Toys R Us to sell or close all 800 US stores

Toy store chain Toys R Us is planning to sell or close all 800 of its U.S. stores, affecting as many as 33,000 jobs as the company winds down its operations after six decades, according to a source familiar with the matter.

In central Ohio, there are six Toys R Us stores and two Babies R Us stores.

The news comes six months after the retailer filed for bankruptcy. The company has struggled to pay down nearly $8 billion in debt — much of it dating back to a 2005 leveraged buyout — and has had trouble finding a buyer.

There were reports earlier this week that Toys R Us had stopped paying its suppliers, which include the country’s largest toy makers. On Wednesday, the company announced it would close all 100 of its United Kingdom stores.

In the U.S., the company told employees that store closings would occur over time, and not all at once, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

Toys R Us, once the country’s preeminent toy retailer, has been unable to keep up with big-box and online competitors. The recent holiday season dealt another blow to the embattled company, which struggled to find its footing even as the retail industry racked up its largest gains in years.

In January, Toys R Us announced it would close 182 U.S. stores, or about one-fifth of its remaining locations.

Toys R Us, based in Wayne, New Jersey, has been struggling for years to pay down billions of dollars in debt as competitors like Amazon, Walmart and Target win over an increasingly larger piece of the toy market.

Its bankruptcy filing cited $7.9 billion in debt against $6.6 billion in assets. The company said it has more than 100,000 creditors, the largest of which are Bank of New York (owed $208 million), Mattel ($136 million) and Hasbro ($59 million).