I have been following the story of Toys

R Us for a while now. Their enormous

rise and becoming the largest and most

recognizable toy store in the world only

for them to come crashing down following

increased competition and a disastrous

private equity takeover. Following their

bankruptcy, however, and since I last

checked in on them on this channel, a

lot has changed. The company has seen a

whole other rise and disastrous fall and

is now charting a completely new course.

So, I thought it would be interesting to

check in once again on the store that

you'll never outgrow. This is the 2026

update of Toys R Us. This video is

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plus free breakfast for a year. Last

time we took a look at Toys R Us, the

chain was preparing and in some cases

executing a massive comeback. You might

remember that back in 2019, the 1977

founded Toys R Us Corporation had filed

for bankruptcy and subsequently

liquidated their entire American

presence. It's a story that I also

covered back when it was happening. And

the loss of the company, which was sad

for millions, was a result of incredibly

fierce competition, as well as the

enormous debt the company had been

saddled with following their private

equity takeover. Regardless, those

private equity owners still saw value in

the brand name and its potential. So,

they essentially decided to start all

over. Following a partnership with

Target, which would handle their online

e-commerce presence, as well as opening

a few limited store within a store

shelves inside Kroger's locations, those

private equity owners would create a new

corporate brand called TRU Kids,

standing for Toys R Us kids. This

company would emerge out of the

bankruptcy with new corporate leadership

and no longer be tethered to the

original, now bankrupt company. Back in

my 2020 update video on the brand, the

real big news was the introduction of

new brickandmortar retail locations.

Toys R Us would be mounting a comeback

with brand new stores. These were pretty

different, though. They weren't the

massive, often standalone big box

locations with seemingly endless aisles

of toys. These new locations, primarily

inside of shopping malls, would adopt

interactive kiosks and focus on marquee

products. and they would open two

locations by the end of 2019. The

company claimed that reviews for these

new locations were positive and

following the initial two openings, Toys

R Us leadership had said they were

looking to expand up to 10 stores by

2020. Of course, however, the pandemic

certainly threw a wrench into those

plans. COVID lockdown measures meant

that large gatherings and in-person

shopping had to be scaled down for new

physical locations that had a lot of

hands-on displays. This is probably one

of the worst economic climates they

could have imagined. As the malls in

which Toys R Us had just opened inside

of now closed to comply with the

measures, the new long-term strategy for

the brand was turned upside down. The

company almost immediately cancelled all

future store openings and stuck out the

remainder of 2020 with a precipitous

decline in foot traffic. By January

2021, Toys R Us was once again giving

into the pressure and closing locations.

They had announced that the initial two

locations they had just opened would now

be closing, stating that due to

challenges with the pandemic, they had

now been forced to pivot to new

strategies. These brand new two

locations were constantly losing money.

Remember too, this was all being done

under the original private equity

owners, which originally saw the company

through its final chapter 7 bankruptcy.

And now after this failure, it seemed

like they were ready to pass the brand

on. By March 2021, a brand management

firm called WHP Global, which only owned

a few small fashion companies, had

announced that they would be acquiring

controlling shares of True Kids, taking

over the Toys R Us brand with their own

new vision. While the new owners were

just a management company, they were

still backed by private equity with

nearly $350 million behind them from Oak

Tree Capital Management. By now, the

brand's only presence in America was

again back online. Target's partnership

had run its course, and now Amazon was

the new e-commerce partner, which

handled fulfillments. Just like Target,

it was a very ironic partnership to make

since Amazon was a massive competitor

for the original chain. WHP Global

claimed that the toy industry was still

a hot market to be in, even during the

pandemic. And following the closure of

the two mall locations, Toys R Us, as

they described it, was essentially a

blank canvas for them. By summer of

2021, Toys R Us announced their entry

back into brick and mortar. Just like

the first time around post bankruptcy,

they would start out not with their own

locations, but a store within a store

concept, opening Toys R Us branded

sections within 400 Macy stores

nationwide. While these began to roll

out, the company was still eager to open

a standalone new retail location by the

end of the holiday season. And that's

exactly what they did. By December 2021,

the company opened what they claimed to

be their new flagship store inside of

the American Dream Mall. It was a

sprawling twostory 20,000 ft location,

complete with a cafe and retaining much

of the modern aesthetics originally

crafted for the 2019 launch. But it

didn't stop here. While the American

Dream Store seemed to be doing quite

well, especially when I visited back in

August of 2022, around the same time,

Toys R Us opened another nine locations,

slowly building a larger presence. The

company also announced more ambitious

plans, laying out future expansion,

including smaller locations inside of

airports and even cruise ships. This is

why in 2024 they made a deal with

Nexcom, a retailer found primarily in

military bases where Toys R Us would now

be included. To further their reach,

particularly during the lucrative

holiday season, the company would ink a

deal with the seasonal retailer Go

Calendars and Board Games, where they

would set up and operate Toys R Us

holiday shop in malls across the

country. Clearly, the strategy here was

to favor partnering with other brands

who would operate their stores and focus

on licensing the brand name out. While

there are new shiny locations bearing

the Toys R Us brand name, their reach in

the physical storefront space is limited

and the growth on that front is

calculated and incremental. This is all

while the brand name is found in many

other locations, just in a lesser

extent. I myself came across one inside

a weird strip mall Macy's in the

Midwest, relegated to the back wall of

the SoftGoods big box store. The mess of

the section wasn't exactly the hottest

toy store on this Tuesday afternoon.

Like many of the Macy's inspirations,

apart from maybe their flagship store,

it is rather flat and modern. You'd

assume a design language that would be

the last thing a child would be

interested in. But at least there is

some color and a character photo op,

which is nice. Choosing Macy's as the

store within a store partner is an

interesting one, though. And as Macy's

continues to decline in closed stores,

it'll be fascinating to see where Toys R

Us fits in this whole mold. But during

this whole turbulent bankruptcy and

resurgence of the Toys R Us company in

America, the brand name has always

continued to live on in other countries

around the world. There are still

hundreds of stores internationally,

completely separate corporate structures

divorced from the American company.

However, some of those outposts have

also come on hard times. Toys R Us

Australia, which first entered the

country back in 1993, had essentially

filed for Australia's version of

bankruptcy in 2025. They had already

closed all of their stores just prior to

the pandemic and then mounted an

unsuccessful comeback into the country.

Meanwhile, Toys R Us Canada, which first

opened in 1984 and then was successfully

sold off in 2018, had also held on

longer than they could sustain. The

division saw two different Canadian

investment firm owners come in until the

company began to fall behind on supplier

and lease payments through the early

2020s. The company ultimately racked up

over $150 million worth of debt. And

with a portfolio made up of mostly

outdated stores, they too had reached

the end of the line. In February 2026,

Toys R Us Canada had also filed for the

equivalent of bankruptcy, possibly

spelling the end for the 22 remaining

locations in the country. While the

prospects of the brand have been bleak

in Australia and Canada, Toys R Us

continues to do well in many other

markets like the UK and Asia, WHP also

sees more potential for business in

other international markets, recently

signing partnerships with retailers in

Latin America. But the chain continues

to grow domestically, too. Toys R Us as

a brand has certainly been through a

lot. the painful and infuriating decline

through the 2000s, resulting in their

2018 disappearance, only to then be

resurrected in a completely new form by

the same owners, only then to be

preceded by yet another failure. I mean,

all of that very well could have been

the final nail in the coffin. But

clearly, other investors saw a business

case for the brand, and there is clearly

an appetite from consumers to see more

growth with it. Now, these many shopping

mall locations, I don't think will ever

capture the imagination and scale Toys R

Us once did. Their presence is very

modern, and the company still has to

grapple with many of the very real

challenges that the original chain had

to deal with. But at least for now,

they're on a path that seems to be far

more stable than it has ever been. And

maybe for the first time since many

decades ago, the chain might finally

have a bright future. After all,

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Anyway guys, my name is Jake and thank

you very much for watching.

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