Stationery and Toy World

Donna Schofield never imagined that hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes would show up on her order sheet for new inventory, much less top it. But as everyone knows by now, 2020 has been anything but a typical year, even for the much loved, stuffed-to-the-rafters, traditional Stationery and Toy World on West 72nd street off of Columbus Avenue.

“As my dad said, who would have thought that we’d sell toilet paper?” Schofield mused one recent morning, as if still not quite believing how the year has panned out. Standing behind the cluttered checkout counter that she has manned for decades, along with a handful of support personnel, she reflected on the sudden shift in her business.

In mid-March, when it became clear that New York was headed for a commercial shut down, many local businesses closed or at least paused. Schofield, ever nimble, especially after the devastating effects that Hurricane Sandy had on her operation, never shut her doors.  She pivoted instead, calling on long-standing relationships with loyal suppliers to shift her product mix to all things sanitary. By the end of the month, seasonal party favors typically featured at the front of the pint-sized entertainment store were displaced by plastic gloves, gallon-sized hand sanitizer jugs, paper towels and, yes, toilet paper – all the goods that had sent New Yorkers – and their peers across the country – into a binge-buying frenzy.