Kool Stuff Toys owner Jeff Smith says his venture into the retail world of toys and memorabilia started some 25 years ago, inspired by a “cool” shop in Buffalo, N.Y., he passed by on a Sunday walk.
“And looking in the window, they had a lot of really interesting things,” Smith recalled.
“It was unlike any store I’ve seen, and I thought, ‘You know, we need something like that in Hamilton.'”
The King Street East store specialized in buying and selling retro toys for some 17 years, is now set to close its doors for good at the end of June.
Smith says rent is the reason after being served notice June 9 that it would be doubling from $1,186.50 a month to $2,500 a month.
“Our building was bought two years ago, new owners, and they’ve been developing around us,” Smith recalls.
“The telltale signs were they had to do some siding around the building and my signage came down and it never went back up.”
Smith says he’s had little communication with building owners over the two years and believes his shop’s end is a sign of the times in Hamilton with a need for more residential space.
Unlike residential rentals, Ontario’s Commercial Tenancies Act doesn’t regulate rent increases for commercial properties, essentially allowing landlords to increase rents by “any amount at any time.”
Smith is now selling what he can and packing up product he hasn’t sold or likely can’t in his parents’ garage.
Star Wars items were a big seller when he started off in the late ’90s but that declined not long after in an era of prequel movies in the early 2000s.
“Then after that, everybody seemed to want to stay away from it, ” said Smith.
G.I. Joe action figures and just about anything ’80s was popular at Kool Stuff, according to Smith, who says they were “made to last and very durable.”
The business started off as a consignment platform operating at a friend’s store, Northern Force, before Smith decided it was time to launch a full-time business.
One of the most unique items he’s ever had in the store was “a poor man’s ape suit” from the 1970 sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes, which he bought early on in the store’s history for about $1,200.
“It was kind of a crazy price back then, but I loved those movies,” he remembers.
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A 2011 episode in which a car accidentally came through the side of his business launched Smith’s work in fundraising for McMaster Children’s Hospital.
Having shut down his business for renovations, the occurrence allowed him and his wife to spend quality time with a child who was having respiratory problems.
“But yeah, we were shut down for five months, and coming back … we started doing a fundraiser for McMaster Children’s Hospital we’ve run for 13 years and are $2,300 away from having a cumulative total of $40,000,” Smith said.
Online sales in a “smaller-scale” business is a possibility to sell off the remaining product, according to Smith.
The store has had an accompanying website for most of its life but never really took off in terms of transactions.
“I never once sold anything on it,” Smith said.
“It was more like a show and tell for people that couldn’t make it here.”
Kool Stuff Toys is located at 847 King St. E. between Gison and Hoton avenues and will close permanently on the afternoon of June 30.
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