Also, we support local teams, and I love walking by the ball fields and seeing the store’s name on the jerseys. Sometimes their parents still come in, which is nice to see. Kids that were three or four when we opened are now in college. What’s the most satisfying part of what you do? We probably should’ve gone with Boomerang Brothers, because everyone thinks we sell boomerangs. He’ll kill me if you mention that! He wanted the store to be called Boomerang Brothers, but we shortened it. He was the Blue Boomerang, and his brother was Shield Boomerang. My four-year-old was really into superheroes. Most ask for advice, and they like that they don’t have to do the research themselves. Customers know that if it’s here, it’s here for a reason. I like to think it’s our customer service.

We opened a store in the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2012, but that location was too tough. We opened a second store at the World Financial Center in 2006, but they kicked us out in 2011 when they decided to remodel. Broadway and Worth in November of 2002, then we moved to this space in May of 2009. At the party, a few of the moms said they had seen me there-we all had gone there! I woke up the next morning and realized I should open a toy store down here. I went to the Toys”R”Us that used to be at Union Square to get a gift. We live in Battery Park City, and one weekend one of my kid’s friends was having a birthday party.

I had a lot of vacation and holiday time, and I was nervous after 9/11 and my kids and I didn’t want go back to corporate work. The record company went out of business, and I got laid off. When 9/11 happened, I was working at a record company, and I had a baby and a four-year-old. How did you get started in this business? “We remember what people have bought, and we ask them how they liked it, so we can help find the next toy. “When I hire someone new, or someones asks about my store, I explain how we’re in Manhattan, but we really do consider ourselves a small neighborhood store,” says Karen Barwick, owner of Boomerang Toys, an important Tribeca resource for 14 years.

Boomerang toy