Christina Clarke started shopping for baby furniture in June ahead of her daughter’s August arrival. She went to The Baby’s Room in Newmarket, Ont.
“We felt it was a little bit late already to be ordering furniture,” she told CTV News Toronto. “[But the sales person] said we should receive everything within about eight weeks.”
The single mom bought a crib, mattress, dresser and nightstand for almost $2,000. Her daughter was born on August 10th but she was still waiting for the furniture.
“I had her clothes in piles based on the size on the floor,” Clarke said, “it was getting a bit overwhelming.”
The Baby’s Room had three locations, one in Newmarket, Kitchener and Pickering. According to their landlords, all three closed sometime in September.
Clarke reached out to CTV News Toronto when she saw our story reporting the closure.
“My oldest fear came true when I read that article because my initial thought was this store is closing down, something is going on here,” she said.
Throughout the month of August after her baby was born, Clarke said she and her parents regularly went to follow up on her order.
“It was incredibly frustrating,” the new mom said. “They said that they didn’t know where the furniture was and because of COVID it was likely on a shipping container somewhere.”
But with each visit she said something didn’t sit right with her.
“The store started to look emptier and emptier,” Clarke explained, and said she asked a woman who worked there if the store was going to close.
“She laughed at me and she said we won’t be closing down you don’t have to worry about that. We’ve been in business for over 30 years.”
In early September, Clarke said a store worker suggested a way that would speed up her crib delivery, but it would cost her more money.
“She said to us well you know if you upgrade to this crib for an extra $200 you would actually be able to have this by next week because we have no idea when your actual crib will get here,” Clarke said.
She told CTV News Toronto she agreed to upgrade her crib, and her order arrived.
“It was like all of a sudden when we paid that extra $200 and everything else was just magically in the warehouse at the same time,” Clarke said.
CTV News Toronto has repeatedly requested an interview with owners Peter and Simon Landsman. Neither has agreed to an interview.
The manufacturer tells CTV News Toronto there are anywhere from 15 to 20 customers that have contacted them asking about their orders.
