Emma's story
Hello, nice to meet you, and welcome to our store. Thank you for your interest in us, and here I’d like to share our story with you.
Our story begins in February 2022. Our founder, Emma, and her friends started 42Shops, an online store selling a variety of cute plush toys.
The story of 42Shops founder Emma
Emma was so obscure during her school years that even her teachers couldn’t remember what she looked like. Yes, you are surrounded by such people, you spend many years together, yet as soon as you part, you forget her. However, an ordinary person can have her dreams, even though her little dream is known only to her.
After graduating from college, Emma joined an Internet company and after 9 years of hard work, she became a department manager. Thanks to a fast-growing industry, Emma’s income has grown year after year, and with a mortgage, she has bought the house she loves in a big city. Emma naively thought that her life would go on forever, as she became a mother of two children and had an enviable job. Her income was increasing and her life was getting better. That is, until the COVID-19 in early 2020. Emma’s entire department was laid off by the company as a result of the epidemic.
Falling from the top of life
Emma never thought she would lose her job at the top of her game. However, what was even more tragic was that Emma found it difficult to find a job. Chinese companies like young people, especially recent college graduates. Middle-aged people often don’t even get a chance to interview.
Emma didn’t believe it. She tries hard, posting resumes, and on one day she attended four interviews, including one that took her two hours to travel from the south side of the city to the north side, but none of them went through. Midlife unemployment means a lot. Credit card bills are piling up, mortgage payments are getting more stressful by the day, and the kids’ expenses are not going anywhere.
Emma doesn’t believe it. She was capable and had years of experience in the industry, but were all these things worthless? Working under pressure for so long, Emma couldn’t stop. She couldn’t accept that she didn’t have a job, she had to keep herself busy. However, time and time again, her efforts were only met with failure.
Daughter’s plush toy
One night, after her last interview, Emma wanders the streets of the city, discouraged. As Emma walked down the hallway to her room, she heard the sound of her daughter talking, and through the doorway she saw her daughter lying on her desk, stroking a small stuffed animal, and she said, “There, there, Mommy is not a loser, Mommy is just tired and needs to rest.” Emma’s eyes moistened in the corners and she opened the door to her daughter’s room and went in to hug her.
For the next few days, Emma dropped everything and just spent time with her children. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience that sometimes life takes a turn in the blink of an eye? Just after that night, Emma stopped being anxious and finally gave herself permission to slow down and stop. It’s like when it’s pouring rain and you’re stuck on the highway and you can’t move an inch. Suddenly, however, the rain stops, a rainbow appears in the sky, the car in front of you starts to slow down, and the whole highway resumes flowing at an incredible speed.
Start a new journey
Emma discovered that her daughter loved stuffed animals, and when she was busy with work and didn’t have time for her, she used to talk to the stuffed animals from time to time, treating them as if they were her mother, talking to them and dressing them up. Like a lightning bolt of inspiration, Emma asked her daughter how she would like to sell stuffed animals. “Great, I’ll have a new toy to play with every day,” she said happily.
The stuffed animals gave Emma the strength to be reborn, and she wanted to bring that joy to the world. This is Emma’s story and the story of the birth of 42Shops. :)
42Shops’ products
At this stage, we mainly sell ordinary plush toys and IP-licensed products. Plush toys are silent with us, you can always hug them gently at any time, soft, cute, and never absent when you need them. You can gift plush toys to friends, family, and of course yourself. I know some people like to fill their homes with stuffed animals, on bookshelves, on the couch, next to the TV, etc., but you should know that most stuffed animals like to be in the sun, they like sunlight.
Most plush toys are more prone to dust, so if they sit for a long time, you can throw them in the washing machine to clean them. If you have a dryer, you can throw them in and bake them so they will be restored to their former glory and become even softer. By the way, stuffed animals love the dryer, but not the oven, so you can’t bake them to eat them. :D
In addition to regular plush toys, we also sell IP licensed products, mainly game and anime peripherals, such as Changed games, MDZS, TGCF related products. These products are all licensed by the IP parties. We also provide a lot of value-added services to the players of these original works, making this place a home for the players and fans.
42Shops’ Commitment
Any time you are not satisfied with any product you purchase from 42Shops, please feel free to let us know and you will receive a refund - just let us know with an email. We’re also regular consumers most of the time, and we don’t like to spend money and make ourselves unhappy. We want every 42Shops customer to have an enjoyable shopping experience every time. We want 42Shops products to stay with you for a long time, bringing you warmth and happiness.
Do you have a favorite product that you can’t find at 42Shops? Please let us know. Do you have a story you’d like to share with us? We are always ready to listen. If you are satisfied with our products and services, please don’t be shy to share them with your family and friends, or you are welcome to send us an email or message.
By the way, what does 42Shops mean?
When Emma was young, she loved a science fiction book by British author Douglas Adams called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The book had an interesting setting, the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. The answer is 42. I suggest you Google it. We mentioned earlier that Emma has a little dream, and the answer is revealed, and that is to sail freely through the universe on a light-speed ship. This girl’s dream is pretty cool, right?
So, another question about 42Shops, where are you located? Our address is Longxiang Industrial Park, No. 6, Changping District, Beijing, China, Third Planet of the Solar System, Oort Cloud, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Local Group, Virgo Cluster, Laniakea Supercluster, Universe. :D