After filing for bankruptcy and closing all U.S. and British locations last year, Toys 'R' Us is back with the company's first new store in New Jersey that opened today. The brand new New Jersey store is the first of two Toys 'R' Us locations in the U.S. expected to open in time for the holiday season.
Located at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield's Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, New Jersey, the first Toys 'R' Us store since the closures in 2018. In early December another location will open at Simon Property Group's The Galleria in Houston, and both stores are expected to be permanent, if not smaller than the original Toys 'R' Us stores.
It was announced earlier this year that the brand was being revived by its new parent company, Tru Kids, with a new website powered by Target following in October. Tru Kids announced that the company has partnered with b8ta for a "new store experience," boasting "highly interactive" events and activities for customers. "We wanted to make sure that everywhere you turned in the store there was interactivity, " said Tru Kids CEO and president Richard Barry, as CNBC reports. "We have an amazing number of digital experiences throughout the store, but we also have good old analog [experiences]. [...] Take the products out of the boxes and kids will be able to get their hands on them."
It was first announced that Toys 'R' Us would reopen a small number of stores earlier this year, and it is expected that Tru Kids will open more locations in the future. "We believe that Toys 'R' Us was renowned, and customers really saw us as the experts in the space," added Barry. "And we want to make sure we deliver on that, but in a very different way than we were before, because this is a high-touch, experiential store."
NJ.com got a first-hand look of the new store, reporting that it is approximately 6,000 square feet.
“Our vision is smaller, experiential stores,” Barry said, noting that the store in Paramus is about 6,500 square feet.
“A traditional Toys 'R' Us store would have been around 40,000 square feet,” he added.
You can check out photos of the store here.
Related Stories
Toys 'R' Us Debuts New Website Powered by Target
Toys 'R' Us filed for bankruptcy in September 2017.
Toys 'R' Us Aims for Return With New Look and Name
The brass from the remains of Toys 'R' Us lay out their plans to get the brand rebooted in time for the holidays.
Toys 'R' Us Could Be Coming Back
The former retail giant might be reopening some stores after canceling an auction.
