Toys"R"Us Opens 120 Standalone Stores for the 2026 Holiday Season
According to Toys"R"Us, the brand will open 120 standalone stores across the United States this holiday season with partner Go! Retail Group. The September 17, 2026 announcement from New York puts the company at 160 standalone U.S. stores by the holidays. The existing footprint is 40 standalone stores plus Toys"R"Us shops inside Macy's.
Jamie Uitdenhowen, Executive Vice President of Toys"R"Us at WHP Global, said, "This is a major moment for Toys"R"Us as we significantly expand our presence across the United States." These 120 locations are standalone stores. The brand still runs shop-in-shops inside Macy's, shop-in-shops with the Navy Exchange Service Command, and airport shop-in-shops at Orlando International Airport with WHSmith North America. The first Orlando shop opened in August 2026. A second shop is set for summer 2027.
The Toys"R"Us release lists a curated mix of toys, collectibles, and gifts, including LEGO, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Pokemon, and KPop Demon Hunters. Select stores will add Creator Studios, rooms where influencers, creators, and toy brands film content, unveil products, and host reveals, launches, and events. Select stores will add candy shops and cafes.
Gideon Schlessinger, CEO of Go! Retail Group, said the 160 stores give the partners "an incredible opportunity to bring that experience to millions of customers." Go! Retail Group is family-owned and based in Austin, Texas. Since 1993 it has grown a network of pop-up stores across 6 countries and operates Calendars.com and Go! Toys & Games. Globally, Toys"R"Us generates more than $2 billion in annual retail sales through over 1,680 stores and e-commerce businesses in 37 countries.
Fox Business maps the comeback. Toys"R"Us filed Chapter 11 in 2017 under $5 billion of debt and closed its U.S. stores in 2018. WHP Global took a controlling stake in March 2021. Macy's shops arrived in 2022. Macy's said first-quarter toy sales that year ran 15 times higher than the period before the partnership. The Go! Retail Group partnership began in 2023. Fox Business reports the new announcement omitted the full location list, individual opening dates, store sizes, and whether all 120 stores stay open after the holidays.
The Dayton Daily News reports a Toys"R"Us shop inside the Macy's at the Dayton Mall in Miami Township. Standalone plans for that region remain unpublished.
Why Authors Care
December gift money has a physical address again. Picture-book, middle-grade, and licensed-world authors sell into the same wallet that walks a toy aisle for LEGO, Barbie, and Pokemon.
Newsweek cites Circana: toy sales rose 17% in the first half of 2026, the strongest first half in 6 years.
Circana, via Newsweek, says adults now represent 55% of total toy sales. Kristen McLean, vice president of client insights for Circana's Entertainment Knowledge Group, said toys now function as "hobbies, fandom ecosystems, and social experiences."
That collector is the same customer who pays for sprayed edges, boxed sets, and fandom hardcovers.
Creator Studios copy the launch model authors already run: a creator, a room, a reveal, and a camera.
Go! Retail Group built a business on seasonal pop-ups. Authors can borrow the move this month: holiday markets, library events, and local signings timed to gift week.
Watch the Go! Retail Group Toys"R"Us store locator as addresses post. Put your December events on the same shopping trip gift buyers already plan.
Sources:
- Toys"R"Us Announces Major U.S. Expansion With 120 New Standalone Stores Opening This Holiday Season (PR Newswire, September 17, 2026)
- Toys R Us expands to 160 US stores in major retail comeback this year (Fox Business, September 17, 2026)
- Toys 'R' Us Expands With 120 Stores as Adult Collector Demand Grows (Newsweek, September 18, 2026)
- Toys"R"Us will open 120 new stores before holiday season (Dayton Daily News, September 23, 2026)
- Toys"R"Us Stores Near You (Go! Retail Group store locator)
Commentary
Thomas: We have an interesting zeitgeist story today that at first doesn't seem connected. That's the wonderful thing about zeitgeist. To understand culture, sometimes you have to zoom out and look at it from different angles and different industries. People aren't just readers. They're also moviegoers, TV watchers, and, increasingly, toy buyers.
Jonathan: Guess who's back? Toys"R"Us! They were gone for a while, and now they're back.
Thomas: Those Creator Studios are how you do social media. It's not about you doing social media. It's about getting other people to do social media on your behalf, for free. For those of you who want social media about your book, make it easy for your readers.
Jonathan: Give them space to do it.
Thomas: And to talk to each other. At your events, have a big poster of your book they can pose with, or a version with your characters where they put their heads through the circle, and they'll post it to Instagram. That will get way more engagement than you posting, "Hey, buy my book, it's the best."
Toys"R"Us failed because private equity bought it and ran shenanigans. Private equity effectively plundered all of its assets while loading it with debt. It's a form of Wall Street piracy. It didn't speak to a fundamental flaw in the business model, because the core business, selling toys to children, is still a thing.
The Toys"R"Us corporation y'all knew back in the day is, for all intents and purposes, a different company now. But it has the same name, the same logo, and the same brand equity, because most people don't understand private equity buying and selling brands.
What's driving the reborn brand's massive growth, adding 120 stores, isn't selling toys to children. It's selling toys to adults. For those of you who write books for adults, this is important to understand.
Jonathan: Think about the last time you heard someone say they were going to buy a LEGO set. How old were they? They were 35.
Thomas: And that's measured in dollars, not in actual toys, because my children will go to the dollar store and buy many toys.
Jonathan: My dad 3D prints toys for my kids. I'm always running across what I'd once have called a McDonald's-quality toy, and they love playing with them. But I see $60.00 LEGO sets at the store and think, "No one is buying this for their six-year-old." Dad's buying it for himself.
Thomas: The toys adults buy aren't the same toys children buy, and that's why this matters for authors. Adults are buying collectibles. They're buying toys they don't take out of the box, things to show off on a shelf.
Jonathan: A Star Destroyer.
Thomas: On a bookshelf. The same bookshelf that could have held your books. But your books were lame, gross paperbacks, and why would they show off a lame, gross paperback when they could show off their glorious collectible toy?
So where's the opportunity? If only there were a glorious collectible hardback version of the book. Suddenly the adult who would have spent $150.00 on a Funko Pop collectible is potentially buying a collectible hardback to put on that shelf. The opportunity for authors is to embrace high-end collectible versions of your books.
Brandon Sanderson's most successful Kickstarter of all time, when he did it, was for a book everyone had already bought and read. But his version was leather-bound, and there are some losers who spent $150.00 on a book they had already read.
This isn't only for a collectible, limited-edition, signed and numbered hardback of your novel. For those just getting started, a signed and numbered copy is an easy way to add value. You promise never to exceed the number. You'll sign as many books as you want, but there are only 25 in the signed and numbered collection, and those become collectible. Suddenly they're worth $100.00 apiece. Multiply 25 by $100.00, and suddenly there's your print run.
Jonathan: And it has to be pretty. It has to be something they'll show off on their shelf. Sci-fi guys, remember those hologram covers? If you can make lasers seem to pop off the page, that's the kind of thing.
You need to know what your market wants, what your readers like, and what they're proud to be seen with and want to show off passively. They lean on the shelf: "Yeah, see what I've got over there."
Thomas: There has been an extensive effort over the last 40 years to destroy the various American cultures. Many people in America now have no culture they're part of, and their whole cultural identity is whichever corporate brands they follow. Their culture is Marvel or Disney.
That's very unfortunate. It's a sickness in our society, and it's not healthy. The least sick version is people whose culture emerges from the stories they read, because stories are a core element of true culture. Culture is music, food, religion, stories, and environment. Many elements make a culture and make one culture different from or better than another.
You know whether you have a culture by whether you think your own culture is better. You have to prefer your own wife to other people's wives. You have to prefer your own children to other people's children. You have to prefer your own culture to other people's culture. If you don't, you don't have a culture. For people who have lost their culture and whose culture is Marvel, you at least have to prefer Marvel to DC.
Jonathan: Sorry, I got stuck on "I've got to prefer my wife to other wives." If a really pretty woman walks past, I could say, "She's valid. She's living her authentic life." And I'm saying this with my wife right next to me. I'm going to get killed. I'm going to die badly.
Thomas: You have to prefer your family. This is a fundamental reality of human experience, and there's value in it. A man feels loved when his wife prefers him to all other men. A woman feels loved when her husband prefers her to all other women. A child feels loved when a parent prefers that child to all other children.
Authors, you can help restore culture, or a subculture, in a small way by telling stories. And you signal that your stories are valuable by making expensive versions of them.
I have an episode where I talk about the diamond-water paradox. Why is water cheaper than diamonds when you can't live without water? It's an ancient paradox going back to at least Aristotle. If you dig into it, both diamonds and water are valuable. Most of you spent more money on water in the last week than on diamonds.
There's a lot of money in making a version of your book as ubiquitous as water, a cheap ebook anybody can get on Kindle Unlimited. But there's also money in making a version as rare and precious as diamonds. Many authors miss out on the diamond version because they assume, "Not many people would want a diamond version of my book." That's true, but you're thinking in terms of water.
It's not about how many people. It's about how much they want it. Some people really dislike this podcast, but they hate-listen because it's one of the only author news shows, and they leave snarky comments. Other people really like this podcast and support it financially, and we love those people so very much. And there's everything in between.
What's true for this show is true for your writing and true for Toys"R"Us. They have the cheap version for parents to buy their kids, and the expensive collectible version for childless people walking into the store to buy for themselves.
Jonathan: There's an important part of this process we skip because it's assumed. You need to write the kind of book that rips somebody's heart out of their chest and puts it back in all better. This works with books that affect people's lives.
You need to write well. Your craft needs to be on point so the beautiful version is a trophy on their shelf: "This book destroyed me. Here, read it." That's what you want to happen.
Thomas: Another important point. I see this mistake a lot, including in my community, and I don't want to name names. Authors get sloppy about consistency across their books in spine and book design. One book is 5.5 x 8.5, the next is 6 x 9, and they oscillate back and forth. Put all the books on a shelf together, and they look awful. They don't match. There's no cohesion.
That kills any desire a reader has to build a collection of beautiful versions of your books, or even a collection of the paperbacks, and say, "Hey, look, I've got all the Jonathan Shuerger books on my shelf," when one is bigger than another and they don't match at all.
You can fix this today. If it's a print-on-demand paperback, go fiddle with your settings and make sure all your books match. Rework the covers, and from now on, all your books will look great on a shelf together.
Jonathan: This gets back to the collectible mentality. The only reason you have a collectible is that it looks good. If the books don't look the same, the collection doesn't look good, and nobody buys any more.
Thomas: My rule of thumb: if your books run long, 6 x 9. Decide right now. If your books run short, 5.5 x 8.5. Pick one of those sizes and don't touch any other size. That's Thomas Umstattd's official advice. Once you pick it, you pick it for the rest of your career. Six by nine all the way down. Most of you write long books, so you need to pick 6 x 9.
Jonathan: Create a style sheet. If you're on the first book in a series, put all the specifications in it: 6 x 9, white or cream paper. I made this mistake. I forgot which paper color I used for my first book and accidentally chose the other one for my second.
An influencer did an unboxing video, put the two books together, and said, "Nope, the paper colors aren't the same." I thought, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
Thomas: What I said about sizing applies to your paperbacks. It doesn't apply to your special edition hardbacks. Those need to match each other, not your paperbacks. You may want your special edition hardbacks thicker and more substantial, which might mean moving to 5.5 x 8.5 and a creamier, heavier, more expensive paper. That's fine. Just realize that once you do your first special edition hardback, you're committed for the rest of your career to keeping them all matching.
Growing up, my parents had a subscription to George MacDonald books. A publisher was reprinting them in leather-bound matched sets, and my parents paid periodically to get a new one. That collection, bought in the '80s and '90s, still has pride of place in their new home.
They've had these books for decades. They were expensive. I remember my mom complaining about the cost, because they were leather with silver etching and all the things that signal a book is valuable. But my parents have a very high opinion of George MacDonald.
I'd say George MacDonald is one of the most underrated authors of the last 150 years, because he inspired all the authors you like. Do you like C.S. Lewis? J.R.R. Tolkien? Would you like to know who inspired them? George MacDonald.
If you haven't read The Princess and the Goblin, what are you even doing listening to this podcast? Go read The Princess and the Goblin. It's way better than this podcast.
You don't have to have a collectible edition. You can make money selling water. You don't need diamonds. Don't see this as a burden. See it as an opportunity and an invitation. You don't have to have a collectible edition right now.
If you want one, I have episodes to help. Kickstarter is a great way to sell collectible editions, because in the luxury space it helps if things are scarce, urgent, rare, and popular. I have episodes on each of those social triggers and how to make them work.
Some of you are leaving a lot of money on the table, because readers would love a more expensive version of your book if you'd offer it. If it's enough to help Toys"R"Us open 100 new stores with billions of dollars of investment, some of that money is available to you. Your readers' shelves might be filling with collectible toys when they could be filling with collectible books.
Jonathan: And here's how to identify these people. If they comment on all your posts, or if they annoy you at cons by always coming up to see you, you have superfans. Those are the people who want collectibles.
