Children can be Toys R Us kids once again with the iconic toy store’s revival coming to Macy’s locations across the country for the holidays.
After a surge in online Toys R Us sales last fall, Macy’s will create in-store shops beginning later this month.
Toys R Us will occupy as much as 10,000 square feet inside Macy’s flagship stores such as its Chicago store at 111 N. State St. Other flagships are in Atlanta, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.
The in-store shops will have a life-size Geoffrey the Giraffe sculpture for a photo opportunity for guests called “Geoffrey on a Bench” and various toys available for customers to interact with.
“Macy’s cannot wait to bring the Toys R Us experience to life in our stores,” Nata Dvir, Macy’s chief merchandising officer, said in a news release. “We hope Toys R Us kids of all ages discover the joy of exploration and play within our shops and families create special memories together.”
Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and closed nearly 800 stores in the U.S. In addition to the debt it was saddled with by its private-equity owners, Toys R Us found itself in a battle to its seeming death with Amazon.com and other big toy sellers like Target and Walmart.
In 2019, the company teamed up with Target Corp to relaunch Toysrus.com. The site featured product reviews and videos and directed browsers to a buy button at Target.com to complete the purchase.
The company also opened two new Toys R Us stores — one in Houston, the other in Paramus, New Jersey — in November 2019. They closed in early 2021.
In March 2021, the Toys R Us brand and website were acquired by WHP Global, a brand management firm with a portfolio of consumer brands that generate $4.5 billion in retail sales.
