Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Conde Toy Shop

Pavone's Pizza recently removed their old sign to reveal this classic! I remember Conde Toy Shop, though I think we were outclassed and only looked. We rarely made the trip to Syracuse in the 1950s as it was considered a long way from Oneida.

Some Googling revealed the following two items:

from 1921 from Dealers Report on Trade Conditions:
Syracuse, N.Y. - Our toys are about 20 per cent more, and stocks are larger. We sell nothing but toys and carry a complete stock the year round. Wheel toys are selling best. There is a call for cheaper merchandise. High priced items do not sell as well as last year. Think sales will total as high as 1920. Very little of our buying is done. We are buying a few imported dolls and musical toys, and they constitute about 10 per cent of our stock. Prices on some lines are still too high. Some have not been reduced at all.-Conde Toy Shops

from 1936:
The Conde Toy Shop, Syracuse N. Y., buys white sea sand from New Jersey in carload lots, has it put up in large, stout paper sacks, with the shop's name printed thereon. These sacks each hold about 140 lbs. of white sand, and are retailed for $2.00, delivered at the purchaser's home. During the summer the Conde Shop advertises this sand in the newspapers and sells large quantities of it. Every purchase of sand means the sale of a goodly number of sand toys, among the most profitable of which are the sand boxes, which Mr. Conde has made locally. These boxes run from six to fifteen feet square and are a few inches high. In the centre is fastened a big sun unbrella.

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