Inside a large business complex on Trowers Road in Woodbridge, you’ll find a showroom stock full of mini luxury vehicles intended as kids toys, selling for as little as $200.00.“We have one of the largest selection of high-end ride-on cars and ride-on toys.”They sell everything from mini-Lamborghinis to Mercedes Benz. Victoria Shnaider and her husband, who immigrated to Canada, started the company in 2017 with just $1,000 in their pockets.“We grew fairly fast and finally got to a place where we were earning a living and hiring people,” she said.But now all of that hard work is at risk of going bust.“We’re in such a difficult situation that we don’t know if we will stay till the end of the year,” she added.Shnaider says the trouble began last fall when one of their largest customers, Toys “R” Us Canada, made a huge order to stock up before the Christmas shopping season.Products, Shnaider says, the toy retailer sold but never paid her company, Kids VIP, in return.“The amount that they owe us, is $168,000. But for us, it’s more than this amount, because this is the only cost of the products. Our actual loss is around $600,000.”Shnaider says they initially kept getting promises they would be paid but soon their calls and emails demanding payment were not being returned.“We could not get a hold of anyone,” she explained.Shnaider went to court, filed paperwork to file a lawsuit but then days later, on February 3, 2026, the financially troubled retailer, which was purchased by Ancaster based Putnam Investments in 2021, filed for credit protection citing more than $160M in unpaid debt.According to the Canadian Press, the company recently reached a deal to sell assets to three different buyers—but will it be enough to pay back all creditors?Putnam investments did not respond to CityNews’ requests for comment.“From what we understand we will not be paid,” Shnaider said. “The last email from the monitor stated for us to forget about the money. What the monitor team explained me, is the protection is going only to banks, landlords, and maybe some huge, huge, huge companies, but not us.”Kids VIP is one of many unsecured creditors, which according to court records, is owed money by the retailer.Toronto lawyer David Milosevic says secured creditors are first to get paid.“Unsecured creditors, like this poor vendor, are often at the back of the line.”Which is why Milosevic cautions all vendors take proactive steps whenever they have similar dealings with selling large amounts of products to other companies.“Register a security interest. It’s not complicated, it’s not hard. And that puts you from an unsecured to a secured creditor.”Advice that’s too late for Kids VIP. Shnaider says the Toys “R” Us setback has put them in a horrible financial position.“We didn’t only lose all of that product and the proceeds, but we continue to service the customers who purchased our products from Toys R Us,” she said. “We continue to do it, because the most important thing about Kids VIP is the service. We care about our people even if we didn’t get paid anything for the products they bought we still fix any issues.”Now facing increasing debt of their own, they’ve already been forced to lay off some employees. Shnaider and her team that remains, are now pivoting by marketing their company, hoping Canadians support their business in store and online.“We’re now doing this all on our own. We ship everywhere in Canada and here in Woodbridge our store is open seven days a week and all are welcome to visit us,” she added.She’s also speaking out against what she calls a broken system that fails to protect the little guys. Shnaider says she has contacted government officials, including Vaughan-Woodbridge MP Michael Guglielmin’s office to see if there is any assistance they can offer for her business but has not yet heard back.Guglielmin’s office did not respond to CityNews’ request for comment.“They’re not giving protection to sellers like us. The government does not care about small businesses, everyone says they do but they’re not helping us at all,” Shnaider added.If you have an issue, story or question you’d like us to look into, contact us.