Toys R Us is back (online) and partnering with Target
You can’t keep a good toy store down.
Toys R Us made a return (of sorts) Tuesday by launching a new website.
Of course, it’s getting a little help from its friends. At Target.
Toys R Us’ parent company, Tru Kids Brands, is teaming with Target Corp. to relaunch Toysrus.com, according to a joint release from the companies.
The new site, just in time for the holiday shopping season, is basically a middleman — with reviews, product descriptions and photos — to the Target site. When it’s time to buy, customers are redirected to Target’s site to make the purchase.
The move comes more than a year after the toy chain shut down its U.S. operations and just ahead of next month’s launch of two brick and mortar stores — one in Houston, the other in Paramus, N.J.
Richard Barry, a former Toys R Us executive and now CEO of Tru Kids Brands, told the Associated Press in February that he and his team were exploring various options for the company, including freestanding stores and shops within existing stores. He said e-commerce would play a key role.
Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in September 2017 and liquidated its businesses in 2018.
Chris Pastrick is a TribLive digital producer. An Allegheny County native, he began working for the Valley News Dispatch in 1993 and joined the Trib in 1997. He can be reached at cpastrick@triblive.com.
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