The owner of an educational toy store in Charlottetown says his business has taken a hit since Toys "R" Us moved into the city.

Steve Balderston said usually at this time of year his family-operated store, Owl's Hollow, is packed with customers.

"I'm not going to lie. It has definitely hit us pretty hard. With them being new, everyone wants to go see the store and stuff. So it has hit us pretty hard in sales and people coming in," he said.

"There are a few people around but it's not too, too busy. We are trying to source out even better and different interesting items and quality educational toys and that sort of thing. So it kind of has us on the ball too."

Balderston said he's determined to stay in business.

He said hopes customers will come back once the novelty of the chain store wears off.