Toys”R”Us is officially closing its doors, but is there hope for the fate of some of those soon-to-be-empty locations? According to Bloomberg, Amazon could buy Toys”R”Us stores. Representatives for Amazon did not immediately return Red Tricycle’s request or comment.
UPDATED: 9:39 a.m. PDT: Reached via email, a representative for Amazon declined to comment.
Before you get too excited, according to Bloomberg’s report, Amazon has no interest in maintaining the Toys”R”Us brand. Instead, if Amazon did purchase the doomed toy retailers brick-and-mortar store locations, it would only be for its own offline expansion into the brick-and-mortar retail. Unlike the Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, this move would simply be to secure high-traffic locations to open its own stores.
These Amazon stores could potentially focus on sales of its Amazon Echo and the company’s full line of smart home and home assistant products with Amazon Alexa. These Toys”R”Us-turned Amazon stores could also potentially house inventory, making it easier to distribute products to online customers faster, which would, in turn, support an expansion of Amazon’s same-day delivery services.
It would definitely be strange to see the online giant take over stores that many believe met their demise because of the advent of online shopping in the first place. #awkward
Would you be excited about having an Amazon store open in your neighborhood? Share your thoughts in the comments.
—Shahrzad Warkentin
Featured photo: Mike Mozart via Flickr
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