Retail Watchers

Toys R Us will open stores in every single Macy's store starting in July and completing the roll out in October. Major cities will receive a 10,000 square foot store within a store: Atlanta, Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/macys-brings- ... d=87029326

At the Washington Square store in Oregon, Macy's opened.up the Toys RUs department where the juniors department was by the main mall entrance. It's lame but the location may lead to some business. It doesn't look fun at all and doesn't remind me of Toys R Us at all. It's a department store trying to sell over priced toys. Nice try but it isn't going to work. Right next to it is the cosmetics area. I can just see the overly made up cosmetics saleswomen giving the evil eye to kids who want to play and make noise.

babs wrote: ↑July 19th, 2022, 4:06 pm At the Washington Square store in Oregon, Macy's opened.up the Toys RUs department where the juniors department was by the main mall entrance. It's lame but the location may lead to some business. It doesn't look fun at all and doesn't remind me of Toys R Us at all. It's a department store trying to sell over priced toys. Nice try but it isn't going to work. Right next to it is the cosmetics area. I can just see the overly made up cosmetics saleswomen giving the evil eye to kids who want to play and make noise.

Didn't they try this with FAO Schwartz in the 90's?

Are toys really a high margin product to put on display near the mall (vs. the cosmetics?) to be worth having on that display?

I think Macy's would be better off opening temporary Toys R Us shops in vacant mall spaces in the malls, similar to how they in the past used to open satellite "holiday lane" shops in vacant mall spaces.

Maybe in the rare case of a Macy's that has its children's clothing department at the mall entrance (I've never seen such a Macy's), they should go ahead and put the toys by that mall entrance.

babs wrote: ↑July 19th, 2022, 4:06 pm At the Washington Square store in Oregon, Macy's opened.up the Toys RUs department where the juniors department was by the main mall entrance.

That is a pretty big chunk of floorspace and just down from LEGO, which seems quite successful, though. I agree, seems like department store toy departments. We'll see if that leads to big returns.

The Toys R Us website now redirects you to buy all of the toys on the Macy's website. Every item says it is sold and shipped by Macy's. Toy R Us says it earns from qualifying purchases at Macys.com

You can also order and pick up at any Macy's store.

Toys R Us is making Macy's do all the work, and Toys R Us doesn't have to spend money on warehouses or employees.

This seems like another half-hearted effort to 'revive' a dead brand (paired with a dying brand) that will go absolutely nowhere and will end up as lame as the few toy aisles inside Kohl's. Is someone going to really go out of their way to go to Macy's to buy toys?

mbz321 wrote: ↑July 21st, 2022, 7:00 am This seems like another half-hearted effort to 'revive' a dead brand (paired with a dying brand) that will go absolutely nowhere and will end up as lame as the few toy aisles inside Kohl's. Is someone going to really go out of their way to go to Macy's to buy toys?

There won't be any room in these new small Macy's for this. Also I think this does not match consumer expectation for Toys R Us which was previously a store that had the best variety of toys around. Having it as a mini department in a department store does not strike me as meeting the consumer expectation for the Toys R Us. Macys has been selling more toys in some stores for a number of years now primarily through Macy's Backstage and from the looks of it hasn't been very successful at it, what they are doing looks like they really trying to be a toy discounter or toy liquidator. I am not sure if with Toys R Us they will try to shift to first season/first pick toys at full retail and see if this is a way to shore up margins on their toys or what exactly the plan is.

The Toys R Us inside the Flagship Macy's has quite a large selection of items. This Macy's also has a Carvel Ice Cream Shop and Auntie Anne's Pretzels.

https://www.businessinsider.com/i-toure ... -it-too-44

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

CARVEL!

I visited one of the Macy's at the very busy Vintage Faire Mall in Modesto, California and saw a Toys R Us shop. It was on the first floor. It was near the Juniors clothing. It was a decent size with a moderate selection of toys. The toys seemed to be more higher end than Walmart. There were more toys geared towards young girls than for boys. There was only a small selection of action figures and they were for the the new Black Panther movie. There were Discovery Channel items such as crystal growing kits, fossil digs, and some anatomy toys. You can take apart a dinosaur and learn about its anatomy or take apart a human.

Is this Toys R Us shop a permanent shop? It seems like there is no other place to get toys at a mall. I did see an abandoned Toys R Us store not too far from the mall. It was very well preserved with the sign up and everything looking frozen in time.