, vice president and director of marketing for Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom, said the store’s grand-opening celebration will continue through 6 p.m.
A free craft activity for children is set for 2 to 4 p.m. in the store, followed by a paper airplane-folding workshop at 4 p.m.
“We are proud to be a part of the Solon community and look forward to bringing a variety of inventory that will inspire creativity and bring joy to children and adults of all ages,” said Troy J. Cefaratti, owner and president of Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom.
The Solon store will be Sir Troy’s third location, all in Northeast Ohio. The flagship store is in North Canton, and a second location opened last fall in Medina.
“We really liked the demographic in Solon, the fact that it’s not necessarily a bedroom community of Cleveland, but it is its own freestanding city with major world headquarters there,” Marks said.
“And the families and the schools in Solon are something very special in Northeast Ohio. The Solon Schools generally rate in the top five (districts) in Ohio, and you have parents who are very invested in their children’s development and move to that area for that reason.”
The two existing stores are both about 9,000 square feet. The new store will be almost 13,000 square feet, Cefaratti said.
“On the average, most independent toy stores are about 3,000 square feet,” he said, confirming that Sir Troy’s is the largest independent toy retailer in Ohio.
Humble beginnings
Cefaratti, a Cleveland-area native and a U.S. Army veteran, said his business started with him selling LEGOs online out of his basement.
“There wasn’t any plan to have the largest toy store in Ohio,” he said. “It really just grew into that.”
In 2007, Cefaratti began selling toys at the Hartville MarketPlace and Flea Market. He opened a store in North Canton in 2011, then relocated to a larger store there in 2013.
Sir Troy’s is probably best known for its vast selection of building bricks, such as LEGOs. It has the largest selection of such items in Northeast Ohio, according to its website.
“Originally, (building bricks) was the core of our operation,” Cefaratti said. “I believe over the years we have morphed into more of a full-line toy store -- basically, something for everybody.”
Today, Sir Troy’s also features classic toys, such as open-play figurines, board games, dolls, action figures, wooden toys, puzzles, arts and crafts, and hobby items, as well as sensory-centric toys.
“We specialize in quality imagination-powered toys for kids of all ages,” Marks said. “Those toys overlap a lot with the Montessori type of school in teaching and development, for parents who are very cognizant of that.”
Marks said she and Cefaratti, who live across the street from each other in Canal Fulton, are toy lovers at heart.
“We’re what we call ‘kidults,’ so it’s been kind of a natural progression that we enjoy,” she said.
Cefaratti said the quality of toys that Sir Troy’s selects makes the company unique.
“We invest a lot of time and energy in picking the right mix of quality products,” he said. “We travel to toy fairs as far away as Nuremberg, Germany, looking for things that other stores won’t have.
“Basically, if you come in our store, you can trust that anything on the shelf there is a quality item.”
Marks added, “And I think our staff, like us, are all a bunch of ‘kidults’ and have some excellent product knowledge.
“If you go into a box store and say it’s your 9-year-old nephew’s birthday tomorrow and you need a present, they’re just going to point you to the toy section,” she said.
“If you come into one of our stores and tell a staff member that, they’re going to have you running all over the store and bringing you all kinds of ideas that they’re just as excited about as your 9-year-old nephew will be.”
Cefaratti said he believes Sir Troy’s has weathered the coronavirus pandemic “very strongly.”
“We’ve done very well during the pandemic because we carry all the stuff you need when you’re stuck at home and have nothing else to do,” he said. “We have lots of puzzles, lots of games.”
Still, Cefaratti said his company has been impacted by the global shipping crisis and labor shortages that have affected many retailers during the pandemic.
“We were fortunately ahead of the game on most things, so before that happened, we had already ordered a lot of stock for the Solon store,” he said.
“It is an ongoing issue. I mean, there are some things that we can’t get. But we will be very well stocked at all three stores through the holiday season.”
Cefaratti said his primary goal for the new store is “to continue to provide quality toys for the area.”
“Obviously, we want to keep growing,” he said. “We hope to be a good member of the community.”
Shaker said Sir Troy’s will be the 30th business to open in the city this year.
“Our business community has not only been hanging in there (during the pandemic), but we still have managed to attract more businesses,” she said. “We continue to grow.”
Hours for the new store will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. The phone number is 440-318-1252.
For more information, visit the website, sirtroys.com.
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