Could Toys R Us Be Coming Back to Boise?
In 2018 Toys R Us closed its doors for good in Boise.. or did they?
Hundreds of stores closed across the nation after the owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017. After that the brand fell into liquidation. Fast forward to 2021 and now the brand management company WHP Global announced it has acquired a controlling interest in Tru Kids, the parent company of the Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Geoffrey the Giraffe brands.
For awhile Toys R Us has been going through sort of an identity crisis. Target at one point was running the Toys R Us' website while currently all purchases on ToysRUs.com are being redirected to Amazon. WHP is looking fix this.
“We’re in the brand business, and Toys R Us is the single most credible, trusted and beloved toy brand in the world,” Yehuda Shmidman, chairman and chief executive officer of WHP, said in an interview. “We’re coming off a year where toys are just on fire. ... And for Toys R Us, the U.S. is really a blank canvas.”
So what could this all mean? Well, Shmidman said that the plan is to re-open Toys R Us stores again in North America! The company would ideally like this to happen before holiday season of this year. However the Toys R Us store that do pop back up might not be the traditional stores we're used to. Flagships, pop-ups, airport locations or mini stores inside other retailers’ shops are more along the lines of the company's vision for a re-opening.
There is no set number for how many locations WHP plans to open in the U.S., so we can't necessarily say that Toys R Us will or will not be opening again the Treasure Valley. It's definitely a possibility though!