A year after opening the flagship store in Langley, Toy ’R Us Canada has learned a few things that it will be incorporating into other stores as it undergoes renovations.
“We’re doing 40 store renovations in the next six weeks,” said president Melanie Teed-Murch.
She was in Langley for the recent toy shopping spree for a sick child and sat down with the Langley Advance to talk business.
One thing the company learned from the Langley experience – white is not child and baby friendly for a retail colour scheme.
“While white is a lovely colour, but I’m not sure that it’s good for wear and tear,” Teed-Murch said.
Langley’s 45,000-square foot store has elements that will be incorporated across the country as the toy retailer undergoes not only expansion but also renovation of existing stores. Those elements include lower sight lines, benches for adult comfort, and areas where kids can spend some time.
About 60 per cent of Toys’R Us stores are in standalone buildings with the remaining 40 per cent of the locations in malls have seen the loss anchor stores and changes in consumer spending habits. But she’s optimistic.
Teed-Murch said Canada pioneered the combination of Toys ’R Us and Babies ’R Us together in the same stores, a key factor in why Canada’s stores, such as Langley’s in Willowbrook Shopping Centre are doing well.
“Now being Canadian owned and operated, we can reinvest our profits back into the Canadian division. We hadn’t been historically able to do that,” she said.
Toys ’R Us in the United States gained a great deal of attention as it struggled financially, filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, and in March, closed its U.S. stores. It has also closed stores in other countries but is still trying to operate many international stores.
“We’re trying to dispel that rumour coming through that we’re closing as well,” she said. “We’re here to play and we’re here to stay.”
Teed-Murch, president since 2016 and with the company since 1996, explained that Toys ’R Us Canada is not linked to the U.S. operation and is, in fact, expanding. It currently has 82 stores.
“In Canada the future is bright. We’re Canadian owned and operated. We were purchased by Fairfax Financial Holdings [in June of 2018],” she noted.
The toy retailer is looking to branch out into smaller markets, creating 5,000- to 10,000-square-foot stores, and is looking at how else to evolve.
“We’re going to test out things that bring footfall to our stores,” Teed-Murch added.
That could include birthday rooms and scheduled activities.
Retailing to children is very different so while the company has had online sales for more than a decade, Toys ’R Us locations are equally important.
“That experience in a toy store is not something you can experience in a click,” she said.
The store experience is important for kids but the customers are both the children and the adults in their lives (parents, grandparents or those buying for them).
She added that the online experience and store experience must be consistent and connected.
“Anyone that just focuses on bricks and mortar as a single point with their customer will not have a good fate,” she said.