Shops vacant at lowest level in 10 years, toy shops also open

At the end of 2022, 12,700 commercial properties were vacant in our country. They were 1700 less than the beginning of last year. At 6 percent, the vacancy rate is back to its 2011 level, according to new data from market researcher Locatus.

According to the company, the decline in the vacancy rate is mainly caused by the fact that many commercial properties were given a different function last year. In Roosendaal, Leeuwarden, Rijswijk and Amsterdam, for example, old shops have been transformed into living spaces.

But there is another development. In some sectors in recent years so many shops have disappeared due to the strong rise of the internet that by now the rock bottom seems to have been reached. And that there is also room for new things.

After years of decline, Locatus is seeing a resurgence in jewelers, cookery shops and stamp and coin shops, for example.

“But that also applies to the toy industry, for example,” says Gertjan Slob, director of Locatus. “In 2004, our country still had more than 1100 toy stores, of which there are still more than 600 left. Now we can see from the numbers that the number of toy stores is slightly increasing again. Some kind of balance and stone will emerge the shops will be better”.

Rob Antonissen of the trade magazine Toys+Hobby has a logical explanation: “The Bart Smit chain has completely disappeared and Intertoys has started anew after the bankruptcy, but with a halving of the number of spots.” In Weert, for example, there hasn’t been a proper toy shop for two years. That spot was filled by an Intertoys franchisee.”

“Let’s open a toy store… despite the internet,” thought Sebastiaan Mulder. He opened a Top1Toys shop in Elburg. And that’s pretty bold, because toys have been one of the best-selling items on the Internet for years. Not for nothing it led to the downfall of Bart Smit and a major reorganization of Intertoys. Blokker also closed its toy shops and Toys XL disappeared from the shopping street.

“I’ve been in this market for years and see that toys are emotional products,” Mulder says. “If you go out with children, like here in Elburg, you can’t avoid going into a toy store. People can do a targeted search on the Internet, but here you touch the toys.”

Elburg has also been without a proper toy shop for a while: “Now it is again. And Elburg is very interesting. In the summer there are a lot of tourists here – and those people spend a lot of money – and then of course the autumn with Sinterklaas. So I have two peak times a year,” he says.