Goodbye to Juguetes Carrión: the legendary toy store in Málaga closes after 70 years:

If you are from Malaga, the capital, and were born between the 80s and 90s, surely you enjoyed countless visits as a child to Juguetes Carrión. The historic toy company, born in Málaga, is closing down after more than 70 years and a broad legacy of happy children with their toys. Juguetes Carrión has ended its operations this week, closing the shutters on the three physical stores that still supported the business, two in Málaga (on Nueva street and in the El Palo neighborhood) and another in Motril. Their online activity has also ceased.

"We have been seeing for a long time that toys are not profitable and we have tried in every way to make it possible, but when it's not profitable...", explains Arturo García Carrión, grandson of Francisco Carrión Ruiz, who in the 1950s started Almacenes Carrión, the seed of what would become Juguetes Carrión —and Juguetes Don Dino, the name under which their franchisee operated—.

"We cannot change the trend or the drift of the market," explains Arturo, giving the reasons for the definitive closure of Juguetes Carrión, this past Tuesday, in low birth rates and technological trends: "It's no secret that there is less and less birth rate, children play with other things that are not toys, they are more technological. Also, parents buy more from online stores, and against them, it is impossible to compete. All this, for our sector, is a perfect storm that makes the investment in toys increasingly smaller."

The closure of Juguetes Carrión has been gradual over the last few months and years, closing down stores that, repeatedly after each exercise, were deficit: "This was an optimal moment for us, because of the merchandise issue. We didn't have much stock and to keep buying merchandise to store it and then, maybe not sell it didn't make sense." The company once had 25 own stores spread throughout Málaga and Andalucía, in addition to 45 franchised under the Don Dino brand.

According to García Carrión, the date of the start of Almacenes Carrión dates back to 1953, 73 years ago, on Compañía street, where his grandfather Francisco began everything. "A lot of people are calling us with the typical, telling us the memories they have of our company," says the until now owner of Juguetes Carrión, saddened by the closure but satisfied with how they have worked all these years: "We are obviously sad. It is a hard process even though it was an inevitable decision. But we are happy in the end with the trajectory and the way we have worked for so long. We have tried in every way possible, but if it can't be done, then it can't be done."

After the closure, García Carrión recognizes that they are not considering another project at the moment: "Right now we want to do things calmly, because we still have to finish closing everything, and we don't want to make any decisions. In principle, we are not planning to do anything new. In principle, that does not mean that any idea or opportunity arises and we do it."

With the closure of Juguetes Carrión, Málaga loses one of its most representative elements of its business fabric, a brand that for years made thousands of children happy, but that, with the market trend and the new ways of entertainment and play of the little ones, has had to say goodbye.