A little over a year after a reconstituted Toys ‘R’ Us opened two brick-and-mortar stores to much fanfare, the toy seller is now permanently closing the stores, according to multiple media reports, Retail Dive reported. The stores, opened in the fall of 2019, were a joint venture between Tru Kids, owner of the Toys ‘R’ Us intellectual property, and b8ta. Tru Kids did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When Toys ‘R’ Us was liquidating its stores and putting its remaining assets up for sale, some speculated that its intellectual property might be among the most valuable ever sold in a chapter 11 auction. The speculation stemmed from the millions of adults who shopped in its stores when they were younger and associated the brand with all the greedy joys of toy acquisition to a child. The auction never happened. The toy retailer's lenders — who pulled the plug on the toy store chain and sent it into wind down-mode after it fell short of performance projections in the 2017 holiday season — opted to take ownership of the property instead through what became Tru Kids, which also runs international Toys ‘R’ Us operations. Headed by Richard Barry, the old Toys ‘R’ Us' chief merchant, Tru Kids partnered with b8ta to open its first two stores under the Toys ‘R’ Us banner. The stores weren't exactly stores in the traditional sense of buying inventory from suppliers and selling it for a profit. They were more a kind of marketing platform and showroom for toymakers, which paid Toys ‘R’ Us fees to put their products in the location. The store closures come at a time when the toy category broadly has gotten a big bump in the COVID-19 era, with parents seeking ways to entertain children stuck at home. From their closures, it seems traffic declines at the store were severe enough to lower their value as showrooms in the eyes of suppliers.
