Toys R Us Passes 160 Standalone Stores Before Holidays

Toys R Us says more than 160 standalone stores are now open across the United States, completing the expansion it announced in September 2026, when it planned to add 120 new locations before the holiday season. The rollout, run with Go! Retail Group, lands the chain past the roughly 160-store footprint it targeted for the holidays, on top of the Toys R Us shops already operating inside Macy's stores nationwide.

The next opening is the loudest address on the list. A store at New York City's Grand Central Terminal, at 89 East 42nd Street in Manhattan, holds its grand opening celebration on November 20 at 10 a.m., with an appearance by Geoffrey the Giraffe and a giveaway for the first 50 customers in line. The company hasn't identified the giveaway item. The store will carry toys, collectibles and gifts from LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokémon and KPop Demon Hunters.

The same weekend showed what the rollout looks like away from Manhattan. In Dubuque, Iowa, a Toys R Us opened on Saturday, November 14, inside Kennedy Mall, across from Bath & Body Works, and the mall posted video of families walking through the doors that morning. The store isn't a seasonal pop-up: it has committed to a one-year lease, and it stocks the same holiday mix of LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokémon and KPop Demon Hunters.

“Opening 120 new standalone stores across the country in just a few months is an incredible achievement for Toys R Us, and we're thrilled to build on that momentum with a new store at New York City's iconic Grand Central Terminal,” said Jamie Uitdenhowen, executive vice president of Toys R Us at WHP Global. Gideon Schlessinger, chief executive of Go! Retail Group, said the partners have worked to bring the chain to more shoppers than ever before this season.

The scale behind the comeback is bigger than the U.S. count. Toys R Us says it operates through more than 1,800 stores and e-commerce businesses in more than 37 countries and generates more than $2 billion in annual retail sales globally. The brand is owned by WHP Global; Go! Retail Group operates the new U.S. standalone stores. Some locations are also expected to add Creator Studios, where toy companies and creators reveal products and hold launch events.

The honest limit on the story is duration. A one-year lease in Dubuque and a holiday-season store count say the chain can open doors fast; they don't yet say which of these stores are still trading next November. The Grand Central opening on November 20 is the next dated test, in front of commuters, tourists and collectors at once.

The Macy's shops matter to the count's meaning. Toys R Us never fully left American retail after its old chain liquidated; it lived on as departments inside another retailer's stores. The standalone rollout is a different claim — the brand holding its own leases, its own storefronts and its own holiday season — and 160 open doors is the first count that makes the claim measurable.

Toys R Us heads into Black Friday with more than 160 standalone U.S. stores open. The company hasn't published sales figures for the new locations.