The new owners of the Babies R Us brand today unveiled the flagship store that will be the centerpiece of their plan to revive the baby-focused retail chain that closed when its parent, Toys R Us, collapsed.
The store, at the American Dream megamall in East Rutherford, N.J., is designed to showcase the brand – and its potential – while selling car seats, strollers, furniture, clothing and everything else needed for a newborn.
The planned Babies R Us revival has been in the works since the new owners acquired the brand in 2021, but the timing of the store opening this week is particularly opportune. It is opening as all Buy Buy Baby stores are closing, due to the bankruptcy of parent company Bed Bath And Beyond.
The company that owns the Babies R Us brand, WHP Global, is using the same game plan it employed to resurrect the Toys R Us brand in this country. Phase one of that plan was opening a flagship, experiential store in a prominent location, and using that store as a springboard to launch partnership deals and promote brand awareness.
The Babies R Us store is located near the Toys R Us flagship store that WHP opened at American Dream mall in December, 2021. It is scheduled to open to the public at 11 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, July 19, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The reborn Babies R Us, unveiled in a press preview today, is about half the size of the old big-box Babies stores, with a number of features not found in the previous incarnation of the chain.
The American Dream store has a stroller testing track, where prospective parents can see how a stroller performs on stair, grass, and uneven surfaces, and an automobile seat where customers can practice installing an infant car seat. There also are spaces for classes for future moms and dads, a design center for help decorating the nursery, a comfort room for nursing moms, and a baby registry desk.
WHP Global acquired a majority stake in the Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands in the aftermath of the Toys R Us bankruptcy and liquidation. It is a brand acquisition and management firm based in New York that also owns the Anne Klein, Joseph Abboud, Isaac Mizrahi, and Bonobos brands.
When WHP acquired the Toys R Us brand, its Chairman and CEO Yehuda Shmidman described himself as a former “Toys R Us kid” who believed that he could build on the iconic brands beloved statue.
Unlike previous attempts to revive Toys R Us, WHP focused less on rolling out numerous stores, and concentrated on spreading the message that “Toys R Us is back,” first with a resurrected web site, with fulfillment by a retail partner, then the opening of the Toys R Us flagship at American Dream.
The next phase of WHP’s plan was a partnership with Macy’s that linked the Toys R Us and Macy’s websites and placed Toys R Us branded shops in 452 Macy’s stores.
In May WHP announced a partnership with airport retailer Duty Free Americas that will bring a Toys R Us shop to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport by the end of this year, with additional such shops expected to follow.
It also partnered with UK retailer WH Smith to open Toys R Us shops in nine high street locations in England.
WHP Global envisions similar partnerships for Babies R Us, but has not yet revealed who the retail partner will be or other details.
“This is the next chapter of our story of bringing Toys R Us and Babies R Us back to the customers who have been looking for it since the day it went away,” Shmidman said in an interview during the advance look at the store.
Shmidman said he expects to be able to announce a national retail partnership for the Babies R Us brand by the end of this year.
WHP Global formed an innovative partnership to open the Babies R Us flagship. The mall, American Dream, is the operating partner of the store and will handle staffing, and fulfillment of online orders. The store will have a dedicated Babies R Us at American Dream website for orders and the baby registry.
Shmidman said that while WHP also is looking for a retail partner for a national Babies R Us e-commerce site, the plan going forward is that Babies R Us flagsihp stores such as the one at American Dream will have a store specific online site to provide local service for the registries and orders.
Adi Adair, Chief Financial Officer of American Dream, said the mall saw the partnership with Babies R Us as a way to add an experiential store for expectant families to its retail mix.
“We feel strongly that it adds an extra layer of experience that you’re not going to find in any other center,” Adair said. “Expecting families don’t have a place to shop any more, so now we’ll be their place to come to in the New York metropolitan area.”
The mall plans to host CPR classes, Mommy and Me yoga courses, and other activities for new parents, Adair said. “It’s not just about coming and buying their strollers. It’s about helping them live their lives with their new child,” she said.
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