Things are happening in Canada. The same investment company, Putman Investments, which purchased Toys R Us Canada, is now opening a new home store chain, “Rooms + Spaces.” The new company will open its initial 21 stores in former Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Buy Buy Baby locations.
That’s good news for Canadian shoppers and North American toy and consumer products companies. Bed, Bath & Beyond sold toys, so we can anticipate that Rooms + Spaces will also. Buy Buy Baby comes with the deal, so it will be interesting to see if Putman operates them under their old banner or integrates them into its Babies R Us brand.
Putman will control a nice piece of real estate between the 81 Toys R Us stores and 21 initial Rooms + Spaces locations. That may not seem like a lot to an American, but remember, the U.S. is eleven times bigger than Canada, so 102 stores between the two chains is a significant piece of Canadian retailing.
Good luck to Putman, Rooms + Spaces, the toy industry, and Canadian consumers.
