Toys R Us is returning to Kamloops.
The nationwide toy and baby-supply store will open this summer in the Columbia Square space in Sahali being vacated by Bed Bath and Beyond.
The Kamloops location of Toys R Us/Babies R Us is among 11 Bed Bath and Beyond locations to be transformed into Toys R Us stores. In February, the financially strapped Bed Bath and Beyond chain filed for creditor protection as it made plans to shutter all stores in Canada.
The soon-to-open, 25,000-square-foot Toys R Us store in Kamloops will be located a stone’s throw from the former Toys R Us building that is now under renovation and will be home to a Nature’s Fare store.
Once the new Toys R Us stores open in former Bed Bath and Beyond spaces, the Toys R Us chain will have 107 locations across Canada.
Each new store will be hiring up to 40 employees, with those interested being asked to apply online.
In addition to the Kamloops location, Toys R Us stores will also open in former Bed Bath and Beyond locations in Burnaby and Victoria, along with four spots in Alberta, two in Ontario and one each in Quebec and Nova Scotia.
In 2018, Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Toronto-based company, bought the Toys R Us Canadian chain for $300 million, a deal that kept 82 stores in Canada open and saved more than 4,000 jobs, including those at the Kamloops store in Columbia Square in Sahali.
The American side of the chain, however, closed its 735 stores , putting more than 31,000 people out of work. The United Kingdom side of the chain also closed all 100 stores, with about 3,000 people losing their jobs. Neither was able to find a buyer nor restructure debt of billions.
In July 2018, then-Toys R Us president Melanie Teed-Murch embarked in a nationwide tour to reassure the public that the company’s stores were remaining open in the various communities.
Teed-Murch visited KTW’s newsroom that month with that message.
A year later, in August 2019, Teed-Murch resigned as president of Toys R Us and is now CEO of Onroute, Ontario’s highway service centres.
