The Toy Corner

It's funny what can happen when you put something out into the universe. Just ask Stacey Moscone. An early childhood educator working for the Sarnia School Board, Stacey felt that she needed to shake things up and make a career change. "It's kind of a funny story," Stacey says with a chuckle, "I was looking to make a change, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was looking to go back to school and also looking into different businesses, but I really didn't know what I wanted. I remember saying to my husband Damiano, 'I want to own The Toy Corner or something like that.' Two weeks later I saw that The Toy Store went up for sale and I said, 'That's it! That's what I've got to do!'"

The very day Stacey noticed the store was for sale while on Facebook, she reached out to the former owner, Ann Randall. "At first I was dealing with Ann's brother-in-law, who was doing most of the work at the time, but eventually I said I would really like to meet Ann. As soon as we sat down to talk, we both knew this was going to work." Stacey took over the business on Nov. 29, 2021. Though it had been a while, Stacey was not completely unaware of what it was like to work in retail. "Before I did my ECE, I worked in retail for about eight years. I had experience working at a smaller business and even managed it for a while. I didn't own it, but I had a good idea of how to run it."

Upon purchasing The Toy Corner, Stacey put a game plan in place. "I didn't want to change much right away." The Toy Corner has been a part of the Sarnia community for 23 years. "The people who knew it, knew it well. I didn't want them coming in and saying, 'Oh, it's completely different. It's not the same place.' We have toys set up for the kids to play with, as Ann also did, but I have thought about expanding that offering to include story time or workshops." The plan remains to own the store for a year and then start to make a few changes here and there.

Things went very well out of the gate with one exception. Like so many businesses, The Toy Corner was affected by a hiccup in the supply chain due to COVID-19. "When I took over it was Christmastime so sales were high. So, the store was fairly empty. By the end of December, some people thought we were closing. It took until the end of spring for us to be really stocked up again."

Stacey is having the time of her life owning and operating The Toy Corner. "I love it! People say to me, 'You are just glowing now!' This is truly what I was meant to do. People ask me if I enjoy what I am doing and I say, 'It's a toy store! What's not to enjoy?'"