VAUGHAN, Ont. - Only a few steps into a Toys “R” Us store just north of Toronto, it’s obvious something is up at the childhood mecca. Stacks of beer and whisky glasses sit alongside Beatles records and band T-shirts in the entrance way of the Vaughan Mills mall location one June weekend.
Roam the rest of the store and among the rows of toys, there are now aisles dedicated to pillows and beauty products and an entire department for kitchen and home decor. Most of the items bear fluorescent signs advertising 40 per cent off products labelled as being from Rooms + Spaces, the home goods retailer Toys “R” Us Canada’s owner Putman Investments opened in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. What happened to the chain, which appears to have shrunk from 24 stores to two in roughly a year, is a mystery.
Rooms + Spaces declined to comment for this story. Retail experts, however, say Rooms + Spaces’ retrenchment from standalone locations to its appearance at Toys “R” Us is the likely product of shifting consumer habits amid high inflation, sluggish home sales and competition from several old and new retailers in the same segment of the market. “The retail landscape in general is struggling.
Consumers either have less money or they’re just spending less so that’s an issue,” said Joanne McNeish, an associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University specializing in marketing. “The second part is the household furniture landscape. So many people bought things .
