Macy’s is bringing Toys “R” Us to all of its stores.
The department store chain announced on Monday that it has expanded its partnership with the toy store’s parent company WHP Global to roll out Toys “R” Us shop-in-shops to its entire store fleet by Oct. 15.
According to Macy’s, the in-store shops will range from 1,000 sq. feet and span up to 10,000 sq. feet in flagship locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco. The footprint of stores may flex up an additional 500 to 3,000 square feet during the holiday season to offer an even wider assortment of products, Macy’s said.
The beloved toy store will come to life at Macy’s through colorful fixtures, hands-on demonstration tables and a life-size “Geoffrey on a Bench” figure for photo opps.
A view of Macy’s Toys “R” Us on July 11, 2022 in Jersey City, N.J. CREDIT: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Macy’s, Inc.
To celebrate the openings, all Macy’s stores will host nine days of in-store events, beginning Oct. 15 through Oct. 23, which will include family friendly activities and daily giveaways from brands like Barbie, Lego and more.
This expansion comes nearly a year after Macy’s announced it would sell products from the brand in more than 400 stores and online through a new deal with WHP Global, which acquired a controlling interest in Tru Kids in March. After Toys “R” Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2017, Tru Kids bought the company’s brands and intellectual property.
And the partnership seems to be working. In Macy’s earnings for the first quarter of 2022, toy sales were 15x higher than the comparable period prior to the Toys ”R” Us partnership.
This follows a December opening of Toys “R” Us’ first flagship post-bankruptcy. The two-story, 20,000-square-foot store is now open inside the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, N.J.
Meanwhile, under Tru Brands, Toys “R” Us opened up two physical locations in 2019 via a partnership with experiential retail tech start-up b8ta. The stores — located in the Galleria mall in Houston and in the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. — were ultimately closed due to the pandemic.
In 2019, Target partnered with Tru Brands to power the toy retailer’s digital and fulfillment services. At the time, those who shopped on ToysRUs.com would be redirected to Target.com to make a purchase. In August of 2020, Tru Brands switched over to Amazon.
A view of Macy’s Toys “R” Us on July 11, 2022 in Jersey City, N.J. CREDIT: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Macy’s, Inc.
