Looks Like KB Toys is Making a Comeback To Fill The Void Left By Toys 'R' Us
Do you remember the KB Toys!? It's another one of those toys stores that I grew up with in the 80s and 90s. It was a smaller toy store than Toys 'R' Us and it went out of business back in 2009. Toys 'R' Us actually acquired the remains of KB Toys, which consisted mainly of its website, trademarks, and intellectual property rights. In 2017 Strategic Marks LLC acquired the KB Toys name.
Well, now that Toys 'R' Us is closing down its stores in the U.S., KB Toys is planning on making a big comeback to fill the void! This is an unexpected move and I really do hope that they succeed. KB Toys went ahead and launched their official Twitter account:
We welcome everyone to our official twitter account. KB Toys is back in business. Stay tuned.
— KB Toys (@realkbtoys) March 19, 2018
In a report that was released, Strategic Marks LLC founder Ellia Kassoff talks about their plans saying:
"Many of you asked what our plans will be and all we can say is we spent the last six months working on a sustainable model to bring back KB Toys the right way so it can compete with not only the big box stores but on-line as well.
"Our umbrella, Strategic Marks, LLC has been very successful bringing back many of the most popular products and companies over the last ten years because we follow a very strict formula; [To bring back the experiences we loved as a child, just as you remembered them]. With #kbtoys, we had to also look at why they initially failed and to make sure those mistakes won’t be made again. Now, with the closing of @toysrus so quickly, it caught us by surprise so we’ve spent the last few days with our team and leaders in the toy industry to figure out how we can accelerate the project so our stores can open for the Christmas season. When we’re ready, you will be very happy with the results and we believe our model can withstand both on-line as well as other large competitors for not only the short-term but long-term as well."
That's awesome! It's good to see that toy stores haven't completely died off yet. With Toy 'R' Us closing down 33,000 jobs will be affected and KB Toys is hoping to keep as many of those people employed as they can, which is another great thing to come of this.
"We understand, we’re not just restarting the only other well-known and loved toy chain in the US but hope to find places for those 33,000 jobs which will be lost as Toys R Us closes. Please be patient with us over the next few weeks as we get this rolling. In the meantime, if you are a toy manufacturer, supplier, distributor, industry head or ex-KB Toys executive, we want to talk to you. Please email us at: info@kbtoysstore.com or call us at: 949-424-1664. If you are a current #toysrus employee, please feel free to send us your resume to resumes@kbtoysstore.com but also know that we won’t get back to you for a little while as we finalize our concept."
This news makes me happy and I really do hope that they are up and runner in time for Christmas. What do you think about this news of KB Toys making a comeback?