As most of you probably know, KB Toys is planning to come back this year. The store is going to try and take some of the momentum and fans from Toys R Us. In fact, KB Toys has big plans and goals, BleedingCool reports.
KB Toys shut down in 2009. Now its coming back with pop-up stores for this holiday season.
But that’s only the beginning. If things go well, we will be hearing a lot more about KB Toys. The company revealed some details about their plans at Playcon in San Francisco.
The original goal features to have between 400 to 600 pop-up stores in the US for the holidays. Many of key people from Toys R Us are coming to KB Toys to run things.
If things go well, after the holidays some of these pop-up stores will transform into permanent shops. The long-term goal for KB Toys is to have 300-400 permanent stores within 4 years.
There are some questionable ideas, too. For example, each store will have a “Toy Nerd”. Employees with this… questionable title will know everything about the toys in the shop and will help collectors.
KB Toys will also work with local toy groups to host events in the store. Companies will also be able to hold events such as autograph signings, vendor roadshows, meet-and-greets, etc. They also want to open some stores the size of regular Toys R Us stores. They will include cafés, play areas, party rooms, party registries, and the ability to place online orders in-store for pickup. They also plan on building a state-of-the-art online store and presence that Toys R Us for sure lacked towards the end, BleedingCools says.
Basically, KB Toys wants to do all the things that Toys R Us wanted to do, but for some reason couldn’t. All of this is quite ambitious and can result in a much needed boost for the toy shops. We will see if that happens as it’s quite the long road to get there.
