About a year after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Toys “R” Us appears to be making a return to the retail market as a national chain.
After the former toy retail giant liquidated its business last year, its lenders took control of the company’s intellectual property, which includes the Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us, and Geoffrey brand names.
In late January 2019, several former Toys “R” Us executives started running a new company called “Tru Kids” to manage those brands.
The new company is located in Parsippany, New Jersey, only about a 20 minute drive for Toys “R” Us’ former headquarters in Wayne, New Jersey.
Currently, Tru Kids is weighing a variety of options before starting to roll out an official business plan, including stand-alone stores, pop-up shops, or partnerships with other retailers like Amazon. Tru Kids is attempting to avoid some of the pitfalls attributed to its predecessor’s demise, specifically a failure to fully embrace the popularity of online shopping.
The company’s primary focus at the moment is reestablishing and growing the Toys “R” Us brand within the U.S. market.
Whether Tru Kids will learn from the mistakes of the former entity is yet to be seen. For instance:
- Will they have smaller stores, as opposed to the warehouse locations of the former company?
- Will there actually be a “fun zone,” as opposed to just aisles of shelved toys?
- Will there be departments run by different vendors like is done at places like Best Buy?
Toys “R” Us continues its operations throughout 900 across the globe, and generated more than $3 billion in overall retail sales in 2018.
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