{ Independent Interview } Eva from Little Cool Toys

For my first in what I hope will be a series of interviews with independent retailers, I contacted Eva from Little Cool Toys.

Little Cool Toys is an online toyshop that operates out of Levis, Quebec.  They carry a range of natural, eco friendly, handmade and organic children`s toys. 

Eva, the owner and operator of Little Cool Toys, was kind enough to grant me an interview

Tell me a bit about yourself. How old are you? How old is your son?
 

I just turned 44 last month and I do my best to keep up with my very active 4 year old toddler!
 

I know from reading your Little Cool Kids blog that you moved to Canada from Denmark. What’s your background? What did you used to do prior to moving here? Held any interesting jobs prior to running Little Cool Toys?
 

Yes, I’m Danish and lived in Denmark until I was 40 and followed my dear Canadian husband to Quebec. I have a degree as an authorized translator/interpreter in Spanish (which is not of much use to me here in the French speaking part of Canada). Before I moved to Canada, I worked in a big international company where I was a Key Account Manager for customers in Latin America – so the online store and internet marketing was a whole new arena for me when I started Little Cool Toys!
 

What do you think of La Belle Province? 

Well, the nature is stunning! and I find that people in general is very open and friendly. It has been hard to adopt to a whole new culture though, and I must admit that I miss Europe. I haven’t found it super easy to integrate, but now after 4 years, I start to feel at home 😉 I still struggle a bit with the French language, and it still surprises me how French Quebec is even today – but that’s something you rather not discuss with a quebecois!
 

What do you think about working from home?  Love it? Hate it?  Is your son there with you all day or is he in daycare? 

I like working from home, though it can get lonely – and I get easily distracted by other things I have to do in the house! I love that I don’t have to rush out the door in the morning (specially here in the winter season) and working from home gives you a fantastic flexibility. My son is in full time daycare, which is perfect for both of us – he has a ton of energy and loves playing with all his little friends at the daycare, and I can concentrate on my work when I’m alone in the house. One of the things that I really love about working from home is that we have time in the mornings, and I can go get him early if I want to.
 

You don’t have a retail location, and you run this website from your home… so what do you do with all the stock? Do you rent a warehouse?  Or do you have a back bedroom or garage stuffed to the ceiling with toys?  I have this rather amusing image in my mind of toys literally stacked to the ceiling.
 

Yes, I run my business from my home office, and your image of me working surrounded by toys is spot on! I literally have my office stuffed to the ceiling with toys!! Which is quite inspiring, but also a bit annoying as it easily becomes disorderly with boxes everywhere!

I’ve read on your website about how what prompted you to open Little Cool Toys was a lack of easy access to sturdy, classic, natural toys.  What toys in particular did you miss from Denmark?  What was a favourite toy growing up? What is a favourite that you’ve given your son (or what’s your son’s favourite)? 

One of the things that surprised me when I first came to Canada was the amount of plastic and “imitation” materials used for all sorts of things. I was expecting to see lots of wood and beautiful log houses which is actually a rare sight 😉 We live in a small town, and the selection of toys you find at the mall consists broadly speaking of plastic toys and synthetic plush toys! I inherited some small wooden toys for my son when he was born, and though they have been played with a lot and are very worn, they’re still nice to look at and cool to play with even after 50 years! My best toy as a child was a little teddy bear who followed me everywhere and now belongs to my son. His favourite toys at the moment I think is a beautiful wooden tractor from Holztiger and the Discover Rig from the Canadian company Sprig Toys 😉

 

Questions for Eva?  I’m sure she’s still lurking around and might be willing to answer.  Suggestions for what I should ask next time?  What sort of things would you like to learn about the people behind some of these cool independent stores?  Anyone in particular you’d like to hear from?

EDIT: Unfortunately Little Cool Toys has closed up shop. As the website is no longer active I’ve removed any links heading to it from this post.