Customers flock to Castle Toys and Games for retirement sale in Oakmont

Castle Toys and Games, a store that has stood in Oakmont for five years, attracted a lot of attention after starting a sale when co-owners Jeff and Linda Lyden announced their plans to retire at the end of 2023. The fate of the toy store is unknown.

The store is well-known in the community for selling a wide vintage of vintage and modern toys. In one corner, customers can find baby blankets, and in the next, science experiment kits for older children. One section dedicated to holiday decorations, and a Candy Corner is filled with classic delectables and collectibles.

Some shelves are packed with board games like Sorry, Tetris and Tenzi.

“We still carry the classics because families want to play the classics,” said Jeff Lyden. “We encourage family game nights. That’s the way families grow, by spending time looking at each other.”

The Lydens announced their retirement on the store’s Facebook page, and immediately began receiving messages of congratulations and heartfelt goodbyes to the store.

“I was heartbroken when I heard the news,” said Debbie Vernon, a regular customer at the store.

Vernon has worked in Oakmont for 20 years and visits the store regularly to buy gifts for her 3-year-old granddaughter.

“People might think that it’s a little pricier here, but for the things you find here, you can’t get them anywhere else,” she said. “You know that (the toys) are good quality. This store, I’ll miss it.”

Lyden said that his wife does all of the ordering for the store and makes a point to evaluate the products on their educational, playability and durability properties.

Vernon attended the retirement sale two days in a row to get early Christmas presents in case the shop closes. She said that it took over an hour to check out with her items the first day because of how many people were in the store.

The Lydens opened their first shop in 2009 in Beaver, and the Oakmont shop followed in 2018. Jeff said that after Linda was done homeschooling their daughters in 2003, she began looking for something to put her time into:

“She considered a lot of different things, but when she went to see another toy store, she became kind of enamored with the idea of providing to our communities with higher quality, educational toys.”

After years of working in retail and splitting times between stores, Lyden said that he and his wife decided to “hang it up” and look for a new adventure. He added that they had struggled with hiring after the covid lockdowns.

Both Lydens have had customers tell them how sad they are to see the store go.

“We hear it a lot, and it’s mutual,” Lyden said. “We love our customers. We appreciate their support. We’ve watched their kids grow up in our stores, which is a special relationship, and we’re very connected. We’re going to miss them terribly.”

Lyden added that after the sale announcement, all of their staff members decided to stay on while the couple navigates retirement. He said that they are currently staffing 10 people and that they’re all extremely dedicated to the store.

“We hope that both stores find a new operator,” he said. “I don’t want to necessarily say that the store is closing, because we wanted to keep that door open a little bit. We’re currently talking to a number of people who have interest, and we’re entertaining additional people, as well.”