New local shop Doo Coo has all the cute items you can ever imagine

Local Westdale shop aims to share collection of curated unique and cute items, from stationery to plushies, with the community 

Doo Coo is a recently opened shop in Westdale that sells a collection of adorable items, most of which are imported from China, Japan and Korea. They sell items from stationery and stress balls to to plushies and enamel pins.  

David He, the owner of Doo Coo, had a business in Long Island, New York for 20 years, before he moved to Canada. After moving, he started the first branch of Doo Coo in Toronto, which has been in operation for almost 16 years.  

He explained Doo Coo was started because of his daughter. When she was a child, she liked to play and collect cute, unique toys and other items. Although she is now in university, she still enjoys these things and He realized other students around her age would enjoy them too. 

“She still keeps this hobby. So, she still loves the little cute stuff. And then we [were] thinking all the young kids who are the same age as her also love these kinds of things. . . We [then] tried to figure out a cute word to describe the store,” said He. 

The name “Doo Coo,” was inspired by Japan culture. This is also fitting because most of their items are imported from Japan. 

Three years ago, when his daughter started to attend McMaster University, Doo Coo started to do pop-ups at the McMaster University Student Centre almost every week, as they felt students and staff would like their products.  

“This was started based on my daughter when she was very little. She liked cute plushies, toys and things. And she liked the unique stuff. So that's what we started to do in the business,” said He. 

They had a soft opening mid-August. This is their first brick-and-mortar location in Hamilton and they were very excited for their opening. 

So far, Doo Coo has received great support from the community and from students. He hoped that Doo Coo can be a place for students to meet new people with shared interests and for friends to hangout. 

“We try to build the business not only to earn the money to run the business, [but] we [also] want to make friends, especially in the McMaster University area. We hire the students from McMaster, so we try to make students like this place [and] not only for shopping,” said He.  

He also wanted to show that cute items are not only enjoyed by children but can be enjoyed by people of all ages from all walks of life.  

“I think it's awesome. [There’s] no age limit, even for adults. They get to buy something to treat themselves as life is not easy for everyone. But there are some little things that can make us happy, [and] that's very important,” explained He. 

In the future, Doo Coo wants to build a small garden at the back of the store, so they could have a rest area for customers and friends to hangout and to take a break. They also hope to add more variety of items to their collection. 

The storefront can be found on 1032 King St West and is opened daily from 11 A.M. to 8:30 P.M.