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Barston's Child's Play
Rating Details »
Category: Toy Stores [Edit]
Neighborhood: Chevy Chase5536 Connecticut Ave NW
(between N Morrison St & N Livingston St)
Washington, DC 20015
(202) 244-3602
- Hours:
Mon-Wed. 9:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Thu. 9:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Fri. 9:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Sat. 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street, Private Lot
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
10 reviews for Barston's Child's Play
A fantastic old school toy store. The selection is huge for such a small place, the prices are decent and the staff is always incredibly helpful.
There are lots of nooks and crannies in there and often if I am taking too long to choose my whiskey, beer and wine at Chevy Chase Liquors I just send the kids in here on their own and pick them up afterwards.
They get some toys, and I get some booze. We are a well balanced family.
By conventional standards, the place is excellent and I love supporting independent businesses. The place was busy and there were still employees always checking in to make sure I didn't need any help with anything.
Unconventional tidbits keeping me from giving them a perfect score include how depressed I was when I spotted the little, live frogs swimming around their tiny clear cube prisons sold by the store. (Live animals are NOT toys!) Also, I would like to see more items sold in the store that are American-made. Everything's always from China, where environmental and workers' rights laws are about unheard of. I avoided all the toys for my nephew that I was most excited about because they were made in China. (I don't fault the store too much for this, though. It's the way things are everywhere, though I hope that especially with the economy having gotten the way it has, consumers really start pushing for goods manufactured domestically, not imported from elsewhere!)
Do I have to have a kid, a nephew or niece, or friends with kids to shop here? (Because I don't.) Can I just come and play all on my own? They have toys for tots, toys for kids, and toys for kids pushing thirty (me?). Walk past the wall of stuffed animals, the walls of toddler toys, hit the science experiments for younger kids to your right, the board games (they even have both versions of Ticket to Ride!) straight ahead, the costumes, the books for kids and parents in the back left corner, the crafts (that's for me), and just name it, they've got it. (The only thing they don't have is yarn.)
Parking in back, helpful and polite service (necessary to navigate the profusion of everything everywhere), and lots of examples of toys to "sample". And the icing on the cake: Complimentary gift wrap and reasonably priced ($3) birthday cards.
Barston's gets an extra star for the adorably cute train table that they have to occupy the kids. This toy store uses every bit of their small space to sell almost every toy, book or game you can think of or your child may want. This is the only place I could find the game "Quelf" (age 6 and up party game like Cranium). The owner sure knows her stuff, which I am sure she learned from her two kids!
The staff is kid and adult friendly as well as know lots about the products. If whatever you buy doesn't work out or ends up being a duplicate, they keep an electronic file just in case you lose the receipt. Genius!
I'm an uncle, not a father, so I'm not "in the know" when it comes to what rings the bells of the little people. However, thanks to the prodidgious breeding habits of my siblings and friends, I quite often find myself i need of some token gift to comemorate yet another milestone in little Haley's six months of existence. or Taylor. or Brittany. Sorry, BRITNEY. or Morgan. I hate children, but it's ok. All I need to do is go to Child's play, say "Girl, 6 months, potty training class graduation" and within moments they present me with a beautifully wrapped gift. I hand them my credit card and i'm out the door inside of five minutes. What's in the box they hand me? I've honestly never asked, nor do I care. Sometimes the cutesy little thank you card I get in the mail a few days later tips me off.
"Dear Uncle tightwad, thank you so much for the wonderful stuffed hyena" blah blah. And they're invariably signed with the 6 month old kid's name, implying they wrote the letter. Wow, Haleytaylormorganbritney sure has great penmanship considering she can't hold up her own head yet.
Don't let my bitter hatred of the world fool you, it really is a great store. I deducted one star for the fact that sometimes there are far too many bratty kids running around.
Extremely helpful and knowledgeable staff.
We live in San Francisco and we do not have children of our own. We are not very in the know...what am I saying... we are not in the know at all... I was a little late in purchasing a newborn gift for my husbands best friends new baby boy, i decided to look up a local toy store with positive ratings on Yelp. The reviews here were spot on! In addition to a newborn gift we of course would need to purchase a consolation gift for the 2yr big sister. Not having a clue at what to order, the women spent time recommending and describing fun toys. In the end I wanted to order them for myself.
I will definitely call again!
This place is small and crammed full of stuff. Kids and parents were everywhere and the story was in a bit of disarray on the rainy Saturday when I stopped in. Despite all this, it's a great toy store. They were the only store in the area that had what I was looking for: a stuffed Corduroy bear - in two sizes, no less. And the staff was helpful and held it for me until I got there. Would definitely recommend this place for anybody in the market for toys.
I stopped in here today with a friend and spent like an hour looking at toys. Let's not lie, this place is pretty sweet. It seems like it has a really good selection of toys and books for babies and kids of most ages. The staff was very nice too.
I liked this place better when I was a little younger - it's the kind of thing you grow out of. They have a wonderful array of toys and knick-knacks. Literally something for everyone. It's a small space, so they try to fit as much as they can into it - and this results in a bit of clutter. The prices are also a bit high. They have a book section, costume section, video game section, toy section, arts & crafts, and more. It's a very whimsical shop. But I warn you, the owners are a bit strange.
Best place in town to buy a children's toy. We have been there dozens of times.
