Toys R Us aims to stay in Huntington Station area

Toys R Us Inc. said Wednesday it was seeking a new nearby location for the Huntington Station store scheduled to close next month and would try to find work for its 50 employees at its other local stores.

It gave no reason for the closing other than that the lease on the property expires at the end of January. A Barnes & Noble bookstore also in the Huntington Shopping Center has signs in its windows announcing that it will close Dec. 31 because "we were unable to come to an agreement on a new lease."

Public records and a sign at its entrance indicate that the center is owned by Investment Federal Realty Trust of Rockville, Md. Officials there referred a reporter to a spokeswoman in Boston, who couldn't be reached Wednesday.

In emails, Toys R Us spokeswoman Meaghan Kennedy at corporate headquarters in Wayne, N.J., officially confirmed the Huntington store's closure and said the corporation "will continue to look for nearby locations to provide consumers with the products and services that Toys R Us offers."

Kennedy added, "We are working diligently to place as many full-time and part-time employees as possible from the Huntington store to our many locations across the area." The closest store is on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa.

Although a Newsday reporter on Monday overheard an employee in Huntington Station telling shoppers that purchases couldn't be returned because the store was closing, Kennedy said companywide return policies remain in effect.

The Toys R Us website indicates it has 16 Toys R Us or Babies R Us stores on Long Island and a total of 873 in the United States. It also owns the iconic FAO Schwarz store in Manhattan.

Retail industry consultant Howard Davidowitz of Howard Davidowitz & Associates Inc. of Manhattan, said Toys R Us has spent considerable sums in recent years making overdue improvements to stores it intended to keep. Generally, he said, Toys R Us offers a wider selection in at least five times the square footage of the toy departments of rivals Walmart and Target, but that those rivals compete well on price and benefit from customer traffic created by their food departments.

"Walmart and Target have customers who go there twice a week for food," he said. "But you're not going to go to a Toys R Us on any normal shopping routine."

Barnes & Noble officials couldn't be reached for comment. There are eight other Barnes & Noble locations in Nassau and Suffolk, including one in East Northport, according to the company's website.