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When Toys R Us closed its doors, customers lamented the loss of a beloved brand evoking memories of their own childhood.
Retailers, by contrast, saw an opportunity.
Rather than yield more ground to the huge Amazon online, companies such as Target, Walmart and Party City have beefed up their offerings. In anticipation of the holiday season, they go even further by making their stores a dynamic shopping experience. This means creating play areas for children, offering demonstrations of new toys, and organizing events such as treasure hunts in stores.
Retailers are trying to take over a share of the nearly $ 3 billion left on the table by Toys R Us, which is 12% of the US toy market, according to NPD Group Inc., a research group in the United States. market.
Last month, Party City opened 50 Toy City ephemeral stores that feature six-by-eight Lego dinosaurs and other interactive displays. Walmart says that 30% of its holiday toy assortment will be new. It will also offer 40% more toys on Walmart.com for a year. In November and December, the company's toy zone will be renamed "Best Toy Store in America".
From the end of October, Target will be dedicating additional space in 500 stores located near the former Toys R Us stores for larger toys such as electric cars, theaters and musical instruments, and will offer nearly 200 additional products. In addition, 100 Target stores will see new layouts and installations in the toy area. The company is also increasing the number of children's events it organizes. More recently, there was a Lego Minecraft event that included a treasure hunt.
At least one foreign toy retailer is studying the US market after the disappearance of Toys R Us. Distroller World, based in Mexico, is an experience-based retailer that has more than 60 stores in Mexico and Latin America and which will open its third store in the United States in October. And he will be approaching US department stores to open stores to replicate his model in Mexico, said CEO Daryn Fillis. At the center of the experiment: Parents and children create their own adventure by adopting an extraterrestrial baby delivered in a space capsule.
"It's only demonstrations and hands-on experience," said Jim Silver, editor of TTPM, a toy reading site. "When you put your hand on a toy and you can touch and touch it, it leads to better sales, and these are the experiences that consumers enjoy."
At the same time, Amazon plans to distribute a toy catalog at its Whole Foods stores. The company declined to comment on the catalog, but analysts say Amazon could increase its toy market share by 15% to 20% this year.
Toy sellers have long enjoyed Toys R Us' difficulties, but the channel has redoubled efforts when the chain filed Chapter 11 in the fall of 2017 and sped up the pace when the channel announced the liquidation of its activities in March. At the beginning of this year, Toys R Us had more than 800 stores in the United States. He closed the last 200 stores at the end of June.
But no one can replicate the constant supply of Toys R Us in its stores before December 25th. In fact, NPD expects that 20% of Toys R Us sales "simply disappear". It is not a forecast of selling holiday toys, but other people expect the figure to remain unchanged from last year, while it was up about 2%.
According to reports of the disappearance of the retailer, consumers have shown great nostalgia, and some analysts attribute this empathy to having helped to increase toy sales in the first half. US toy sales from January to June rose 7 percent to $ 7.9 billion, according to NPD. Last year, toy sales rose 1% to $ 20.7 billion from 2016.
"I am convinced that the strong growth of the toy industry so far this year has been at least partially supported by the empathy felt by people with the idea of losing a store like Toys R Us, "said Juli Lennett, Senior Vice President of NPD and Toys Sector Advisor for a statement. "I think it provoked an emotional reaction that pushed parents to buy more toys in general."
Even FAO Schwarz enjoys nostalgia. The iconic toy store is expected to reopen three years ago in Manhattan.
The store will be home to theater artists and will feature new play areas, such as a mini-grocery store, where kids can buy fake wooden food. In another section, there will be a mechanic who will help the children build radio controlled race cars. FAO Schwarz also brings back the oversized piano made famous by Tom Hanks' movie "Big".
Jessica McCune, 30, was a big fan of Toys R Us and she stocked up on toys when the stores closed. Although she has announced plans to sell toys to Walmart, Target and Amazon, she is still missing.
"There is a void," she lamented. "It's a place less dedicated to toys and babies."
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