Local Toys “R” Us locations make room for HMV

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This article was published 13/02/2024 (628 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Barbie has new neighbours in Winnipeg.

She’s across the aisle from DVDs of Baywatch and Bee Movie. Taylor Swift records face the dolls at the Toys “R” Us on Regent Avenue West.

Mainly, though, Barbie is nearby rows of empty shelves with signs promising Toys “R” Us is “building something awesome!”

News broke of the national toy retailer’s partnership with HMV earlier this month. HMV sites could be complete inside Winnipeg stores by the end of the month, according to local staff.

The city’s three Toys “R” Us shops are mid-transition; display items need to come in, according to some workers.

HMV took its records, CDs and entertainment memorabilia out of Canada seven years ago.

“I think HMV is still kind of nostalgic for a lot of people,” said Nick Sawatzky, who shopped at Toys “R” Us with his two-year-old son Monday.

He recalled browsing CDs and trying on headphones at the once-ubiquitous retail chain.

The brand went into receivership as online movie and music streaming gained popularity.

Sawatzky bought much of his music at HMV as a youth. Its return via Toys “R” Us is an “interesting choice,” he said.

“But also, I guess it makes sense with parents with young kids,” he noted. “It’s, I feel like, playing on the nostalgia of parents.”

Sawatzky figured he’d stop by the future HMV site in the Regent Avenue store. The section will consume several aisles.

HMV shops have opened in five Toys “R” Us Ontario locations. The chain wouldn’t share details about Manitoba sites’ progress.

The HMV rollout will continue through spring of 2024. CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, books and collector items will be available in every shop.

It comes as Toys “R” Us sees customers wanting pop culture, “kidult” and nostalgia items, a company spokesperson wrote Monday: “HMV is a perfect partnership as our customers’ interests evolve.”

The pairing is seemingly a win-win for both companies, said Kiran Pedada, a University of Manitoba marketing professor.

It provides HMV, which Pedada calls a “well-reputed music store,” less risk to re-enter Canada than if it were to open its own brick-and-mortar buildings.

“I think it’s a good part of a comeback from them.”

HMV may bring new customers to Toys “R” Us, Pedada underlined, adding the rise of online shopping has hurt storefront operations.

“It’s really interesting how HMV will… make this comeback,” Pedada noted. “The entertainment industry has been changing quite significantly.”

Last year, Best Buy made known its intentions to phase out DVD and Blu-ray sales by early 2024.

Sam Lord, 26, popped into the future HMV site Monday during a trip to Toys “R” Us on Regent Avenue. She’d last perused HMV as a child.

“It’s not something I miss, so I don’t know if it’s something I would seek out,” she said. “It’s like Zellers opening in the Bay — it’s like, ‘Oh, strange.’”

The Bay unveiled new Zellers brand locations within its stores in 2023. The Hudson’s Bay Company has taken a number of cost-saving measures over recent years.

(Zellers, once a nation-wide discount retail chain with some 350 locations in the late 1990s, had all but three of its locations shuttered by 2013.)

Ontario-based business Putman Investments owns HMV, Toys “R” Us Canada and Sunrise Records, among other companies.

In 2019, owner Doug Putnam said it was “unlikely, but definitely possible” he’d resurrect HMV in Canada.

— with files from The Canadian Press

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com