Reimagined Toys R Us Stores Are About to Open in These States

Toys R Us has been resurrected. At least two stores are back and they are expected to open to the public shortly.

One will be opening this Saturday at the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, New Jersey. Another will open its doors next month at the Galleria in Houston, Texas.

Thee two smaller formatted stores are thanks in part to True Kids, who revitalized the brand’s parent company. They have also partnered with Target to launch the Toys R Us’ website.

It was last year that Toys R Us had liquidated and closed all of its stores.

“We wanted to make sure that everywhere you turned in the store there was interactivity,” said Richard Barry, president and CEO of Tru Kids, in an interview at the Paramus store.

“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.”

The Toys R Us location in Paramus is roughly 6,000 square feet. According to Barry, Toys R Us would take upward of 10,000 square feet per store in the future.

“We believe that Toys R Us was renowned, and customers really saw us as the experts in the space,” said 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.”