Toys “R” Us closes in Guelph, points to possible signs of trouble for company

A local Toys “R” Us has closed its doors for good. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte finds out what led to the decision.

A Toys “R” Us in Guelph is one of the latest locations to shut down across Canada.

There were some disappointed shoppers who showed up to the store on Tuesday to find the doors were locked and a notice had been posted on the front door of the Stone Road Mall location.

It indicates the lease was terminated as of Saturday due to non-payment of rent.

It was surprising for people like Kat Johnston who worked at that location over the holidays as a seasonal employee.

“That really shocked me when I heard that. I was actually quite sad because Toys “R” Us is an amazing store to shop at and now there’s not going to be a location,” said Johnston.

Primaris owns the mall and many other shopping centres across the country and its president confirmed the closure to CTV News.

“All Toys “R” Us locations in our portfolio are now closed,” said Patrick Sullivan, the president of Primaris, in an email. “Re-merchandising has always been an ongoing and necessary activity within retail shopping centres. Overall, mall sales remain strong, and leasing activity continues to be positive.”

The next closest Toys “R” Us location is in Kitchener, but that store is up for sale.

“We heard about the Kitchener location and had a lot of people asking about ours, but we just said that as far as we know, nothing is happening because we hadn’t heard anything,” said Johnston.

It’s a situation that’s playing out at Toys “R” Us stores across Canada.

“In B.C. there are more Toys “R” Us stores, in Alberta as well, their last store was in Calgary, which again shut down in January,” said Preetinder Kaur, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph’s marketing and consumer studies department. “I think the number of stores that they had originally was about 100 and I think they’ve closed about 60 locations.”

Kaur said the company hasn’t kept up with the times.

“Their online presence is very weak and nowadays, their target market, which is kids, even adults, have chosen to do the toy shopping online,” said Kaur.

It means their competitors are juggernauts like Amazon and Walmart who are hard to keep up with, so the end could be near for Toys “R” Us. The company did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

“I think the writing is pretty much on the wall at this point,” said Kaur.

For past employees and toy lovers like Johnston, it’s upsetting to hear.

“I’m a big kid at heart, which is why I went to work in a toy store,” she said. “It’s very sad actually. I grew up with Toys “R” Us.”