• Toys R Us welcomes a new generation of children with its new flagship store at the American Dream Mall.
• Macy’s and Toys R Us are teaming up to open 400 toy stores in Macy’s stores starting in 2022.
• Toys R Us’ new flagship is slated to open in mid-December, in time for last-minute holiday shoppers.

Buyers of all ages will soon have another chance be a Toys R Us child.

Under new ownership, Toys R Us is opening a US flagship store in the American Dream Mall in New Jersey, complete with a double-decker slide, ice cream parlor and more than 10,000 toys.

The two-tier store is slated to debut in mid-December, in time for last-minute holiday shoppers.

“Toys R Us is back and it’s back in a mega way,” Yehuda Shmidman, president and CEO of WHP Global and Toys R Us, told USA TODAY. “This will be our largest format store in America.”

This is the second effort to relaunch the toy brand in recent years. Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and closed all of its stores in the United States the following year.

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In 2019, the company reappeared with new management and opened two pop-up stores – one in Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, and another in Houston. These stores closed earlier this year.

In March, based in New York Global WHP, a brand management company, became the new owner when it acquired a controlling stake in Tru Kids, the former parent company of the Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Geoffrey the Giraffe brands. There are over 900 Toys R Us stores around the world with locations in 25 countries.

Shmidman said his career has been “trying to save brands from tough times” and “bringing them back to consumers.”

While he acknowledges that the brand’s previous business model led to a restructuring, Shmidman said his company was not trying to change what Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus created.

“I don’t think Toys R Us needs a brand turnaround because the brand is great,” Shmidman said in an interview with USA TODAY. “We’re just trying to bring it back to America and we’re trying to do it with modern distribution.”

Toys R Us ‘Perfect Addition’ to American Dream Megacentre

Toys R Us’ announcement of the opening of American Dream, the nation’s second largest mall, comes as no complete surprise.

In September, during a press tour of the 3.3 million square foot mall in East Rutherford, American Dream and Ken Downing, creative director of shopping center developer Triple Five, hinted that the toys would open a slot, NorthJersey.com, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.

Downing said an unnamed toy store that had “disappeared” was being built to return.

“Let’s just say a giraffe works really hard there,” Downing said. Toys R Us has had Geoffrey as a mascot since the 1950s.

American Dream CEO Don Ghermezian said in a statement that Toys R Us is the “perfect addition” to the mall’s range of entertainment and attractions.

“Toys” R “Us elicits the same sense of joy in several age groups,” Ghermezian said in the statement.

The toy store is close to the Nickelodeon Universe theme park and DreamWorks water park. Other mall attractions include Legoland Discovery Center, Sea Life Aquarium and Big Snow Ski Resort.

The mall also has flagship locations for Aritzia, H&M, Primark, Uniqlo, Sephora and Zara.

The American dream took almost two decades to become a reality; the first phase open in October 2019. The giant complex was forced to close five months later at the start of the pandemic. It reopened in October 2020, but some expansion plans have been delayed.

The 300,000 square foot luxury wing of the mall, The avenue, opened in September after a year of delay.

The exact date of the Toys R Us opening has not been revealed, but Shmidman said he expects the store to open before Christmas.

Neil Saunders, managing director of consulting firm GlobalData Retail, said Toys R Us remains a popular brand that he believes can be successful with physical stores.

“The opening at American Dream makes sense because the mall will attract a lot of family buyers who are potential customers,” Saunders told USA TODAY. “Evolving the format to include things like experiences and an ice cream shop is relevant because it gives people reasons to visit beyond just buying products.”

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Macy’s Toys R Us stores arrive in 2022

The announcement of the flagship opening before Christmas comes days after Geoffrey’s appearance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time.

This also follows the announcement that Toys R Us is opening of toy stores in 400 Macy’s stores in the United States from next year. Toys R Us launched an online store on Macy’s website in August and brought back its classic holiday toy book with the department store this year.

A list of Macy’s locations in Toys R Us stores is not yet available, Shmidman said, adding that the company is monitoring location requests posted on social media.

Ahead of the holidays and before the toy stores opened, Macy’s added more toys to stores that include Geoffrey displays.

Macy’s Inc. chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette said during the retailer’s quarterly earnings call on Nov. 18 that the Toys R Us partnership is meeting expectations and digital commerce has exploded.

“But the real growth will happen in 2022 when we create much larger stores in 400 of our stores,” said Gennette. “We believe we can be America’s premier toy brick and mortar destination based on the innovation we want to create, the experience we want to create, backed by a truly robust website.”

Shmidman agreed.

“There has been a void in the market that we are filling once again, to provide a beloved one-stop destination to enjoy the shopping experience for children,” he said.

Contribution: Kristie Cattafi, NorthJersey.com; Associated press

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