Honestly, walking into a store today and seeing Geoffrey the Giraffe feels a bit like a fever dream if you remember 2017. That was the year the "death of retail" supposedly claimed its biggest victim. We all saw the photos of the empty aisles and the sad, flickering neon signs. But the reality of Toys R Us 2025 is remarkably different from that funeral-procession vibe everyone expected. It isn’t the massive, 40,000-square-foot warehouse of your childhood, and frankly, it probably shouldn't be. The toy industry has changed, and the brand is finally catching up to the fact that people don't shop like they did in 1995.
WHP Global, the brand management firm that bought a controlling stake in the company back in 2021, has spent the last few years quietly weaving the brand back into the fabric of American shopping. If you've been to a Macy's lately, you've seen it. They basically turned the brand into a "store-within-a-store" model. It’s smart. It’s lean. It’s also exactly why the brand is surviving while other legacy retailers are still struggling to find their pulse.
Why the Toys R Us 2025 Strategy Matters Now
The comeback isn't just about nostalgia; it's about real estate efficiency. By the start of 2025, the partnership with Macy’s reached a point where nearly every full-line Macy’s in the U.S. has a dedicated Toys R Us section. We’re talking over 450 locations. But the real story for this year is the expansion into "flagship" travel hubs and standalone "experience" stores.
They opened a massive 20,000-square-foot flagship at the American Dream mall in New Jersey a while back, and that served as the blueprint for what we're seeing today. It's got a two-story slide and a cafe. It’s less about a shelf full of Barbie dolls and more about giving kids a reason to drag their parents out of the house. You can’t get a two-story slide on Amazon. Not yet, anyway.
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But let's look at the airports. That’s the weirdly brilliant move of Toys R Us 2025. Partnering with Duty Free Americas, they’ve been opening shops in major terminals like Dallas Fort Worth (DFW). If you’re a parent stuck at a gate with a screaming toddler and a three-hour delay, you aren't looking for the best price-to-value ratio on a LEGO set. You are looking for a miracle. Toys R Us is now that miracle. It’s a high-margin, high-visibility play that keeps the brand relevant to a generation of parents who might not ever step foot in a traditional mall.
The New Store Format vs. The Old Warehouse
The old stores were huge. Way too huge. Managing that much inventory in a world of next-day shipping was a nightmare that led to the original bankruptcy. Today, the footprint is tighter.
Most of the shop-in-shops are between 1,000 and 10,000 square feet. This smaller scale allows for better curation. Instead of forty different types of off-brand water guns, you get the hits—the stuff that’s trending on TikTok or the perennial favorites like Squishmallows and Hot Wheels.
It’s about "curated chaos."
WHP Global CEO Yehuda Shmidman has been pretty vocal about the fact that they aren't trying to rebuild a 1980s empire. They are building a global brand that lives in multiple places at once: online, in department stores, in airports, and even on cruise ships. Yes, cruise ships. They’ve even expanded onto the high seas through partnerships with companies like Carnival. It’s a "brand-first" approach rather than a "building-first" approach.
The Tech and Toys Driving Sales This Year
What are people actually buying in Toys R Us 2025? It’s a mix of "kidult" culture and high-tech integration. The "kidult" market—adults who buy toys for themselves—now accounts for a massive chunk of the industry's growth. We're talking billions of dollars. LEGO sets aimed at adults, high-end action figures, and collectible trading cards are front and center.
- Retro Revival: Tamagotchis and Furby are back, but with Bluetooth and app integration.
- Sustainability: Wooden toys and brands with "green" credentials are taking up more shelf space as Gen Z parents take over the market.
- The AI Influence: Toys that "learn" or interact using basic AI are starting to move from the novelty phase into the mainstream.
There’s also a heavy emphasis on "phygital" play. You’ll see QR codes everywhere in the 2025 stores. Scan a code next to a Jurassic World dinosaur, and you might get an AR overlay on your phone showing the T-Rex stomping through the store. It’s a way to keep kids engaged while parents do the actual shopping. It’s gimmicky, sure, but it works for the 7-year-old demographic.
The Competition is Fierce
Don't think for a second that Toys R Us is just walking back into a vacant throne. Target and Walmart have spent the last seven years eating Toys R Us's lunch. They’ve optimized their toy aisles and integrated their apps so well that it's hard to break those habits. Then you have CAMP, the "family experience store," which is basically doing the experiential retail thing better than anyone else right now.
CAMP creates immersive "shows" around brands like Bluey or Disney. For Toys R Us to compete in 2025, they have to prove that they aren't just a nostalgic logo, but a destination. The Macy's partnership provides the foot traffic, but the brand itself has to provide the "magic." Sometimes it feels like they’re still figuring out how to do that in the smaller spaces.
Global Expansion: Beyond the US Borders
While we focus on the US comeback, Toys R Us never really died in places like Asia or Canada. In fact, the international arm of the brand remained relatively healthy. In 2025, we’re seeing a "reverse osmosis" where the successful strategies from the Asian markets—like high-tech flagship stores in China—are finally being imported back to the West.
In Canada, Doug Putman (the guy who saved Sunrise Records and HMV) has been working on his own version of the brand’s revival. This means that depending on where you are in the world, your experience of Toys R Us 2025 might be totally different. In Toronto, you might see a sprawling standalone store. In Atlanta, you might see a 2,000-square-foot nook in a Macy's. This fragmentation is a bit confusing for the brand identity, but it’s a survival tactic.
The Nostalgia Trap
There is a danger here. Relying on parents who "don't want to grow up" only lasts as long as those parents have disposable income and a sense of sentimentality. For the brand to thrive through the rest of the decade, it has to win over the kids who have zero memory of the original stores. To a kid born in 2018, Toys R Us is just that place inside the department store where their mom buys clothes.
To combat this, the brand is leaning heavily into content. They’ve been experimenting with YouTube series and digital characters to make Geoffrey more than just a mascot on a wall. They want him to be a personality. Whether or not a giraffe can compete with MrBeast is a different question entirely, but they’re trying.
What This Means for Your Next Shopping Trip
If you’re planning to visit a Toys R Us 2025 location, keep your expectations realistic. It isn't a time machine. You won't find aisles that go on for miles. What you will find is a highly curated, generally more expensive, and more interactive experience than you’d get at a big-box retailer.
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- Check the Macy's App: Before you drive out, check which Macy's locations have the "expanded" toy sections. Some are just a few shelves; others are full-blown experiences.
- Look for Exclusives: The brand is pushing harder for "Only at Toys R Us" items to differentiate themselves from Amazon. This is especially true for certain LEGO and Hasbro lines.
- Events Matter: Many locations are hosting "Geoffrey’s Birthday" events or LEGO build days again. These are usually free and are the best way to get the "old school" feel back.
- Airport Strategy: If you're traveling through DFW or other major hubs, save some of your "sanity budget" for the airport stores. They often stock travel-friendly kits you won't find in the regular aisles.
The survival of the brand is honestly a testament to how much we love a good comeback story. It’s not perfect, and the "store-within-a-store" concept can feel a bit cramped sometimes. But seeing that purple and orange logo back in the world is better than the alternative. The business model is leaner, the locations are weirder (hello, cruise ships!), and the focus is squarely on the "kidult" and the bored traveler.
It’s a scrappy version of its former self. And in today's retail climate, scrappy is usually the only thing that survives. The next time you're in a Macy's, head to the toy section and just watch the kids. They don't care about corporate restructuring or bankruptcy filings. They just see the giraffe. And maybe, in 2025, that's enough to keep the lights on.
Actionable Insights for Consumers:
- Verify Store Type: Use the Toys R Us website store locator to distinguish between a "Flagship" (full experience), a "Macy's Shop-in-Shop" (standard), and "Travel Retail" (airports).
- Loyalty Programs: If you shop at the Macy's locations, use a Star Rewards account; currently, the rewards points often bridge over to toy purchases, which is a loophole for saving on brands that rarely go on sale, like LEGO.
- In-Store Pickups: Utilize the "Buy Online, Pick Up In Store" (BOPIS) feature through the Macy's website to ensure the specific toy is actually in the "shop-in-shop" before you make the trip.