Local toy shop Mildred & Dildred has been thriving for nearly two decades

When Autumn Ruhe was little, her grandpa would tell stories about two girls named Mildred and Dildred.

Mildred and Dildred weren’t the brightest, often finding themselves lost in the woods and even a bear cave. Luckily, their grandpa would save them every time.

When Ruhe grew up, she started working at toy shop Mrs. Tiggy Winkles, a space she loved so much that she decided to open a toy store of her own at age 25.

With a loan from her grandpa, Ruhe opened Mildred & Dildred in 2007 — originally in the La Encantada shopping center and now at 1725 N. Swan Road. It’s a playful and colorful wonderland, packed from shelf to shelf with all kinds of toys, puzzles, stuffed animals, books and slime.

“I think we actually appreciate toys in maybe a deeper way than maybe a Target would,” Ruhe says. “We genuinely are really interested in finding new stuff that’s special and fun.”

“Everyone here works so hard and makes it their own and I really appreciate that,” she says. “We just have a group of people who are really passionate about toys and about this community and I’m super grateful.”

Mildred & Dildred has been alive for nearly two decades, opening months before the 2008 recession and surviving both the rise of Amazon and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Our timing has always been bad. We opened right before the recession, we bought our new building right before the pandemic,” Ruhe says. “I think we’ve always learned to adapt to new things. We never developed expensive habits because we couldn’t afford to. The way the store grew up was kind of helpful because we started at such a difficult time — I think that really helped in terms of surviving different catastrophes.”

In the last several years, Ruhe has watched trend after trend in the toy industry — from fidget spinners and slime to the adorable Jellycat plushies and the collectible Sonny Angel figurines.

“What’s neat is, for the first time, we have the things that are trendy. Usually it’s stuff in a big-box store we wouldn’t have access to,” she says. “I try to really listen to what younger kids, especially teenagers, are asking about. Five years ago, they started talking about axolotls, so it’s just paying attention to what is keeping their interest — and when they’ve lost interest. It’s fun to try to guess what the next best thing is.”

The Mildred & Dildred team also leans into social media as a tool to figure out what toys people are loving. The shop has even joined TikTok, racking up 127,000 followers with a handful of videos reaching above 1 million views.

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Above all else, it’s clear that the team behind Mildred & Dildred believes in the power of play. Ruhe cites a quote from the beloved Mr. Rogers: “Play is really the work of childhood.” 

“That’s how kids work out everything — through play. Not just problem solving, but social skills,” she says. “I remember I would play ‘kitchen’ with my sister and I remember we would get into problems, like we have so many orders, what do we do? Creating these problems and trying to navigate them, (toys) are tools that help kids’ brains grow.”

And for the first time ever, Mildred & Dildred’s customer base has shifted to include young adults without children. Ruhe is seeing teens and 20-somethings pop in for stuffed animals and blind boxes. She likes that they aren’t too cool for toys.

“It’s neat. There seems to be an appreciation for things that are cute and things that are silly with this generation,” she says. “I really like when I see something or hear something that I haven’t thought about in a few years; it’s a fun feeling because it sucks you back into that thing. I like to sprinkle things around (the store) that people haven’t seen in years and are like, ‘Oh yeah! I love this!’ and it brings you back to a time when you didn’t have as much on your plate. I think that’s why toys are good for adults — because they bring you back to hopefully a sweeter time.”

At the core of all the changes and hurdles over the last 17 years, the community has been a constant.

“I’m so grateful that Tucson is such a small-business friendly community,” Ruhe says. “During the pandemic, people ordered stuff from us and we would do deliveries to their houses — and they didn’t have to do that. And at the time, our website was barely anything because we weren’t ready for that transition. But people really tried and worked with us even if it was easier to log onto Amazon and do it that way.”

“I love how unique Tucson is — I feel like as a town, it has its own really special personality. It’s kinda scrappy and the people are so kind and sweet,” the Tucson native says. “I went to college in New York and New York’s cool but I didn’t realize how special it is here until I moved away for college. The people are really kind and supportive of each other — and just to have the Sonoran Desert, such a unique landscape around us, I feel really lucky to be in Tucson.”

Ruhe thinks about all the goofy toys sold at Mildred & Dildred: a pickle-shaped Jellycat, slime that emulates the very-pink circus cookies of our youth, a book about 100 dragons named Broccoli.

“The world is kinda stressful right now but I wonder if toys are a way to relieve that a little bit,” she says.

Mildred & Dildred is located at 1725 N. Swan Road, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.