Toys“R”Us is preparing its largest US store expansion since the brand emerged from the aftermath of its 2018 liquidation, with 120 new standalone locations scheduled to open for the 2026 holiday season through its partnership with Go! Retail Group.
The rollout will increase the brand’s US standalone presence from about 40 locations to 160, alongside Toys“R”Us shops inside Macy’s and additional travel-retail formats. WHP Global, which acquired a controlling interest in the brand in 2021, says Toys“R”Us now generates more than $2 billion of annual global retail sales across more than 1,680 stores and e-commerce channels in 37 countries.
The timing is unusually favourable for a retailer once treated as a symbol of the decline of large-format toy stores. US toy dollar sales rose 17% year over year during the first half of 2026, the industry’s strongest first-half performance in six years, while unit sales increased 12% and average selling prices rose 4%.
That growth is also coming from a different customer base than the one Toys“R”Us relied on before bankruptcy. Adult-only households accounted for 55% of toy sales during the first half, according to Circana, while purchases for adult recipients grew 25% and became the largest contributor to industry growth.
Why can Toys R Us expand stores after its previous US collapse?
The original Toys“R”Us failed under a very different corporate structure. Its 2017 Chapter 11 bankruptcy followed years of high debt, intense online competition and a large store estate that became difficult to reinvest in while interest and operating costs consumed cash.
The current model is more asset-light and partnership driven. WHP Global owns and manages the brand while Go! Retail Group operates standalone retail locations, allowing Toys“R”Us to expand through an experienced specialty retailer rather than rebuilding the exact operating structure that collapsed a decade earlier.
The brand also operates smaller shops within Macy’s, airport locations and other formats instead of relying solely on very large suburban stores. That diversified footprint gives management more flexibility to match store size and economics to local demand.
Opening 120 stores in one holiday season still introduces significant execution risk. Inventory, seasonal staffing, leases and logistics all need to be coordinated quickly, and temporary holiday demand can make weak locations appear healthier than they are during the rest of the year.
How much does the 120-store plan change Toys R Us’ US footprint?
Moving from 40 standalone stores to 160 represents a fourfold increase in the standalone count. That is a dramatic percentage expansion even though the resulting network remains much smaller than the hundreds of large US stores operated before the old company liquidated.
The strategy appears deliberately focused on selective retail rather than recreating the previous national big-box footprint overnight. Some locations will add cafés, candy shops and Creator Studios designed for launches, influencers and branded events, suggesting the stores are intended partly as experiential destinations.
That matters because conventional toy transactions can easily move online. Physical stores need to create enough discovery, entertainment or immediate gratification to justify the rent and labour associated with a brick-and-mortar network.
The brand’s nostalgia provides an advantage, but nostalgia alone cannot sustain store economics. The new locations need to convert brand recognition into repeat traffic across families, collectors and adult hobby customers.
Why are adult consumers becoming so important to the toy industry?
Circana says adult-only households accounted for 55% of US toy sales in the first half of 2026. Sales for recipients aged 18 and older increased 25%, while teens were the fastest-growing recipient group, demonstrating that the category is becoming less dependent on traditional children’s gifting occasions.
Trading cards, collectibles, building sets and licensed products have been major growth engines. Games and puzzles increased 45% in the first half, while building sets rose 22% and licensed toys grew 24%.
This shift potentially improves the economics of specialist toy retail because adults can purchase throughout the year rather than concentrating spending around birthdays and December holidays. Collectibles can also encourage repeat visits as customers search for new releases or limited editions.
Toys“R”Us is positioning Creator Studios and experiential areas partly around that fandom economy. A store serving collectors and content creators functions differently from the traditional model of parents simply buying toys for young children.
Can a 17% industry growth rate support 120 additional stores?
The first-half growth rate provides a strong backdrop, but retailers should not assume 17% annual growth continues indefinitely. Trading cards and licensed properties can experience sharp cycles, while holiday spending remains sensitive to household finances.
Store expansion therefore needs to be justified at the individual location level. High-traffic malls, outlets and mixed-use destinations can create attractive economics, while weaker centres may struggle once opening publicity and holiday demand fade.
The Go! Retail partnership gives Toys“R”Us an operator familiar with seasonal specialty retail, which may help the company adjust formats and inventory more quickly. The model can also make it easier to test locations before committing to a very long store life.
The most meaningful measure will be which stores remain productive after the holiday season. A successful comeback requires durable year-round economics rather than 120 simultaneous openings producing one strong Christmas.
Why does the Macy’s relationship still matter after standalone stores expand?
Toys“R”Us shops within Macy’s give the brand reach without requiring dedicated standalone leases in every market. They also expose the name to shoppers already visiting a department store for clothing, beauty and gifting, lowering the customer-acquisition burden compared with operating a separate destination.
Standalone stores serve a different purpose. They allow much broader assortments, immersive merchandising and events that are difficult to reproduce inside a smaller shop-in-shop.
The two formats can therefore complement rather than replace one another. Macy’s offers distributed reach, while standalone stores give the brand more control over experience and inventory.
That multi-format approach is one of the biggest differences between the revived Toys“R”Us and the business that disappeared from US malls in 2018. The company is rebuilding presence without depending on one store model for every customer occasion.
What will show whether the Toys R Us comeback is commercially durable?
Store retention after the 2026 holidays will be the clearest indicator. Opening 120 locations creates headlines, but keeping them productive through 2027 would demonstrate that demand extends beyond seasonal enthusiasm.
The second measure is sales productivity. Toys“R”Us has disclosed global retail-sales scale but not expected US revenue per new store, leaving investors and competitors to assess performance through future footprint decisions and partner disclosures.
The third measure is customer mix. If adult collectors continue accounting for a large share of toy-industry growth, stores designed around fandom, licensed properties and experiences could produce very different economics from the child-focused big-box model of the past.
Toys“R”Us is not recreating the chain that filed for bankruptcy in 2017. It is testing whether one of retail’s most recognisable brands can support a more flexible operating model at exactly the moment when the toy category is expanding beyond children and into a broader entertainment and collecting market.
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