Photo via New York Post

Toys ‘R’ Us to open 120 stores, biggest expansion in years — thanks to adults who ‘didn’t wanna grow up’

Read the original at New York Post ↗
Cite

Fickenscher, L. (2026, September 17). Toys ‘R’ Us to open 120 stores, biggest expansion in years — thanks to adults who ‘didn’t wanna grow up’. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/09/17/business/toys-r-us-to-open-120-stores-biggest-expansion-in-years-thanks-to-adults-who-didnt-wanna-grow-up/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

New York Post · collected 2026-09-17 · by Lisa Fickenscher

Quick Summary

Toys "R" Us is expanding with plans to open 120 new stores across the United States, marking its largest expansion in nearly a decade. This growth comes as adult consumers increasingly purchase toys like trading cards and collectibles, contributing to a 17% surge in toy sales during the first half of this year—the strongest performance since 2020. The company now accounts for 55% of all toy sales through its adult customer base. Toys "R" Us will operate stores under one-year leases and includes popular brands such as LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Pokémon in their offerings.
Written by AI on 2026-09-18, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Toys "R" Us is planning its largest expansion since 2017, with the opening of 120 new standalone stores across the country, bringing the total to 160 by Christmas. This growth is driven by adult consumers buying toys for personal hobbies and collectibles rather than just for children. According to Circana, toy sales grew 17% in the first half of 2023, marking the strongest performance since 2020, with adults accounting for 55% of all toy purchases. The expansion includes locations like Woodbury Commons and Westchester in White Plains, NY, and the Mall at Short Hills in Millburn, NJ. This trend reflects a shift towards toys functioning more as hobbies and social experiences than traditional children's products, fueling renewed interest from mature consumers in brands such as LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokémon, and KPop Demon Hunters.

Written for “Toys R Us Expansion” on 2026-11-03, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Toys R Us Expansion
Other · 2 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 20% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
NBC News
Hedges 1 of 19 claims Outlet record 60/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
20%
4 of 20 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
2
Other
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-18 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 16360 article(s) · 35 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 35 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Lisa Fickenscher
13 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The trade group estimates that room rates will increase between 3% and 4% next year, roughly on pace with inflation.
🔮 The Liberty Justice Center filed the suit in the US Court of International Trade on behalf of Gellert Global Group, a New Jersey importer that estimates the tariffs will cost it $40 million a year on cheese imports.
🔮 Amazon has vowed to close more than a dozen warehouses and shed thousands of workers across New York City over a labor bill being pushed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani — and the e-commerce giant is likely to make good on the threat if the controversial legislation is enacted, industry experts told The Post.
🔮 Great Jones will continue to sell its whiskey online and at retail stores, even as its $21 million investment in building out the distillery appears to have gone down the drain, according to Engineering News Record.
🔮 “Pizza will be the lowest growing cuisine type of all other major cuisine types including burgers and Asian food this year.”
🔮 Another troubling finding suggests that the meat may contain antibiotics, since products from those facilities showed high rates of antibiotic and multi-drug resistance – despite policies at both Perdue and Whole Foods that prohibit the use of such drugs, according to the report.
🔮 The suit singled him out for a May 25, 2023 article reporting that some of the wine belonging to the company’s storage customers had been illegally sold to others.
🔮 China and the US set up a board that will agree on lists of imported goods totaling $30 billion on each side.
🔮 McDonald’s shares dropped by more than 5% during its investor day presentation after CEO Chris Kempczinski said the company’s growth will be flat while inflation continues to accelerate.
🔮 The new stores will offer some of the biggest brands, including LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokémon and KPop Demon Hunters – and some will have cafes and candy shops, according to the company.
Also by Lisa Fickenscher
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 13 articles by Lisa Fickenscher →

Topics

Circana Toys “R” Us WHP Global Westchester White Plains

Subjects

Toys “R” Us ORG · 9× Circana ORG · 2× WHP Global ORG · 2× Gerald Storch PERSON · 1× LEGO ORG · 1× Millburn GPE · 1× Target ORG · 1× Walmart ORG · 1× Westchester GPE · 1× White Plains GPE · 1×

Narrative

The industry has “a growing consumer base that extends well beyond kids,” he added. “’Kidults’ have become an important part of the category,” said Uitdenhowen, using the newfangled word for grownups with tastes typically associated with younger people.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-18
🔮 The new stores will offer some of the biggest brands, including LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokémon and KPop Demon Hunters – and some will have cafes and candy shops, according to the company.

Claims (20 extracted, 4 hedged)

Here’s some good news for adults who “didn’t wanna grow up,” as the old ad jingle had it. asserted
jingle → ’ → it
Toys “R” Us is kicking off its biggest expansion in nearly a decade, opening 120 stores amid surging demand from adult customers, the company said Thursday. asserted
company → kick → customers
The retailer — whose 2017 bankruptcy devastated the toy industry — inked one-year leases across the country as toy sales notched their biggest spike since 2020, according to Circana, which tracks consumer data. uncertain
which → devastate → data
The new locales include Woodbury Commons and the Westchester in White Plains, NY, and the Mall at Short Hills in Millburn, NJ. asserted
locales → include → Millburn
Toy sales in the US grew 17% in the first half of the year – the strongest first-half performance in six years – largely fueled by adults who are snatching up trading cards and collectibles, according to Circana. uncertain
who → grow → Circana
Adults now account for 55% of all toy sales, the researcher found. asserted
researcher → account → sales
Mall operators like having toy stores on premises, “so shoppers don’t feel like they have to leave the mall and go to Walmart or Target,” observed former Toys “R” Us chief executive Gerald Storch. asserted
Storch → like → Walmart
The new stores will offer some of the biggest brands, including LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokémon and KPop Demon Hunters – and some will have cafes and candy shops, according to the company. uncertain
some → offer → company
New York-based Toys “R” Us is owned by WHP Global, the brand licensing firm that also owns Marc Jacobs, Vera Wang and Lands’ End. asserted
that → base → Jacobs
The brick-and-mortar strategy is being led by Go! Retail Group, which operates pop-up stores and quietly began the Toys “R” Us expansion last year. asserted
which → lead → expansion
The expansion push started last month when Go! Retail began opening 3,500- to 7,500-square-foot stores, said a spokesperson for Toys “R” Us. asserted
spokesperson → start → Us
The number of stores is set to reach 160 in the coming weeks – a fraction of the 750 outlets Toys “R” Us had when it filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its US stores in 2017. asserted
it → set → 2017
Its iconic Times Square store featured a ferris wheel and 20-foot-tall animatronic T-Rex –generating sales of $75 to $100 million a year before closing in 2015, according to Storch. uncertain
store → feature → Storch
Founded by Charles Lazarus in 1948 as a baby furniture store – which eventually became Babies “R” Us – the company went belly up due to a $5 billion pile of debt. asserted
company → found → debt
Private equity firms Bain Capital, KKR and Vornado bought the chain in a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005. asserted
Capital → buy → 2005
Its demise crippled the industry, which depended on Toys “R” Us to drive sales and launch new products. asserted
which → cripple → products
Many toy company owners were bitter about the filing, which saddled them with millions in unpaid bills. asserted
which → saddle → bills
“The toy industry is incredibly strong,” said former Toys “R” Us veteran Jamie Uitdenhowen, now WHP Global executive vice president. asserted
Uitdenhowen → say → ?
The industry has “a growing consumer base that extends well beyond kids,” he added. “’Kidults’ have become an important part of the category,” said Uitdenhowen, using the newfangled word for grownups with tastes typically associated with younger people. asserted
Uitdenhowen → have → people
WHP controls the global license for Toys “R” Us, which includes 1,680 stores in 37 countries and some $2 billion in annual sales. asserted
which → control → sales
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support