Back in July, Makro organised a group of 300 kids to get together to come and play. It was the ultimate Willy Wonka moment, with children aged four to 12 armed with clipboards, VIP tags and voting sheets heading into booths to play with toys for the day. Their top choices formed the basis of Makro's Christmas guide. It's a strategy Massmart's parent company, Walmart, has used for years, and the first time it's been tried in SA. Twelve of Makro's top suppliers went all out to compete with each other at the Makro Riversands store in Johannesburg and the feedback - more than 3,000 voting sheets - was then averaged to determine the top toys. And its unsurprising that retailers take toys so seriously - according to Euromonitor, South Africans spent $552.3m on toys and games last year and are forecast to spend $598.3m this year. Tablet at the top The top three choices were all interactive. Toymaker Lacey's scooped the No 1 spot with its Kurio tablet, and also boasted the eighth- and 10th-...
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