Babies R Us at Kohl's opening at 3 Long Island locations this month as struggling retailer targets new customers
By opening Babies R Us sections inside 200 Kohl’s stores in 2024, including nine on Long Island, Kohl's is hoping the partnership will help improve sales. Credit: Kohl’s
Babies R Us sections will open in three more Kohl’s stores on Long Island this month, as part of the struggling retailer’s plan to add the baby-goods brand to 200 stores in 2024 to help boost sales.
With the addition of Babies R Us at Kohl’s, “expecting and experienced parents will now be able to shop a curated assortment of trusted baby brands, including thousands of new products across 90 brands in-store and online,” the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based retailer said in a statement Tuesday.
The three Babies R Us at Kohl’s opening on Long Island this month will be in Bay Shore, at 2040 Sunrise Hwy.; Levittown, at 3601 Hempstead Tpke.; and Oceanside, at 3600 Long Beach Rd.
Six others opened on Long Island in August: in East Setauket, Jericho, Lake Ronkonkoma, Massapequa Park, Rocky Point and Shirley.
Babies R Us at Kohl’s will feature toys, merchandise for activities, bath items, accessories, car seats, strollers, furniture and other goods. The sections will complement Kohl’s existing assortment of baby apparel, which will be directly adjacent to Babies R Us, Kohl’s said.
In March, Kohl’s Corp. announced its exclusive licensing agreement in the United States with Babies R Us’ owner, WHP Global in Manhattan, to bring Babies R Us shops ranging from 750 to 2,500 square feet to 200 Kohl’s stores this year.
More than 100 Babies R Us at Kohl’s opened in August and the remainder will open this month, Kohl’s Chief Executive Tom Kingsbury told analysts during an earnings call on Aug. 28.
Toys R Us Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017 and 2018, the latter of which was the year the company announced it would close its remaining 735 stores.
In 2021, WHP Global bought the Toys R Us and sibling Babies R Us brands from Tru Kids, which had bought the brands in a liquidation sale in 2018.
WHP has been trying to capitalize on the iconic Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands by partnering with retailers.
There is a Toys R Us inside every Macy’s store in the U.S. under an initiative started in July 2022.
Like most department stores, Kohl’s has been struggling for years, as competition grows from off-price stores and e-commerce sites.
“All the categories that you used to find at department stores in the old days, they’ve just been crushed by competitors,” said David Swartz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.
Kohl’s has had 10 consecutive quarters of sales declines at stores open at least one year. In the fiscal second quarter that ended Aug. 3, the retailer’s net sales decreased 4.2% to $3.5 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.
The retailer has attempted to turn things around by cutting costs, managing inventory better and launching brand partnerships, such as the Babies R Us deal and its 2020 announcement that it was bringing in Sephora, which is now in 1,050 of the more than 1,100 Kohl’s stores.
“We will capitalize on new opportunities such as our partnership with Babies R Us and expect to continue to benefit from our key growth areas. And we will evolve our marketing to highlight all of our new product initiatives, while also amplifying our focus on value with an emphasis on lower price messaging,” Kingsbury told analysts last week.
With the Babies R Us partnership, Kohl’s hopes to attract more young mothers who also will shop for themselves, Swartz said.
Kohl’s also is adding the Motherhood maternity clothing brand beside the Babies R Us sections, as well as launching a Babies R Us registry in its fiscal third quarter.
Sephora’s sales have been strong at Kohl’s, whose total beauty sales increased about 45% in its fiscal second quarter. Kohl’s reported that 35% of its customers who buy items in its Sephora sections also purchase items from other departments, but, according to Swartz, that’s not enough.
“That number has to be a lot higher than 35% because Kohl’s has invested a lot of money into building those” Sephora shops, he said.
Babies R Us sections will open in three more Kohl’s stores on Long Island this month, as part of the struggling retailer’s plan to add the baby-goods brand to 200 stores in 2024 to help boost sales.
With the addition of Babies R Us at Kohl’s, “expecting and experienced parents will now be able to shop a curated assortment of trusted baby brands, including thousands of new products across 90 brands in-store and online,” the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based retailer said in a statement Tuesday.
The three Babies R Us at Kohl’s opening on Long Island this month will be in Bay Shore, at 2040 Sunrise Hwy.; Levittown, at 3601 Hempstead Tpke.; and Oceanside, at 3600 Long Beach Rd.
Six others opened on Long Island in August: in East Setauket, Jericho, Lake Ronkonkoma, Massapequa Park, Rocky Point and Shirley.
Babies R Us at Kohl’s will feature toys, merchandise for activities, bath items, accessories, car seats, strollers, furniture and other goods. The sections will complement Kohl’s existing assortment of baby apparel, which will be directly adjacent to Babies R Us, Kohl’s said.
In March, Kohl’s Corp. announced its exclusive licensing agreement in the United States with Babies R Us’ owner, WHP Global in Manhattan, to bring Babies R Us shops ranging from 750 to 2,500 square feet to 200 Kohl’s stores this year.
More than 100 Babies R Us at Kohl’s opened in August and the remainder will open this month, Kohl’s Chief Executive Tom Kingsbury told analysts during an earnings call on Aug. 28.
Toys R Us Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017 and 2018, the latter of which was the year the company announced it would close its remaining 735 stores.
In 2021, WHP Global bought the Toys R Us and sibling Babies R Us brands from Tru Kids, which had bought the brands in a liquidation sale in 2018.
WHP has been trying to capitalize on the iconic Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands by partnering with retailers.
There is a Toys R Us inside every Macy’s store in the U.S. under an initiative started in July 2022.
'Crushed by competitors'
Like most department stores, Kohl’s has been struggling for years, as competition grows from off-price stores and e-commerce sites.
“All the categories that you used to find at department stores in the old days, they’ve just been crushed by competitors,” said David Swartz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.
Kohl’s has had 10 consecutive quarters of sales declines at stores open at least one year. In the fiscal second quarter that ended Aug. 3, the retailer’s net sales decreased 4.2% to $3.5 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.
The retailer has attempted to turn things around by cutting costs, managing inventory better and launching brand partnerships, such as the Babies R Us deal and its 2020 announcement that it was bringing in Sephora, which is now in 1,050 of the more than 1,100 Kohl’s stores.
“We will capitalize on new opportunities such as our partnership with Babies R Us and expect to continue to benefit from our key growth areas. And we will evolve our marketing to highlight all of our new product initiatives, while also amplifying our focus on value with an emphasis on lower price messaging,” Kingsbury told analysts last week.
With the Babies R Us partnership, Kohl’s hopes to attract more young mothers who also will shop for themselves, Swartz said.
Kohl’s also is adding the Motherhood maternity clothing brand beside the Babies R Us sections, as well as launching a Babies R Us registry in its fiscal third quarter.
Sephora’s sales have been strong at Kohl’s, whose total beauty sales increased about 45% in its fiscal second quarter. Kohl’s reported that 35% of its customers who buy items in its Sephora sections also purchase items from other departments, but, according to Swartz, that’s not enough.
“That number has to be a lot higher than 35% because Kohl’s has invested a lot of money into building those” Sephora shops, he said.
Babies R Us at Kohl's on Long Island
Among the 200 Babies R Us at Kohl's that opened in August or will open this month are nine locations on Long Island:
- 2040 Sunrise Hwy., Bay Shore
- 5000 Nesconset Hwy., East Setauket
- 28 Jericho Tpke., Jericho
- 106 Ronkonkoma Ave., Lake Ronkonkoma
- 3601 Hempstead Tpke., Levittown
- 5300 Sunrise Hwy., Massapequa Park
- 3600 Long Beach Rd., Oceanside
- 346 Route 25A, Ste. 130, Rocky Point
- 999-21 Montauk Hwy., Shirley
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
