A beloved, and much missed, toy store is coming back this year!
After Toys R Us went bankrupt and shuttered its stores in the U.S. last year, two new locations are set to open this year. Former company executive Richard Barry is now the CEO of Tru Kids Brands and plans to resurrect the beloved brand.
The new Toys 'R' Us stores he's pitching are said to be about 10,000 square feet, which would be about a third of the size of the closed ones.
In addition to selling toys, the stores will reportedly "have more experiences, like play areas." It's unclear what exactly this means.
Previous Toys 'R' Us stores used to have different play areas such as the "R Zone," which not only stocked new video games, but also had kiosks for visitors to demo new devices and games.
Toys 'R' Us' return has been in the works since earlier in 2019. After being absorbed by Tru Kids Inc., Barry said in February there was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write the next chapter of Toys 'R' Us."
"We have an incredible team focused on bringing Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us back in a completely new and reimagined way, so the U.S. doesn’t have to go through another holiday without these beloved brands," said Barry.
Raising Toys 'R' Us from the dead won't be an easy challenge. Since the closure of its 700 stores in 2018, competing retailers such as Target and Walmart have ramped up efforts to court toy buyers.
The biggest threat will of course be Amazon. The e-commerce juggernaut released its own printed toy catalog and mailed them out customers as a clear attempt to replace Toys 'R' Us' yearly catalog.
Business aside, we're stoked for Toys 'R' Us to return because as convenient as online shopping is, nothing beats going into a real store and seeing aisles and aisles of toys (and then inevitably being told by your parents you can only buy one thing).
While the company isn't disclosing its strategy, more stores are planned for 2020. They did say the stores will be smaller and will open for the holidays.