Toys R Us at Macy's experience improves over early launch at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda (Photos)

No one will mistake the Toys R Us at Macy's pop-up for the full-blown Toys R Us experience of childhoods past. But the special section at the Macy's at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda has greatly improved over its initial launch earlier this fall. There's a much wider selection of toys, and the shelves are filled and more-neatly organized than the "Clearance section at ROSS!!!" vibe the space initially had.

Toys R Us at Macy's opens at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda (Photos)

The Toys R Us at Macy's era is upon us at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Does it live up to the hype? Not entirely yet. Perhaps they are still getting organized here, but will otherwise have difficulty competing with the new FYE Alex Baby & Toys, which is delivering something closer to the Toys R Us experience in the Old Navy wing of the mall.

As I mentioned when the plan for the holiday pop-up shops was announced, one of the fundamental problems is that the Toys R Us experience can't be duplicated in a small format. Toys R Us was essentially a big-box store, a cavernous warehouse with aisle after aisle of toys. Even Target and Walmart can't match that with their toy sections. At the same time, the TV and movie-licensed products most popular at Toys R Us don't exactly fit the image of a Macy's department store, where you'd expect high end German teddy bears as a toy display.

The vibe right now is somewhere between Big Lots and Ross. Shelves are less than full in spots, and the displays could be more neatly presented in some cases, as you can see in the photos here. There isn't much that screams, "Toys R Us," besides the Geoffrey stand-ups. The overall aesthetic is going to require a bit more attention and juice before Black Friday to create a holiday atmosphere.

I'm beginning to wonder if the pop-up idea is simply an effort to prop up the value of the Toys R Us trademark by the new owners, to be able to resell or repurpose it down the road. The plan has gotten a lot of media attention for the brand name. But what does that brand name stand for? This is a nice and convenient way to pick up holiday gifts while doing your usual shopping at Macy's, but it is definitely not reproducing the Toys R Us experience for people who have actually been inside a real Toys R Us.

Toys R Us to return at Macy's in Bethesda, Gaithersburg & Wheaton for holiday shopping season

Toys R Us will attempt to make a nationwide comeback this holiday season, the brand announced yesterday. The toy store will be largely found at malls across the country, but not in its own space. Instead, there will be Toys R Us stores inside of every Macy's department store, including those here in Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, and at Westfield Wheaton Plaza mall. The first pop-up stores are expected to open by the end of this month, with the rest making their debuts by mid-October. 

Toys R Us photo of new concept
store inside Macy's nationwide

Toys R Us closed in Rockville in 2014. It briefly operated a downsized Toys R Us Express store at Montgomery Mall ten years ago. The last Toys R Us in Montgomery County closed in 2018, in Gaithersburg. This new Toys R Us won't offer the experience kids enjoyed in the past: a cavernous warehouse space with nearly-endless aisles of toys, bikes, ride-on vehicles and video games, with a car trip around back to the loading dock area for special pickup of a big item.

TOYS R US TO CLOSE IN JANUARY AT MID-PIKE PLAZA ON ROCKVILLE PIKE (PHOTOS)

STORE WON'T

REOPEN ELSEWHERE

The Dark Side of White Flint, Part 19:

Welcome to The Dark Side of White Flint, an ongoing series about the not-so-wonnerful, wonnerful, wonnerful side of urbanizing the suburbs. These articles provide "the rest of the story" about redeveloping White Flint not found in rosy local media reports.

A Christmas shopping visit to the downscaled Toys R Us store on Rockville Pike brought disappointing, if expected, news: the store will close for good sometime next month, according to a store employee. Worst of all, the store is not relocating; it is the end for Toys R Us here. Having split my childhood toy purchases between this location, and the also-demolished Lowen's toy store in downtown Bethesda, this conclusion is certainly a sad one for me. The original Toys R Us structure was already demolished on the other side of the shopping center; this store is essentially a pop-up affair, but still had a decent inventory. As Toys R Us winds down from its final Christmas shopping season, a closing sale is offering modest discounts of 10-30%. Under the sale's terms, there are no refunds or returns. Shelves throughout the store are increasingly bare, and most are not being restocked.

The anti-suburbia activists will say this is no big deal, "change happens, deal with it," and that urbanizing strip malls on Rockville Pike will reduce exhaust emissions. All three arguments are false.

There is no equivalent toy store anywhere in the Bethesda or Rockville area. Furthermore, Toys R Us carries multiple toy lines exclusive to its stores. Having come directly from the nearby Target, I can confirm that the selections are quite different. And when the Toys R Us was fully stocked, there was simply no comparison between the stores. I am a big fan of Target, and shop at several of their stores frequently. But they understandably cannot devote the space or depth to toys that Toys R Us can, given the broader merchandise array of a big box store. The loss of convenience and toy merchandise selection is indeed a "big deal" for downcounty residents.

Change may happen, but in this case, the desire of parents and children to buy toys has not changed. Development decisions cannot be made in a vacuum, but must take into account the needs of current residents, and the general economic best interest of the area. There is no convincing argument for the destruction of a successful commercial area like Rockville Pike. And even less logic behind one that then banishes the longtime businesses whose stores are demolished. Change in Montgomery County today is primarily driven by development interests, even when other business interests are damaged in the process.

Finally, urbanization of White Flint and Rockville Pike is leading to more driving, not less. The patrons of demolished businesses astronomically outnumber the future residents of luxury buildings in the area. When that Hallmark ornament cannot be found in White Flint, or that Toys R Us-exclusive toy must be had for Christmas, shoppers don't deprive themselves - they hit the road. And now their shopping trip burns several times the amount of gas. So we've made our community less convenient (unless your life revolves around $100 restaurant dinners and high-end shopping 365 days a year), and increased auto emissions, to boot.

In what is becoming a "disposable society," there are costs. Welcome to the dark side.

More articles in this series:

White Flint Mall demolition, phase one (Photos)

Phase one demolition continues (Photos)

The Cheesecake Factory goes dark at White Flint Mall (Photos)

TOYS R US EXPRESS OPENS IN BETHESDA (PHOTO)

It just isn't Christmas without Toys R Us.  Now Toys R Us is closer than ever, opening its first Bethesda location in history.

Toys R Us Express is in Westfield Montgomery Mall, and spreading more holiday cheer than any Grinch can handle!