Toys "R" Us Closes Its Two U.S. Stores A Year After Opening

[Outsiders]

Bloomberg News is reporting that TRU Kids Inc., the company behind opening two Toys "R" Us stores during the 2019 holiday season, have shut these two stores down as a result of the Covid virus.  The two stores are located in The Galleria in Houston, Texas, a Simon Mall, and in Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey.

Quote

"As a result of Covid, we made the strategic decision to pivot our store strategy to new locations and platforms that have better traffic,” Tru Kids said in a statement. “Consumer demand in the toy category and for Toys “R” Us remains strong, and we will continue to invest in the channels where the customer wants to experience our brand.”

The company acquired the brand’s intellectual property during the retail giant’s 2018 liquidation. The new entity said it may get back into brick and mortar at some point.

[Satam]

I'm kind of surprised it took this long.

[Lord_Scareglow]

I am surprised that it didn't do well, I thought that people have been weaping over the loss of TRU in the US, you'd think much like the last blockbusters in the world people would be traveling across the states to get themselves into a TRU store, but I mean yes of course the Pandemic really wrecked a lot of things, sad to see it was the return of TRU for you guys, but hey honestly TRU here in Canada is pretty weak anyways, don't know how much you are missing out on, TRU circa 80-90's now if we could get that back...

[obs]

It says they closed it due to COVID. That doesn't mean the stores did poorly because no one went to them because of lack of interest but out of fear. If COVID had never happened, then this article most likely would have never been written because the stores would have thrived. TRU is essentially a small business right now in the USA and thousands of them have gone under because of COVID. They'll be back once this mess is finally put to rest.

[DiscoCougar]

TRU should just pair up with another brick and mortar store and do a KFC/Taco Bell type combo that can satisfy multiple types of customers. I say go Barnes & Noble and Us, or something... Books, movies, toys, and a Starbucks all wrapped in one

[SpiderS]

A lot of stores closed down all over the world due to covid, so nothing surprising here. Maybe they should continue as specialized toy online store instead of attempting to get back to physical stores.

[ghostbogey]

6 hours ago, Satam said:

I'm kind of surprised it took this long.

Ditto =^)

[EvilHayato]

im surprised and not surprised. Surprised that TRU still has a presence in US, but not because covid is a kind of thing that would wreck a store like TRU. They cant do things like food stores or even walmarts. Its alot more closed in and smaller.. i mean they could still operate in some capacity but I get their fear of keeping them open. 

[Nosferatuman62172]

I'm not surprised. From what I've seen of these stores they looked like small boutique type stores instead of the huge toy supermarket type stores that they were in their glory days.

[mako]

Another victim of bad timing. Reaction to Covid is crippling businesses left and right. Just so happens THIS business was in the early stages of its rebirth . . . now a funeral.

[JayC]

Timing with COVID I am sure didnt help anything, but I saw nothing with those two stores that would suggest they had any possible chance of success. The product they had was limited at best. Setting up shop in malls which are a dying breed in their own right was not a good move and my guess the bad debt most toy manufactures were left with when they originally went bankrupt left a bad taste in those manufactures mouths and would make them think twice before doing business in any real way. Their online thing was a joke, with everything just taking you to Target's website. I dont think anyone COVID or no was terribly surprised this attempted rebirth of TRU here in the US failed.

[Outsiders]

On a small but positive note, both stores did open for the 2019 holiday season and lasted for over a year and two holiday seasons.

[Anubis8]

Having visited the one in NJ, I cannot say I was surprised. The days of large stores outside of WalMart and Target are coming to a close. I wish I could share with my 5-year old the same magic and excitement I felt when I went to TRU at his age, but, like so many other things, those days are long since past 

[Belmont13]

I personally didn't visit one of these but I'm not really surprised this happened considering the current situation and what little I heard from people who visited these stores.