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My grandmother used to take me to Toys R Us for my birthday every year for exactly this reason — she didn't want to guess what I wanted, she wanted to watch me choose. Walking around that store and seeing what the toys looked like in person was something I looked forward to for days. You can't recreate that with an Amazon wishlist.

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I still do this for my dog every year on his birthday. Funny that the Pet Store survived the Internet while the Toy Store did not...

I do the same!

I’d guess one reason is that there has been no iPad/App Store/YouTube invented for dogs…

I have a gut feeling there will be negative consequences for how much time developing minds spend consuming but in the absence of clear cut evidence it seems to be the default.

Demographics play into the problem too. Massive decline in number of kids

We still go to our local toy store - which is quite nice and only about 5 blocks away (in Berlin).

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