Selected sites of Toys R Us US stores may be taken over by Amazon.
Bloomberg reports the bankrupt toy retailer is in talks with the e-commerce giant over the future of an unspecified number of stores which could be converted to Amazon’s growing portfolio of offline retail spaces. The company recently acquired grocery chain Whole Foods, which has 450 sites, and has been opening physical book stores in selected US markets.
Toys R Us US is closing down more than 700 stores, many of which have moderate- to large-sized footprints suited to bulky goods or grocery retailing.
Bloomberg’s sources said Amazon is not interested in the Toys R Us brand but sees opportunities to use physical stores to deliver online purchases faster. It may possibly use the sites to demonstrate its Alexa voice-activated technology.
Amazon has previously negotiated taking over Radio Shack stores after that chain collapse, but no deal was reached.