Kroger Brings Geoffrey's Toy Box to Nearly 600 Stores for Holiday Season - Official Details

Last week we told you how the newly revamped Toys R' Us, now known as Geoffrey's Toy Box had been spotted popping up in Kroger grocery stores. It was revealed in early October that the inventors who owned Toys R' Us decided not to kill off the chain completely at the last minute, even after closing all their stores here in the United States.

The new plan, at least initially was to team up with a mid-western retailer(s) and open pop-up stores within the larger retail outlets and sell their toys. While many toy-fans cheered on this news, Some former employee's seemed less happy about the news because they feared it would nullify their chances of getting any kind of severance package from their former employee, which is still something that seems to be up in the air.

Never-the-less, last week we began to see Geoffrey's plans take fruition as actual box type displays started pooping up in the aisles of Kroger stores as well as other Kroger-owned business' such as Fred Meyers and Ralphs. With that, we now have an official announcement put out by Kroger sharing more details about their plans which seems to include having the toy retailer appear in over 600 Kroger-family stores.

Official Press Release:

Kroger, America's largest grocery retailer, announced today a partnership to bring Geoffrey's Toy Box exclusive brands to nearly 600 Kroger Family of Stores across America for the 2018 holiday season.

Starting this month, Geoffrey's Toy Box branded merchandise and displays will appear in participating Kroger Family of Stores with a selection of 35 children's toys, ranging in price from $19.99 to $49.99. The holiday program will feature exclusive toys from Animal Zone®, Imaginarium®, Journey Girls®, Edu Science®, You & Me®, and Just Like Home®. Product assortment will vary by location.

"Geoffrey's Toy Box delivers a unique shopping destination within Kroger stores," said Robert Clark, Kroger's senior vice president of merchandising. "We're excited to offer Geoffrey's Toy Box this holiday season to provide our customers with the opportunity to purchase a selection of toys once exclusive to Toys "R" Us."

"We are thrilled to partner with Kroger to bring a curated collection of product from our beloved portfolio of brands to American consumers this holiday," added Richard Barry, EVP at Geoffrey's Toy Box.

If you want to see a full list off all the stores that will feature Geoffrey's Toy Box, check out the 13 page list below in our GALLERY.

Now some things to note.

1. The image Kroger provided (See below) of one of their stores featuring Geoffrey's Toy Box is far more impressive looking than the images we have seen people posting on social media. Some like what we saw in last week's story are just downright pathetic if you ask me. If YOU happen to come across a store that looks similar to the image Kroger put out, PLEASE TAKE A PICTURE and post it in the comments below.

2. While this whole Pop-Up store thing is likely being done so Toys R' Us can have some type of presence in place for this holiday season which is the most important time of the year for a toy retailer, it might not be the only thing they have planned as far as making a return here in the US is concerned. After we ran the initial story last week about Geoffrey appearing in Kroger stores, we had some folks let us know they have seen recent indications that Geoffrey might be reopening some of it's own stores.

While not officially confirmed in any way, we have been told that Toys R' Us still owns most of their now empty Toys R' Us buildings and have begun taking steps like having safety inspections performed on them with the idea that at some point they would be re-opened. If this happened, it likely would be after the holiday season, hence the need for the pop-up stores now.

Again we have to stress that this has not been confirmed officially with anyone within Toys R' Us nor do we know what that means for former employee's of the former great toy retailer, but one thing does seem certain. We definetly have not seen the last of Geoffrey or his toys.