Toys R Us Has Officially Been Revived
Toys R Us is officially back just in time for the holiday season with the grand opening of its store-within-a-store location at Macy's Herald Square in New York City in addition to 450 other locations nationwide.
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Geoffrey the Giraffe is back! Just in time for the busy holiday shopping season, a brand new Toys R Us has opened in Herald Square—and at 450 other locations across the country. In a partnership with Macy’s, these new versions of America’s favorite toy store range from 1,000 to 10,000 square feet and are filled with all the most popular toy brands including Barbie, Fisher-Price, and Lego.
Toys R Us is celebrating its grand re-opening by inviting everyone to Geoffrey’s Birthday Party, a nine-day celebration that runs between Oct. 15 and Oct. 23 and features plenty of free activities and giveaways. Each themed day includes a hands-on activity, such as making Rainbow Loom bracelets or building a Fisher-Price Little People house. Kids will get to take home a National Geographic Mini Fools Gold Dig Kit on October 18, and Pokémon cards on October 21.
“We saw a huge opportunity missing in America,” said Jeff Gennette, Macy’s Inc. chairman and chief executive officer. “The Toys “R” Us brand is known by everyone. I’m 61 years old. I was a Toys ‘R’ Us kid. There isn’t a Millennial parent out there who wasn’t a Toys ‘R’ Us kid. We saw the power of this brand and this huge need, and that in America, there isn’t an experiential toy store. When you look at some of our competitors, either they’re online or in the mass channel, it’s not an experience.”
When Toys R Us closed in 2018, most American children lost out on that interactive toy store experience. Although brand-centric toy retailers remained, such as Lego and American Girl, Toys R Us was unique in providing access to a wide range of toy brands under one roof. WHP Global, a brand acquisition and management firm, acquired TRU Kids Inc. in 2021 and joined Macy’s to begin selling toys online.
With healthy online sales, the return to an in-person Toys R Us shopping experience seemed a logical next step. Gennette said, “When we saw the amount of interest that came on the website, it gave us the courage to say, ‘Let’s go fast to create the store experience’.” Although such a rollout would typically take years to achieve, eagerness to rescue Toys R Us was a passion shared by WHP Global and Macy’s executives alike.
The store inside Macy’s Herald Square is the largest store-within-a-store, at just over 14,000 square feet. It is on the seventh floor, adjacent to the children’s clothing department, and features demonstration tables where customers can interact with arts, crafts, and STEM (Science Technology Engineering, and Math) inspired toys. Iconic NYC touches include a Lego replica of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and a replica of a New York City yellow cab with Geoffrey riding inside.
Santa Clara, California is now home to a 7,000-square-foot Toys R Us and other stores with big footprints are located in Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Eventually, Macy’s hopes to include a Toys R Us experience inside every store. To date, the only states lacking a Macy’s Toys R Us are Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming.
The only new stand-alone Toys R Us store is located inside the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The store covers 20,000 square feet over two stories and is located near the Nickelodeon Universe theme park and the DreamWorks water park. It also includes Geoffrey’s café and ice cream parlor and a two-story slide for kids to enjoy.
If the store in New Jersey is a success, WHP may decide to open other stand-alone locations in the future. Even though Toys R Us was closed for a while in the U.S. the brand maintained about 1,000 locations around the world, including Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa. In its absence, Walmart and Target became America’s two biggest sellers of toys.
