Toys "R" Us and its mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe are trying to make another brick-and-mortar comeback ahead of the holiday season, after the brand filed for bankruptcy and shuttered all of its 800 U.S. stores four years ago, The Washington Post reported. From this month through mid-October, the brand is opening shops inside every Macy’s store in the U.S. The Toys "R" Us shops will be between 1,000 and 10,000 square feet in size, but the industry trends that contributed to Toys "R" Us’s initial downfall are still in place. Although consumers have been buying more and more toys every year in terms of dollars since 2019, according to a June report by NPD, purchases increasingly happen online. Toys "R" Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017, worn down by nearly $8 billion in debt and growing competition from online rivals. Two years later, it tried to come back, but the pandemic had other ideas. In August, under the new ownership of WHP Global, the toy seller embarked on a new e-commerce partnership with Macy’s. At the time, Macy’s pledged to open brick-and-mortar Toys "R" Us shops at 400 of its locations in 2022. In 1987, the best-paid CEO in the U.S. was Charles Lazarus, the founder and leader of Toys "R" Us, receiving $60 million. He lived long enough to see Toys "R" Us file for chapter 11 protection, dying in 2018 at the age of 94.
