Toy retailer Camp takes over former Toys R Us store ahead of holidays

A year after Toys R Us liquidated, the brand’s new owners vowed to make its stores more of an experience for kids: A place where children could test out toys at their own liberty and play games with friends.

That experiment was tried, and failed, at the Garden State Plaza mall in New Jersey. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, few consumers were venturing outside of their homes to head to the mall — let alone to mingle in a crowded environment with children. The last-standing Toys R Us locations operated by Tru Kids shuttered earlier this year.

But as anxieties around the coronavirus ease, one company is betting that experience-based retail will come back stronger than ever, particularly among families with young kids. New York City-based Camp hopes that its approach is better than that of Toys R Us, too. And the upcoming holiday season will put Camp’s business — part experience, part toy retailer — to the test.

On Tuesday, Camp is opening a store in the former Toys R Us shop at Garden State Plaza mall, which is operated by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. It will mark Camp’s seventh location, joining ones in Manhattan, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Norwalk, Connecticut. Three more expect to open before the end of the year, and by the end of next year, it expects to double its store count.

“When Toys R Us operated, the toy industry was, for the most part, Toys R Us, Walmart, Target and Amazon,” Camp CEO and founder Ben Kaufman said. He’s also the former chief marketing officer at BuzzFeed. “Right now, the toy industry is even more consolidated. Walmart, Target and Amazon are driving the majority of share.”

“We aren’t big needle movers for toy vendors in terms of volumes, just yet, because we don’t have enough locations,” Kaufman went on. “But we are needle movers in terms of taste-making and basically putting a stamp of ‘this thing is cool.'”

A trip to one of Camp’s stores is a unique experience in and of itself. The front of the shop looks like a traditional toy purveyor: Shelves of puzzles, Lego sets and L.O.L Surprise dolls, coupled with sweet treats. But behind another door, kids can roam around a sprawling playroom that features rotating and themed experiences, including a lava interaction and another sponsored by “Paw Patrol.”

According to Kauffman, Camp derives its revenue from three different streams: brand sponsorships, ticket sales for rotating experiences and merchandise transactions. Since the company isn’t soley reliant on thin margin toy sales, Camp’s stores are more likely to be profitable, he said.

“We have a high-margin line of business in ticketing, as well as a high-margin line in sponsorship,” Kauffman said.

Camp also collaborates with toy manufacturers and brands to market-test products. It recently teamed…