Toys"R"Us is betting big on brick-and-mortar retail with plans to open 120 new standalone stores nationwide this holiday season, a move that would quadruple the brand's current U.S. storefront count in a matter of months.
The toy retailer announced the expansion on September 17, 2026, calling it "the next phase of the brand's U.S. growth strategy." The new locations, opened through a partnership with Austin, Texas-based Go! Retail Group, will bring the total number of standalone Toys"R"Us stores to 160 by the time holiday shopping kicks into gear. Before this push, just 40 standalone stores operated in the country.
For a brand that once anchored strip malls from coast to coast before collapsing into bankruptcy and shuttering nearly every U.S. location, the scale of the announcement is striking. One hundred and twenty stores in a single season is not a cautious toe-in-the-water. It is a full-speed bet that American families still want a physical place to buy toys, and that the brand's comeback has real legs.
Go! Retail Group, a family-owned company that has operated since 1993, will run the new standalone locations. The firm already manages a portfolio that includes Toys"R"Us, Babies"R"Us, Calendars.com, and other retail brands, operating pop-up stores across six countries alongside year-round locations, e-commerce, and wholesale channels.
Gideon Schlessinger, CEO of Go! Retail Group, framed the expansion in unambiguous terms:
"This holiday season represents an extraordinary expansion for Toys"R"Us in the U.S., and we couldn't be more excited to bring the magic of Toys"R"Us to so many communities across the country. There's something special about walking into a Toys"R"Us store, especially during the holidays, the excitement of discovering the hottest toys, seeing favorite brands and characters come to life, and finding that perfect gift. With 160 stores open this season, we have an incredible opportunity to bring that experience to millions of customers and create destinations they'll want to come back to throughout the year."
The company did not disclose which specific cities or states will receive the 120 new locations. A photo caption in the announcement referenced a store in San Marcos, Texas, but no broader location list was provided.
That gap matters. Retailers that announce aggressive expansion timelines without publishing site lists sometimes face delays, lease complications, or scaling problems. Whether Go! Retail Group can stand up 120 locations in time for the holiday rush, staffed, stocked, and ready, remains an open question.
Standalone stores are only part of the strategy. Toys"R"Us also operates shop-in-shop locations inside Macy's stores nationwide and through the Navy Exchange Service Command, which serves military families on bases and installations. The press release did not specify how many Macy's or NEXCOM locations currently carry the brand.
A newer channel is travel retail. In partnership with WHSmith North America, Toys"R"Us opened its first airport shop-in-shop at Orlando International Airport in August 2026. A second location at the same airport is scheduled for summer 2027. The company described Orlando as "one of the country's largest family travel markets", a reasonable claim for a metro area built around theme parks.
The broader R Us brand family has been rebuilding through partnerships like these, testing whether the name still carries enough weight with consumers to justify shelf space inside other retailers' walls.
Jamie Uitdenhowen, Executive Vice President of Toys"R"Us at WHP Global, the brand management firm that owns the Toys"R"Us name, laid out the multi-channel logic:
"This is a major moment for Toys"R"Us as we significantly expand our presence across the United States. Together with our incredible partners, we are growing Toys"R"Us in unique ways to meet customers wherever they are, whether that's at a standalone store in their hometown, inside Macy's, at the airport or at a Navy Exchange."
WHP Global, the firm behind the expansion, describes itself as a leading brand management company. Its portfolio includes more than 16 consumer brands generating over $9.5 billion in combined retail sales. Toys"R"Us alone accounts for more than $2 billion in annual retail sales globally, spread across over 1,680 stores and e-commerce operations in 37 countries.
Those are corporate-supplied figures, and the press release did not specify whether they reflect current-year numbers or a prior reporting period. Still, they suggest a brand with meaningful international revenue, even if its U.S. physical presence has, until now, been a fraction of what it was before the 2017 bankruptcy.
The new stores will feature what the company calls enhanced in-store experiences, including Creator Studios, candy shops, and cafés. Which locations will carry those features was not disclosed. The announcement also highlighted Geoffrey the Giraffe, the brand's mascot, as part of the in-store experience, a nod to nostalgia that the company is clearly banking on.
Toys"R"Us is swimming against a current that has pulled many retailers toward smaller footprints or online-only models. Some chains have closed hundreds of stores in recent years, concluding that e-commerce is where the margin lives.
But the toy category has always been different. Kids want to see, touch, and play with products before their parents buy. That tactile advantage is one reason physical toy retail has never fully migrated online. And the holiday season, when gift-buying surges and impulse purchases spike, is the natural window for a brand like Toys"R"Us to maximize foot traffic.
Other major retailers have moved in the opposite direction this year. Costco has pushed aggressively into new warehouse openings, suggesting that physical retail is far from finished, at least for companies with the right model and the right product.
Whether Toys"R"Us has that model is the real question. The company's previous incarnation collapsed under crushing debt, mismanagement, and an inability to compete with Amazon and Walmart on price. The brand name survived. The question is whether the operation behind it has learned anything.
Meanwhile, safety concerns in the children's product market have kept regulators and parents alert to what ends up on store shelves, another pressure point for any retailer scaling fast in the toy space.
Go! Retail Group's experience running pop-up and seasonal retail across multiple countries gives it operational credibility for a rapid rollout. The firm has done this before, at scale, in compressed timelines. But 120 stores is a large number, and the announcement offered no detail on lease terms, store sizes, staffing plans, or the financial structure of the partnership with WHP Global.
Toys"R"Us celebrated more than 70 years in the toy industry before its U.S. stores went dark. The brand still carries enormous recognition among parents who grew up wandering its aisles. That goodwill is a real asset, but only if the stores deliver an experience worth the drive.
The expansion is ambitious, the timeline is tight, and the company has not answered basic questions about where these stores will land or how they will be funded. What it has done is place a clear bet: that American families want Toys"R"Us back, in person, in their communities.
In a retail landscape littered with brands that promised comebacks and delivered empty storefronts, the only thing that will matter is whether those 160 doors are open, stocked, and busy when the holiday lights go up.