Ontario toy retailer has gone bankrupt after 60 years and is having an enormous sale
Just a few months after homegrown book and game chain Mastermind shuttered nearly a third of its stores, laid off hundreds of employees and went into creditor protection, a different Ontario-based toy retailer has announced that it’s filing for bankruptcy.
The owners of Samko & Miko Toy Warehouse, which was first established as a store in Richmond Hill before transitioning to pop-ups and warehouse sales in Toronto and across the GTA, are calling it quits this month after six decades in the business.
Known as a family-operated business with steep discounts on all sorts of children’s products, the brand says it made the decision in light of “a changing and challenging retail landscape” — the same one that likewise forced the hand of competitors like Mastermind and Toys, Toys, Toys.
In the wake of the closure, the third-party firms tasked with liquidating the company’s remaining inventory are hosting a one-time goodbye sale that will include more than $850,000 worth of goods for kids of all ages.
Customers will have the opportunity to score books, board games, dolls, action figures, crafts, and the like from brands such as Disney, Mattel, Hasbro, Crayola, Fisher-Price, and Barbie. There is no minimum price, and each item goes to the highest bidder.
The auction kicks off online at 10 am on May 16 and runs until May 23. An in-person preview will be held on May 22 at 381 Kennedy Road, Door #12. Samko & Miko’s website, meanwhile, already appears to have been taken down amid the bankruptcy proceedings.