Where to Buy Toys in St. Louis Besides Target
Revised August 30, 2026
Where can I buy toys besides Target?
Six kinds of places, not one: independent neighborhood toy shops, museum and zoo gift stores, hobby and game shops, children’s consignment and resale, thrift stores and antique malls, and maker booths at weekend markets. Match the place to the job, a fast gift, a specific interest, or a bargain.
Keep reading ↓It is Thursday night in Kirkwood and there is a birthday party on Saturday at two. The invitation has been on the refrigerator for three weeks. The cart is empty, the big red store off the highway is the default, and everybody already knows what the gift will look like when the seven year old opens it, because two other kids at that table will have brought the same box.
A few miles away another parent has the opposite problem. Nobody is buying anything. The playroom has hit critical mass, three bins of plastic have not been touched since spring, and the question is not where to find more toys. It is what to keep, what to move along, and what has earned its shelf space.
Those two people need the same map. The metro has a real toy economy that has nothing to do with a big-box aisle: independent neighborhood shops, museum and zoo gift stores, hobby and game counters, children’s consignment, thrift stores and antique malls, and maker booths at weekend markets. Each one is very good at something and genuinely bad at something else. Knowing which is which is what saves the Saturday.
Where can I buy toys besides Target?
Six kinds of places, not one. Independent neighborhood toy shops, museum and zoo gift stores, hobby and game shops, children’s consignment and resale, thrift stores and antique malls, and maker booths at weekend markets. Match the place to the job: a fast gift, a specific interest, or a bargain.
The big-box aisle is not bad at what it does. It is open late, it is on the way home, it takes returns without a conversation, and it carries the licensed character a six year old asked for by name. If the assignment is a known item at a known price on a Thursday night, that is the right store and there is nothing wrong with using it.
What it is not built for is everything else. National chains stock what sells nationally, so the shelf in Sunset Hills looks a lot like the shelf in Sacramento. Sturdy, odd, regional and quiet toys rarely make that cut. And nothing in the aisle can tell you what to hand a seven year old who is into rocks and only rocks.
That is the trade in one line. Independent shops sell curation and advice. Big boxes sell price and convenience. Everything below is a way to buy the first without burning a whole Saturday to do it.
What kinds of toy shops does the metro actually have?
Roughly six categories, and they sit where you would expect. Walkable business districts in the inner suburbs, the museum corridor around Forest Park, strip centers along the county arteries, church basements and school gyms on consignment weekends. The category predicts price and selection far better than any one storefront does.
Independent neighborhood toy shops
This is the category people mean when they say they want something better than the big box. Expect a small footprint, a heavy tilt toward wooden and open-ended toys, board games, science kits, and a staff member who will ask the child’s age and what they are into before pointing at a shelf. That conversation is the product.
Expect to pay more per item, and expect fewer licensed characters. What you get back is a filtered shelf: somebody has already thrown out the things that break in a week. Most of these shops gift wrap, many will let you handle a floor model, and most will take an exchange if the gift lands wrong. Ask about all three at the counter.
Museum, zoo and attraction gift shops
The most underrated gift stop in the metro, and you do not always need a ticket to reach one. Science, history, art and animal attractions run shops stocked with kits, models, field guides, plush and puzzles tied to what the place is about. A gift from one carries a story, which is more than most boxes manage.
Check whether the shop sits inside or outside the paid gate before you drive over, since that varies by attraction and can change. Membership discounts are common. And these shops are the reliable answer for the kid with a single obsession: dinosaurs, space, trains, bugs, weather.
Hobby, game and comic shops
For anyone over about eight, this is where the good gifts are hiding. Board games, card games, models, trains, radio-controlled gear, puzzles, dice, miniatures and paint. Staff here play what they sell, so a two-minute description of the family, how many players, what ages, how long you want a game to run, usually produces a better recommendation than an hour of reading reviews.
The bonus is that these shops often run open play nights and tournaments. The gift becomes a place to go, not just a box on a shelf. Worth asking about, especially for a kid who is drifting away from toys and toward hobbies.
Children’s consignment, resale and seasonal sales
Resale is where the value is, and it is a category the metro does well. Dedicated children’s resale stores buy and sell year-round, while large seasonal consignment sales run in the spring and fall out of gyms, fairgrounds and event halls, sorted into tables by category. Volume is enormous and prices are a fraction of retail.
Go early on the first day for selection or late for the half-price hours, and accept that you cannot have both. Bring cash and a bag. Test anything with a battery before you pay, count puzzle pieces, and look for the printed piece count on the box. The secondhand section further down has the short list of what not to buy used.
Thrift stores and antique malls
Thrift is the lottery ticket: nothing you plan a party around, occasionally the score of the year. Wooden blocks, sturdy classics, complete board games and out-of-print puzzles turn up constantly at prices that make a spot check worth the detour. Antique malls run parallel for the collector and the vintage-toy shopper. Our guide to St. Louis vintage, thrift and antique shops worth the trip maps how those booths tend to work.
Rules of the game: open the box, count the pieces, smell the plush, and put back anything with corroded battery contacts. Old painted toys and old die-cast belong on a shelf rather than in the hands of a toddler who puts things in their mouth, and anything with a recall history is worth a quick search on your phone before it goes in the cart.
Farmers markets and maker booths
Weekend markets across the metro carry more handmade kid goods than people expect: wooden vehicles, doll clothes, felt food, puzzles, art kits and cloth books. Prices sit between big box and boutique, the maker is standing right there to answer questions, and nobody else at the party will bring the same thing.
This is also the best place to find a gift that is unmistakably from here, which matters if you are shipping it to a cousin out of state. Our roundup of St. Louis gifts that are actually from here covers the local-made angle in more detail.
How to choose toys by age?
Read the age on the box as a safety line first and a skill guess second. The under-three grading exists mostly because of small parts and choking risk, not because a two year old lacks ambition. After that, buy to the child’s current interest and slightly under their skill ceiling.
Age labels tell you the manufacturer’s safety intent, so honor the under-three line without negotiating, especially in a house with a younger sibling who will absolutely find the piece that rolled under the couch. Above that line, the number is a rough guide. Kids vary wildly, and interest beats calendar age nearly every time.
The better question is what the child does with fifteen free minutes. Building, sorting, drawing, pretending, collecting, competing, or moving. Buy toward that verb. A kid who sorts will play with a bin of small figures for a year, while the same bin bores a kid who wants to build something tall and knock it down.
One more filter that has served us well: the fewer things a toy does, the more the child has to. Blocks, figures, art supplies and simple vehicles get played with for years. A toy that lights up, talks and drives itself has already made every decision, and it usually gets three good days.
For a gift, when you are guessing, aim slightly older rather than younger, unless small parts are in play. A toy the child grows into gets a second life. A toy they have already outgrown goes straight into the bin the other parent is trying to empty.
Shopping done, kid starving? Feed everyone at the best sushi and Japanese in St. Louis.
What is the 20 toy rule for kids?
It is a decluttering guideline, not a law. Keep roughly twenty toys within reach at a time and store or rotate the rest. There is no official body behind the number. The point is the ceiling and the rotation, not the count itself. Parents who try it usually report the same thing: less mess, longer play.
Here is why it works, and it is not really about tidiness. A child standing in front of forty options often plays with none of them. Cut the visible choices and play tends to get deeper and quieter, because attention stops bouncing. The bins in the basement are not a punishment, they are the second half of the system.
The mechanics are simple. Sort everything into keep, rotate and release. Keep the ones in daily use. Box the rotate pile and swap a few items every few weeks, since a boxed toy comes back out feeling new. Release whatever is broken, incomplete, outgrown or never touched.
Release does not have to mean landfill. Complete, clean toys go to consignment, resale or donation, and the metro has plenty of takers. Set the expectation with the child up front and let them vote on a few items, because a purge done behind their back always gets noticed eventually.
And if you want less stuff in the house without less fun on the calendar, spend part of the gift budget on going somewhere instead. Our list of the best indoor play places for kids in St. Louis is built for exactly that trade, especially in February.
Are secondhand toys worth buying?
For most categories, yes, and by a wide margin. Wooden toys, large plastic play sets, board games, puzzles, costumes and building bricks survive one household easily and cost a fraction of retail used. The short list of what to skip is about safety and hygiene, not about being fussy.
Buy used with confidence: wooden vehicles and blocks, big outdoor and ride-on plastic, building brick sets sold by weight, train track, dollhouses and their furniture, dress-up clothes, and board games you can open and count on the spot. Most of these things were built to outlast the first child who owned them.
Be careful with anything whose job is keeping a child safe, anything running on batteries that have been sitting for years, and anything with a recall history. Check the manufacturer and model against the federal recall database at CPSC.gov before you buy, and skip crib-adjacent items, helmets and heavily worn plush entirely.
Then clean it. Hard plastic and wood take warm soapy water and a thorough dry. Fabric goes through the wash in a pillowcase. Open the battery compartment and look for white crust on the contacts, because corrosion usually means the toy is finished and somebody left the batteries in for a very long time.
How do you judge a toy shop in ten minutes?
Ask one question at the counter and watch what happens. A good shop asks the child’s age and interests before recommending anything, then hands you the box to open. A weak shop points at a display. After that, check three policies: gift wrap, exchanges, and whether prices are on the shelf.
Prices on every item is the first tell. Shops that hide the number behind a scan tend to be pricing by mood. The second tell is depth over breadth. Fifteen thoughtful puzzles beat a wall of forty when nobody on staff has opened a single one of them.
Ask whether they stock replacement parts and refills for what they sell, whether that means track, bricks, art supplies or game expansions. A shop that plans for your second purchase is a shop that expects you back. Ask about a wish list or registry too, because birthday season gets easier when relatives can see one.
Then the boring practical things, which quietly decide whether you ever return. Parking, stroller room, whether the aisles fit two people, and whether there is a play table that buys you five minutes. On a Saturday in December those details matter more than the inventory does.
What if the party is Saturday and you have one stop?
Pick one independent shop near the party, walk in with the child’s age, one interest and a budget, and let the staff do the work. Ten minutes, wrapped at the counter, done. Ask for a gift receipt on the way out, every single time.
If you do not know the child at all, the safe hits are a good family board game, an art or science kit, or a book paired with one small related object. All three survive not knowing whether the house already owns something similar.
Skip anything loud, anything an adult has to assemble at the party, and anything with a hundred tiny pieces riding home in a bag with a toddler sibling. Those are a gift to the child and a tax on the parent.
Then the closing move. Keep the receipt, keep the gift bag reusable, and keep one spare unwrapped gift on a high shelf at home. The next invitation is already on somebody’s refrigerator. You just have not been handed it yet.
Not sure where to start on a Saturday? Work outward from whatever is closest to you, then choose by category rather than by name. You can browse toy stores listed across the metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, then call ahead to confirm hours, wrap service and whether they carry what you have in mind before you get in the car.
Frequently asked questions
How to choose toys by age?
Start with safety, then interest, then skill. The age printed on a box is largely a small-parts and choking judgment, so treat the under-three line as firm, especially with a younger sibling in the house. Above that line the number is a rough guide, and interest matters more than the calendar. Watch what the child does with free time, whether that is building, sorting, drawing, pretending, collecting or competing, and buy toward that verb. When you are guessing on a gift, aim slightly older rather than younger and include a gift receipt.
What is the 20 toy rule for kids?
It is a household guideline rather than an official standard: keep about twenty toys accessible at any one time, store the rest, and rotate a few items in and out every few weeks. The number is arbitrary. The mechanism is not. Fewer visible choices usually means longer, calmer play, because a child staring at forty options often picks none of them. Sort into keep, rotate and release, box the rotate pile out of sight, and pass along anything broken, incomplete or clearly outgrown.
What is the 10 toy rule?
Same idea, tighter ceiling. The ten toy version limits accessible toys to roughly ten at a time, and it shows up most often with toddlers and preschoolers or in smaller homes where storage is the real constraint. It works best when those ten are open-ended: blocks, figures, vehicles, art supplies and a couple of puzzles. Books and outdoor gear are usually counted separately. Treat both numbers as dials rather than rules, and pick the one your family can actually keep up with for more than a month.
What are the disadvantages of wooden toys?
They cost more, they weigh more, and they do less. A wooden set is usually priced above its plastic equivalent, which stings when the recipient is three and unpredictable. Wood dents, can splinter if it is poorly finished, and does not enjoy being left out in the rain or run through a dishwasher. It also has no lights, sounds or screens, so a child used to electronic feedback may need a beat to warm up to it. Check the finish and the joints, because quality varies enormously across brands.
Why do Montessori schools use wooden toys?
Because the material fits the method. Montessori environments favor simple, realistic, self-directed materials, and wood is durable, quiet, pleasant to hold and free of the lights and sounds that do the playing for the child. Weight and texture also give real sensory feedback, which matters in an approach built around the senses and around handling real objects. The wood itself is not the point, though. The design is. A simple plastic toy that lets the child lead can serve the same purpose perfectly well.
Is it normal for a 12 year old to still play with toys?
Completely normal. Twelve sits in the middle of a long, uneven handoff from toys to hobbies, and plenty of kids move back and forth for years. What usually changes is the label. Building sets become models, figures become collections, pretend play becomes games, and the same impulse keeps running under a different name. Pushing a child out of play early tends to backfire. If you are shopping for one, hobby and game shops are the natural next aisle, and a build-it kit still lands.
Is Toys R Us still open?
Not as the standalone big-box chain most of us grew up with. The company went through bankruptcy and closed its United States stores in 2018. Under different ownership the brand has since returned in smaller formats, including shop-in-shop sections inside other retailers, and it still operates in various forms elsewhere. Whether anything with that name exists near you right now can change, and openings and closings do not always make the news. Check the brand’s own store locator before you plan a drive around it.
What is a good birthday gift for a 5-year-old?
Five is a great age to shop for, because the interests are loud and the hands are capable. Reliable choices: building sets a step up from toddler blocks, a first family board game, magnetic tiles, a science or art kit, dress-up clothes, and anything tied to a current obsession, whether that is dinosaurs, space, horses or trucks. Avoid choking-size pieces if a younger sibling lives in the house. If you are stuck, a good picture book paired with one small related object almost never misses.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.