Macy's stores opened up several of their Houston area Toys R Us stores about a week or so ago. This area was their toy department last Christmas season, so it was no surprise that the TRU was placed here. The Memorial City Macy's will have a larger "Flagship" location sometime in the near future. It is great to see the Toys R Us name back, but I certainly miss the selection of the original version of Toys R Us. Since the department just opened, there are some opportunities to add more inventory in the future. The department was super clean and certainly keeps the feel of Toys R Us in a smaller space. Hopefully the third time is a charm, and Toys R Us will live on for good.
Here is the Deerbrook Mall Macy's Toys R Us department as seen on September 1, 2022.
The store has a pretty large footprint up on the third floor.
Geoffrey's Toy Box is front and center behind the centerpiece of the department.
A look at how wide the toy department is.
No video games yet, but they have a lot of Super Mario stuff on display.
More views of the store.
Sharper Image and Discovery Channel items.
You can see the old slogan on the wall here.
The signage is reminiscent of the original Toys R Us stores.
Some of the displays were a little light on merchandise like the Hot Wheels and Nerf sections below.
Younger children also have a lot of options.
Photo-Op with Geoffrey.
The Barbie displays were light as well.
2021 Christmas season toy department. There were some advertisements for the upcoming Toys R Us department and some toys, but now we have the real deal.
One of the Toys R Us advertisements for the 2022 store addition.
After the Christmas season. The area was filled with Kids clothing after this photo was taken.
In addition to the Toys R Us. Super Nova Furniture has opened in the former second floor of the Forever 21 anchor. Forever 21 consolidated their store to one floor. First the store was consolidated to the second level with a clearance section downstairs. The first-floor mall entrance was closed off at this time. Then the store moved downstairs to make room for the furniture store. The outside of the building was renovated but the inside of the store looks like Forever 21 for the most part. I am glad that the mall added some new life to this half-dead anchor. Now they need to get the Sears filled up with more than Spirit Halloween, which should open up again pretty soon.
This is what the outside of the store looked like once construction started.
The removal of the Forever 21 logo revealed a Circuit City labelscar from the short 2007-2009 Circuit City location that was here after Mervyn's closed.
This side of the store remained the same. It is the last corner of the building to retain the Mervyn's look. I will update this post once the storefront is finished.
These fixtures in the parking garage are some of the last neon era fixtures left. The food court was renovated recently and all of the cool movie themes were removed. The mall entrances were also renovated so this is the last 90's era mall logo left as well.
The Dillard's/JCPenney court elevator is the last interior old school neon left from the 1990's expansion era at Deerbrook Mall.
The Toys R Us post is a timely one because a news report was broadcast on Channel 13 KTRK last night that Toyz is being sued by Toys R Us in part over the similarity of their logos and Toyz using TRU's decor at the Toyz location at The Galleria which, of course, was the short-lived pre-Covid TRU reboot. I'm not sure if you read about this or saw the news clip, but it's probably worth watching and reading if you have not: https://abc13.com/toys-r-us-toy-store-files-lawsuit-filed-against-houston-toyz/12187277/
ReplyDeleteWe've seen supermarkets and such reuse the decor of tenants who used to be in the building before, but perhaps that is done with permission or perhaps supermarkets don't care if someone uses their decor if they are no longer doing business in that area. Albertsons comes to mind as many grocers reused their decor after they left the Houston area about 20 years ago. We'll have to see what happens with that Toyz situation.
As for the Deerbrook Mall Macy's Toys R Us, it looks pretty nice. They did a pretty good job making it feel like a TRU without spending a lot of money on renovations. While it's small compared to a big box TRU, it does still have quite a bit of toys. I suppose the selection isn't much more than what a Walmart or Target toy department might have, but we'll see if they can get some sales with the more familiar names. I can see grandparents wanting to buy their grandkids toys while buying clothing for them at Macy's. We'll have to see how the flagship Memorial City Mall location differs from this one.
One thing I notice is that there are not any price displays in the TRU department. Are the prices for items on labels on the boxes? If not, I wonder how customers are supposed to know the prices. Perhaps they are supposed to use price scanners? I know at Kohl's at least in recent visits, the in-store price scanners are often non-functional or completely missing from the places they are supposed to be. Hopefully TRU's/Macy's pricing isn't such that "if you have to ask for the price, you can't afford it."
Those dinosaurs will certainly grab attention for the SuperNova Furniture store. It's good to see that the vacancy has been filled and I think a furniture store isn't a bad idea for a smaller anchor space at a mall. It's been a decade now since my last visit to Deerbrook Mall, but I used to like the food court there. Hopefully it still feels nice with the renovation. At least a little bit of neon still survives there.
I did see that on Youtube yesterday, that lawsuit sounds like a reach. I don't think anyone would confuse the two stores especially since Toys R Us has their mascot.
DeleteI actually did not check to see the prices on anything. Nothing there appealed to my youngest son except for the Nerf Guns. The store is definitely targeted towards an elementary school or younger audience. A lot of the staple TRU departments that we saw in the Galleria store reboot were not included in the Macy's stores. Video Games, candy, sporting goods, bikes, and collectibles were absent from the new mini stores. I can see a lot of impulse buys especially since the department is right next to the kids clothes. I am glad to see the name back, but these mini stores are a bit too small in my opinion.
The dinosaurs were a bit beat up and had a lot of torn parts. I think these dinosaurs were at the PlazAmericas Mall location prior to moving over to Deerbrook. It is weird that the interior of the stores are hardly changed for the furniture store. The PlazAmericas location still has fixtures and even labels from the old stores they expanded into. The old Champs wall that was partially knocked down and part of Claire's can easily be seen while walking through that store.
I was not happy about the food court renovation at Deerbrook Mall. The seating is more condensed leaving less room for people to eat. The colors are very bland, and they removed the movie themes. I guess the AMC is not the draw it once was, so it is an afterthought instead of the centerpiece.
I'm also glad to see it back but it just doesn't feel the same as the old stores. On the Deerbrook Mall Circuit City, did it have an audio instillation center like most CC locations? also did Total Home Furniture and Decor (which replaced Circuit City) use only one of the floors or the whole store area?
ReplyDeleteYes, the Circuit City had an installation area at the left side of the store. It was somewhat hidden by a wall. You had to drive into the waste and delivery area of the back of the mall to get there. The Total Home Furniture just used the top floor that Circuit City occupied. The bottom floor where Steve and Barrys was, had a movie and celebrity collectable store prior to Forever 21 taking over the anchor space.
DeleteWhat was the name of the movie and celebrity collectable store (I most likely won't see the comment after you replied though)
DeleteI don't recall the name. It was a short-lived business and disappeared once Forever 21 took over the anchor.
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