Toys R Us plans holiday hiring despite debts

Toys R Us Inc. said Thursday that it plans to again hire thousands of part-time workers nationwide for the holiday shopping season despite the toy chain’s bankruptcy filing this week.

The company did not specify the number of additional hires for this year’s holidays. In recent years it’s added about 40,000 seasonal employees.

Toys R Us said it expects to hire 2,500 seasonal workers for its stores in the Los Angeles area and 540 for its distribution center in Rialto, east of Los Angeles.

About 5,400 employees will be added in California overall, where Toys R Us has 113 stores. Toys R Us operates 1,695 stores worldwide and employs 65,000 full-time workers.

The seasonal jobs include cashiers and sales associates, along with toy demonstrators — a new position in which the workers will unbox and play with toys so that children and other shoppers can test the products.

Toys R Us late Monday filed to reorganize its business under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy laws.

Its big-box stores once were the main retail destination for toys. But the Wayne, N.J.-based chain has struggled in the face of stiff competition from mass merchants and consumers’ dramatic shift to online shopping, a transition that’s claimed several other brick-and-mortar retailers in the last several months.

Toys R Us also is saddled with $5 billion of debt, much of it stemming from a buyout of the company 12 years ago by three private investment firms.

Under Chapter 11, a company continues operating while being protected from creditors’ claims while it reorganizes its finances and operations. Toys R Us said it was operating as usual and would continue to be supplied with toys during the crucial holiday shopping season.