KB Toys
The cramped, stacked-to-the-ceiling toy store tucked into every American mall — smaller and more chaotic than Toys "R" Us, with clearance bins spilling into the aisles. It was the impulse-buy toy stop on any mall trip, right up until it liquidated for good in 2009.
The chain's roots go back to 1922, when brothers Harry and Joseph Kaufman started Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy business in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They moved into wholesale toys in 1946 and, in 1973, pivoted to mall retail as Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby, opening with 26 stores. The small-footprint, densely-packed mall format became its signature — and it worked.
KB grew into a giant. By the 1980s it had grown into one of the country's biggest mall-based toy retailers, and it passed through a string of owners: Melville Corporation bought it in 1981, Consolidated Stores (parent of Big Lots) in 1996 for $315 million, and Bain Capital in 2000. The chain peaked at 1,324 stores in May 1999, making it the second-largest toy retailer in the US behind only Toys "R" Us.
The 2000s were a long decline. Squeezed between Toys "R" Us, Walmart, and Target, KB filed for bankruptcy in January 2004 and closed more than 600 stores, emerging the next year as a smaller chain. A second bankruptcy came in December 2008, and this time there was no recovery: KB Toys liquidated and shut all remaining stores by February 2009. In a final twist, archrival Toys "R" Us bought the KB Toys brand and intellectual property later that year for $2.1 million.
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