After closing down all its stores last year, it goes without saying that many former customers of Toys R Us thought it unlikely they’d ever see the brand up and running again. The beloved toy store chain failed to find a buyer when it filed for bankruptcy back in September 2017, sadly not managing to save itself despite hopes that it might find the financial support to push past its struggles. Hope for the brand was almost completely lost, yet, Toys R Us is finally looking to make a comeback.
Due to its new partnership with Tru Kids and B8ta, the company has launched a new store and will be opening a second one in a couple of days’ time. The first location, based out of Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, was unveiled over Thanksgiving weekend, with a second branch set to open in Houston, Texas on December 5.
No doubt these two stores will be a massive help to parents shopping for their children over Christmas, however, it appears the method behind these new branches will be different from before. While the store used to sell all sorts of different toys and games, this new reimagining of the Toys R Us will contain more limited stock and be segmented into different areas based on popular brands and merchandise, including both Nerf and Nintendo.
This is no doubt in an effort to avoid similar financial issues to before, turning the store into a smaller, more focused front for popular toy brands rather than returning the store’s status as a distributor of any and all toy-related goods. It’s also to promote consumers getting hands-on with new toys before purchasing them, offering a service not available in many other toy stores that often value supplying more merchandise over showing its worth.
The opening of both these new branches is supposedly part of a much grander plan to launch eight more stores in 2020, showing that Toys R Us isn't just back in a small way. No doubt many consumers will be excited to hear the news that the store is seemingly looking to make a sizable comeback, especially as its one of the more well-known and respected toy retailers out there. Luckily, the stores will be back just in time to finish up any left-over Christmas shopping, which for many parents in Paramus and Houston is likely nothing short of a miracle. Hopefully, they’ll stick around for a while to come.