Hudson's Bay Lego - No seriously

jeff_14 · 2016-08-25T19:32:46.000Z

I know, I know, "But Jeff" you may ask, "what does Hudson's Bay have to do with toys in general and lego in particular?" Before today I'd have asked much the same, but a funny thing happened the last few weeks. As I am wont to do, I was out for a midday work break stroll through ye olde PATH system in downtown Toronto which sometimes takes me through the bowels of the flagship Bay store. Walking past the luggage area a couple of weeks ago I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover a sizeable amount of retail wall space completely empty with nothing but white shelves. What could this be I asked, wondering if Saks was just getting on with the inevitable and devouring the Bay from the inside out. Then I saw a sign, literally, which said "Toys". Immediately I thought, what are the chances that any of this will be for Lego, thinking back over recent Christmas seasons when the stores would have a handful of random lego sets and other toys scattered on tables in random places like ladies lingerie and power tools in one of the most bizarre retailing decisions I have ever seen. Well today we have the answer as I walked by this approx 75 foot long space only to find at least half of it looking like a Lego store with sets wall deep and price signs yet to be added and skids of Lego boxes still to be opened. So when I got back to my office I checked out their website and sure enough there is a very full selection of recent Lego sets on hand. Basically anything on their website was on this wall. City, Star Wars, Super-heroes, Nexo, Friends, Elves, Princess and Ninjago all to be had. We have a returned player in the game, at least until Christmas I'd imagine anyways, and as a token of my community goodwill I will post any sales related news I see from this location going forward over the course of my travels as in store deals are often the best and unadvertised. After I've indulged first of course. First the Eaton Centre Chapters dramatically revamped their toy section with a particular emphasis on Lego, and now this. I can only hope that this may be setting the groundwork for TRU to return to a downtown location and/or for Lego itself to add a store downtown. It's incredible to me with the rapid growth of the downtown area and all the families and parents either working or living here that there is not a proper toy store down here right now. My reselling would get infinitely easier (and more expensive upfront) if I could just walk 10 minutes to a TRU or Lego store to stock up.