After a failed comeback last year, Toys R Us may have a return plan that’s bigger than ever.
Like other physical stores, the 73-year-old toy store chain struggled as consumer tastes and shopping patterns changed. A 2017 bankruptcy (forced by private equity vultures who bought the chain in 2005 and saddled it with billions in debt) led to the entire chain closing all U.S.-based stores in mid-2018. Many of the chain’s European stores quickly followed. The vast majority of Toys R Us stores were shuttered by early 2019 when the company, then known as Tru Kids, began to plan a comeback.