The Toy Shop

It opened about a week ago, quietly and with little fanfare, and with the most innocuous name "The Toy Shop", but it was a huge hit with most of the women with children in town.

They made you sign a like 12 page NDA before you were even allowed in the doors, but what the people who had gone said that they WERE allowed to tell people was that the first room was a 40K Sq' playground with cameras everywhere and brightly uniformed security guards, on which their children played for up to 4 hours while their parents went upstairs and did quality control testing on new products. They also said that their kids got to pick a FREE toy when they were done, and take it home. Some of the toys the kids were seen with were REALLY pricey, computer controlled mini-drones, build your own robot kits, entire 10 gallon drums of LEGO pieces, brand new "Ailenware" laptops, and those ride around in battery operated cars! Others were not, many girls and boys came home with stuffed animals, sets of plastic dinosaurs, low end Yamaha keyboards, and cheap bicycles. When this was pointed out the parents reluctantly admitted a key fact: they were not allowed to have ANY influence over what toy the children picked. They did reassure the other parents on one score when they made that admission: The Toy Shop did not offer toys that looked like or sounded like weapons or military vehicles... (Nope, not even LEGO ones, though they had no control over what the kids did with the bricks when they got them home...)

When asked what kind of products they had tested they pleaded their N.D.A.s, and said that the parents would just have to try for themselves: though they would say that the shop was only open to parents with children, and parents over the age of 18...

In this spirit of excitement and mystery three single mothers and one single father come to the parking lot at almost exactly the same time, all bundling their kids inside together, and being approached by a Helpful sales Representative in the foyer. "Hello, welcome to 'The Toy Store', If you will come right this way we can get started on the N.D.A.s and wavier."

"Waiver?!?" Mrs Sharlene Bella Clearway, an African-American, 28 year old, widowed, mother of 3: exclaims clutching her children close.

"Apparently it is required for any private playground in this state where children will be supervised by authority figures other than their family: nothing to be concerned about." The Sales Associate, who's name tag reads 'Peggy' and who is dressed in The Toy Shop's cheerful saffron yellow and leaf green uniform, explains handing out clipboards. "The Waiver is on top, you can read the whole thing if you like but it's just basic legal boilerplate."

Being single parents, and suspicious of anything that is called 'Just basic legal boilerplate' all four of them do, while their children whine that they want to get to the playground, but it's exactly how the sales rep described it, one two sided legal pepper page of basic indemnifications against their children getting bumped and bruised, or perhaps seriously injured, on the playground. They all sign, some reluctantly, and then move on to the N.D.A.s.

Those are MUCH more technical and involved, and the parents can't make heads or tails of them, but with their beloved children clamoring to go play and then eventually get a toy, they sign where they are bid and let the children proceed into the playground. They are given a tour of the facility before they are taken upstairs, it's a lot like a supersized McDonald's or Chuck-E-Cheese's playground, but patrolled relentlessly by a staff of 20 'monitors', half male and half female, who smile when spoken too but it doesn't quite reach their eyes. The other big difference is that there are tiny cameras installed in every corner and nook of the facility, and the parents are given i-Watch's which are linked to facial recognition software that allows them to follow their children wherever they go in the playground.

At last they are taken out of the playground through a door in the top story with a palm reader lock, and then three more sales associates appear and divide the four parents up, telling them there are a handful of other procedures that need to be conducted before they start with the product testing, making sure they are in good physical health and so on: "It would reflect very badly on a product if someone died while testing it Don-cha-know!" the plumpish Midwestern sales team leader says with a genuine smile.