Macy’s Inc. announced early Monday that it will add a Toys “R” Us shop to each of its U.S. locations by October 15, in time for the holiday season.
The shops, which will start rolling out in late July, will range from 1,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet for flagship stores in Atlanta, Miami, New York and other major cities. Shops could be even bigger, expanding as much as 3,000 additional square feet, for the big toy-shopping season. From October 15 through October 23, there will be events to celebrate the new shops.
The shops are made possible through a partnership between Macy’s and WHP Global, which began in August 2021. Shoppers have previously been able to purchase toys through the partnership both online and at hundreds of Macy’s locations.
In the first quarter of 2022, Macy’s
M,
says toy sales were up 15 times versus the comparable period before the Toys “R” Us partnership.
During the Evercore ISI Consumer & Retail Conference in June, Macy’s Chief Executive Jeff Gennette said the company has been “spending good capital” to invest in the partnership and the category.
“And what we’ve seen thus far is that the sales far up dramatically, up over two times,” he said, according to a FactSet transcript of the fireside chat.
“And when you get these new customers, many of them are brand new to our brand and about 90% of them are now cross-shopping the balance of Macy’s.”
Macy’s stock was up 1.3% in Monday premarket trading after the news. Shares of the department-store retailer have dropped 36.6% for the year to date.
The benchmark S&P 500 index
SPX,
has slumped 19% for 2022 so far.
