Toys R Us returns inside Macy's stores

Mark Urban, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
·3 min read

Jul. 24—TRAVERSE CITY — Geoffrey the giraffe is back.

Macy's and WHP Global announced Tuesday the Toys R Usbrand and its mascot is returning for the 2022 holiday season. Each Macy's store in the United States will begin rolling out the Toys R Usbrand, according to a release from Macy's.

The in-store roll-outs are expected to begin later this month and continue through Oct. 15.

The Macy's store in the Grand Traverse Mall, located at 3200 W. South Airport Road, will open a Toys R Usby the fall, according to an email from the external communications department at Macy's Inc.

These in-store Toys R Usshops will range from 1,000 to 10,000 square feet in 10 flagship Macy's locations, according to the release from Macy's, Inc. The 10 flagship locations were identified as Lenox Square, Atlanta; State Street, Chicago; Ala Moana, Honolulu; Memorial City, Houston; South Coast Plaza, Los Angeles; Aventura, Miami; Dadeland, Miami; Herald Square, New York City; Roosevelt Field, New York City; Union Square, San Francisco; and Valley Fair, San Jose.

Traverse City has been without a Toys R Usstore since April of 2018 when the location in Grand Traverse Crossings closed. The store opened in July of 1996.

The TC store is one of 182 across the country that are closing as part of the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy organization plan, according to a Jan. 25, 2018 article in the Record-Eagle.

A liquidation sale was held in early February of 2018 and came on the heels of the retail company filing for bankruptcy protection in September of 2017.

In announcing the closure of the Traverse City store, an email from corporate indicated "tough decisions about our priorities and focus" had to be made.

Now more than four years later, the return of Toys R Usstores inside Macy's was released.

"The Toys R Usexperience you know and love is coming back to Macy's ... and sooner than you think," a Toys R Usrelease said. "Some locations are opening this month, but by mid-October, every Macy's in the U.S. will have its own Toys R Us... just in time for the holidays!"

To mark the return, Toys R Usscheduled several days of special events from Oct. 15-23. "Every Macy's store will host all kinds of cool family-friendly activities and giveaways from brands like Barbie, Lego, and more," the release said.

Macy's customers have been able to shop for Toys R Usproducts at macys.com/toysrus and ToysRUs.com since August 2021, according to a release. The same release noted in Macy's reported earnings for the first quarter of 2022, toy sales were 15 times higher than the comparable period prior to the partnership with Toys 'R' Us.

"Macy's cannot wait to bring the Toys R Usexperience to life in our stores," Nata Dvir, Macy's chief merchandising officer, said in the release. "The customer response to our partnership with Toys R Ushas been incredible and our toy business has seen tremendous growth."

In a July 2019 Associated Press article, two new Toys R Usstores — one in Texas, the other in New Jersey — were scheduled to open in November as part of a small comeback of the defunct iconic toy chain.