Toys “R” Us is back on Triad shelves after years away, with new year-round stores now open at Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem and Friendly Center in Greensboro.
The new stores are at Hanes Mall and Friendly Center, according to Greensboro News and Record, which first reported on the openings. Their return brings the brand back to two Triad shopping centers.
A Brand Rebuilding From the Ground Up
A Brand Rebuilding From the Ground Up Toys “R” Us is reviving its brick-and-mortar retail presence nationwide after a rough stretch that saw the company all but vanish from American malls. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017. The Winston-Salem store at Silas Creek Crossing and the Greensboro store at the former High Point Road, now Gate City Boulevard, location later closed, the News and Record reports. The last two Toys “R” Us stores in the country, in Paramus, New Jersey, and Houston, Texas, didn't close until 2021, according to FOX8.
The brand found a partial lifeline inside Macy's department stores, where it maintains a retail presence today. FOX8 reported in 2022 that Toys “R” Us was returning to the Macy's at Friendly Center, part of a plan for Macy's to devote space to the brand in all 400 of its stores by that October. Macy's later said its first-quarter 2022 toy sales ran 15 times higher than before it began selling under the Toys “R” Us name, the station's report notes.
A National Push
Go! Retail Group, which now operates Toys “R” Us stores, is partnering with the brand on its expansion. Toys “R” Us announced on Sept. 17 that 120 standalone stores would open across the country during the holiday season in partnership with Go! Retail Group, according to a company release carried by PR Newswire. The dossier does not explain how the earlier 10-store plan relates to the later 120-store push.
With those new locations, the company said it expected 160 standalone stores to be open nationwide by the holiday season, counting 40 existing standalone stores alongside the new openings, per the same release. Those existing stores joined a footprint that already included Toys “R” Us shops inside Macy's locations nationwide, the announcement said.
Executive Touts Expansion as Meeting Shoppers Where They Are
Jamie Uitdenhowen, executive vice president of Toys “R” Us parent company WHP Global, said the store openings mark a major expansion of the brand's U.S. presence. Uitdenhowen said Toys “R” Us is growing in unique ways to meet customers wherever they are, and that the company builds on its legacy by offering popular toys, trends and experiences. The national standalone-store assortment is expected to include popular brands such as LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels and Pokémon.
That brand lineup echoes what the company has emphasized elsewhere in its national rollout. According to NBC News, Toys “R” Us has also named Kpop Demon Hunters among its top offerings as it leans into a surprising customer base. Circana market research cited by the outlet found toy sales among adult-only households grew 16% through June, now accounting for 55% of total toy industry receipts, with toy sales among all adults growing 25% compared with 33% among teens.
A National Push Beyond North Carolina
Toys “R” Us is also returning in a smaller format elsewhere. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a planned store at Tanger Outlets was described as 6,000 square feet, a fraction of the former 47,000-square-foot Toys “R” Us that had operated for 29 years in Manheim Township before closing in 2018, according to LancasterOnline. That outlet also reported WHP Global expected roughly 160 standalone stores nationwide this holiday season, matching the figure in the company's national announcement.
For Triad shoppers who grew up wandering the aisles of the old Toys “R” Us megastores, the new Hanes Mall and Friendly Center locations offer a new version of the experience. Whether the brand can recapture its old foothold in the market remains to be seen, but for now, Geoffrey the Giraffe has a bit more room to roam in North Carolina again.
