Babies R Us opening in 9 Kohl's stores on Long Island

Kohl’s is hoping more bassinets, bottles and bibs will help improve its fortunes.

On Wednesday, the retailer released its list of 200 stores, including nine on Long Island, that will be getting Babies R Us sections this year.

“The Babies R Us at Kohl’s shop will feature a curated assortment of the latest baby gear, furniture, activity, accessories, and more. Adjacent to the shop, customers will find the best of Kohl’s existing baby and kids’ apparel and other offerings … to create a comprehensive baby shopping experience,” Kohl’s said in a statement.

The Babies R Us sections, which range from 750 to 2,500 square feet, will begin opening in Kohl’s stores in August and should be in 200 stores by the winter holidays, Kohl’s said.

Headquartered in Wisconsin, Kohl’s Corp. has more than 1,100 stores in 49 states.

In March, Kohl’s announced its exclusive licensing agreement in the United States with Babies R Us’ owner, WHP Global in Manhattan, to bring Babies R Us shops to 200 Kohl’s stores in 2024.

“We are partnering with Babies R Us to meaningfully expand our presence in the baby category, which is a compelling white space opportunity for Kohl's. Collectively, we see these underpenetrated categories as more than $2 billion sales opportunity over the next several years,” Thomas A. Kingsbury, Kohl’s chief executive, told analysts during an earnings call March 12.

Like most department stores, Kohl’s has been struggling for years.

Kohl’s net sales fell 3.4% to $16.6 billion in its fiscal year 2023 compared to results the previous year.

Not only is competition growing from online retailers, such as Amazon and Shein, as well as off-price brick-and-mortar stores, Kohl’s stores are too large and expensive to manage, said David Swartz, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.

Kohl’s bringing in Babies R Us is part of its “efforts to remake the stores under its relatively new CEO, Tom Kingsbury,” he said.

“It’s an admission by Kohl’s that it has been unable to sell baby stuff on its own. It’s also an admission that Kohl’s is not bringing in enough women in … [their] 20s and 30s. In this way, it’s like the partnership with Sephora. Kohl’s couldn’t sell beauty products successfully, so it brought in a partner,” he said.

Kohl’s Sephora sales last year totaled $1.4 billion, an increase of more than 90% from the previous year, Kingsbury told analysts in March.

Last year, Kohl’s also began focusing more on its gift merchandise by moving those items to the front of stores and expanding the selection. Also, the retailer expanded its assortment of impulse-buy items in checkout lines, which drove more than 40% of sales growth, Kingsbury told analysts.

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 the initiative started in July 2022.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

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.