Beloved Retailer that Private Equity Destroyed is Back with 120 New Toys R Us Stores Opening
Toys R Us went bankrupt, closed every store in America, and got written off as retail's most infamous corpse.
Nearly a decade later, that same corpse just announced 120 new stores opening across the country this holiday season.
What killed the original chain in the first place is exactly what its comeback is betting against.
The Chain Every Expert Buried in 2018
Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017.
By June 2018, every single U.S. store was gone, and business reporters filed it under the "retail apocalypse," the biggest name yet to prove that physical stores were finished and the internet had won.
Debt from a 2005 private equity buyout, not Amazon alone, is what actually sank the company.
Toys R Us was not even the only toy chain to collapse around that time. KB Toys, the mall-based chain generations of kids also grew up on, filed for bankruptcy protection and shut down its stores in the same stretch, which is part of why the "toys are dead" verdict felt so final.
Toys R Us reemerged under Tru Kids Brands in 2019 with a handful of small stores.
WHP Global bought a controlling stake in March 2021, and a 2022 partnership put toy shops inside Macy's locations, where toy sales reportedly ran fifteen times higher than before.
120 New Stores Say the Obituary Writers Were Wrong
Toys R Us and its retail partner, Go! Retail Group, announced 120 new standalone stores opening across the United States for the 2026 holiday season.
That brings the chain's U.S. store count to 160, a number nobody in 2018 would have believed.
Go! Retail Group CEO Gideon Schlessinger said the expansion is built to bring the shopping experience to millions of families this holiday season.
Toys R Us executive Jamie Uitdenhowen called it "a major moment" for the brand as it significantly expands its presence across the country.
A Florida airport location is already scheduled to open in summer 2027, part of a broader push that already includes a Toys R Us at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and toy shops built into cruise ship itineraries.
Company chairman Yehuda Shmidman has described the strategy as reaching families "whether you're visiting one of our stores at Macy's, at our flagships, in an airport or onboard a cruise ship."
The chain had barely more than two dozen stores open just last year, testing the concept slowly and carefully before committing real capital.
This holiday season's jump to 160 stores is not a cautious test anymore.
It is a company betting big that America still wants the toy aisle, not just the algorithm.
None of that fits the narrative that killed the chain the first time around.
Real Stores, Real Families, Real Comeback
Toys R Us just bet 120 storefronts that the "retail apocalypse" crowd had it backwards, and it is betting on the same thing that made the brand a childhood landmark in the first place: a kid walking down an aisle taller than he is, surrounded by toys he can actually touch.
That is not nostalgia marketing dressed up as strategy.
It is a real company putting real money into real buildings in real American towns, at the exact moment plenty of retail commentary still insists the physical store is a relic.
Toy Association president Greg Ahearn said the comeback "creates an experience that consumers still want, which is to walk into an in-person retail environment and be hit with the joy and wonder of toys."
A brand like Toys R Us, Ahearn said, "still lives in grandparents', parents', caregivers' minds," which is exactly why the nostalgia is not the gimmick critics assumed it was.
Every one of those 160 stores is a bet on families who would rather drive to a store than wait for a box on the porch.
Toys R Us died once because a private equity deal buried it in debt, not because families stopped wanting to shop that way.
Now it is back, bigger, and betting the country never actually stopped wanting the real thing.
Sources:
- Fox Business Staff, "Toys 'R' Us Makes Major Comeback With 120 New Stores Opening Across US This Holiday Season," Fox Business, September 17, 2026.
- Fox Business Staff, "Final Toys R Us Stores to Close by Friday," Fox Business, June 2018.
- Fox Business Staff, "Toys R Us Expands Brick-and-Mortar Comeback to Over 30 US Locations," Fox Business, 2025.
- Fox News Staff, "KB Toys to Close Up to 238 Stores as It Reorganizes," Fox News, 2004.
- Bisnow Staff, "Toys R Us Plans Comeback With 'Air, Land and Sea' Expansion," Bisnow, 2023.
- Retail Brew Staff, "Toys R Us Is Making a Comeback, and Toymakers Are Rejoicing," Retail Brew, November 2025.
