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VOL. 133 | NO. 24 | Thursday, February 1, 2018
Memphis Toys R Us to Remain Open
By Patrick Lantrip
A representative with Toys R Us has confirmed to the Daily News that the retailer’s Memphis location at 7676 Polo Ground Blvd. will now remain open.
The news comes a week after New Jersey-based Toys R Us announced they would be closing 180 stores across the United States as a part of their Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization efforts.
In the Jan. 23 court filings, Toys R Us said that over the past several years, the company has faced “a challenging commercial environment exacerbated by increased competition from traditional competitors and a shift in consumer preferences away from shopping at brick and mortar stores to online retail channels,” which left the company with a significant number of stores operating at suboptimal levels.
The decision to close the nearly 200 stores was made after “an extensive store-by-store performance analysis” in an effort to right-size the company’s brick-and-mortar presence, according to the bankruptcy court filings.
The remaining store closings are expected to begin in February and wrap up by mid-April.
The toy retail giant, which at one time was itself considered a major disrupter in the world of retail, filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, citing $5 billion in debt.
Founded in 1948 by Charles P. Lazarus, Toys R Us operates roughly 1,600 stores worldwide, including more than 850 in the U.S.