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KB Toys (previously known as Kay Bee Toys) was a chain of mall-based
Shopping mall

File:Nordstrom wing , Pentagon City Mall.jpgA shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings which contain retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit....
 retail toy store
Toy store

A toy store, or toy shop, is a retail business specializing in selling toys. No longer held to the limitations of a physical outlet, many toy stores are now doing business over the e-commerce....
s in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It was founded in 1922 by the Kaufman brothers. KB operated 605 stores in 44 U.S. state
U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 state of the United States that share sovereignty with the federal government of the United States . Because of this shared sovereignty, an United States is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of Domicile ....
s, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
 as well as Guam
Guam

Guam , officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized, unincorporated insular area of the United States....
. It was privately held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield is the largest city in and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County....
. KB Toys was owned by Big Lots
Big Lots

Big Lots, Inc. is a Fortune 500 retail corporation with annual revenues well over $4 billion. Its department stores focus mainly on selling closeout and overstock merchandise....
 and Melville Corporation
Melville Corporation

Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding corporation incorporated in 1922 as the Melville Shoe company by Ward Melville....
 at one time. It was also the oldest-operating toy chain in North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 before its demise.

Following the company's second bankruptcy in five years, the chain was liquidated beginning in December 2008.






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Encyclopedia


KB Toys (previously known as Kay Bee Toys) was a chain of mall-based
Shopping mall

File:Nordstrom wing , Pentagon City Mall.jpgA shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings which contain retail units, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit....
 retail toy store
Toy store

A toy store, or toy shop, is a retail business specializing in selling toys. No longer held to the limitations of a physical outlet, many toy stores are now doing business over the e-commerce....
s in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It was founded in 1922 by the Kaufman brothers. KB operated 605 stores in 44 U.S. state
U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 state of the United States that share sovereignty with the federal government of the United States . Because of this shared sovereignty, an United States is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of Domicile ....
s, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
 as well as Guam
Guam

Guam , officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized, unincorporated insular area of the United States....
. It was privately held in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Pittsfield is the largest city in and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County....
. KB Toys was owned by Big Lots
Big Lots

Big Lots, Inc. is a Fortune 500 retail corporation with annual revenues well over $4 billion. Its department stores focus mainly on selling closeout and overstock merchandise....
 and Melville Corporation
Melville Corporation

Melville Corporation, formerly based in Rye, New York, was a large retail holding corporation incorporated in 1922 as the Melville Shoe company by Ward Melville....
 at one time. It was also the oldest-operating toy chain in North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 before its demise.

Following the company's second bankruptcy in five years, the chain was liquidated beginning in December 2008. The sales were concluded by the end of January 2009.

Operations

At the time of its liquidation, KB Toys operated three distinct store formats: KB Toys, KB Toy Works, and KB Toys Outlet (aka Toy Liquidators). KB Toys stores were mostly found in the company's traditional base of shopping malls, were many of its stores were located for years. KB Toy Works stores were typically found in outdoor strip malls. KB Toys Outlet and Toy Liquidators stores, as the name implies, were usually found in outlet centers/malls.

Financial trouble

Due to increasing competition from national discount chains such as Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American Public company that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500....
, Toys "R" Us, and other discount chains on January 14, 2004, KB Toys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed 365 stores.

KB closed 156 stores on November 8, 2007. The Gordon Brothers Group
Gordon Brothers Group

Gordon Brothers Group, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, is a liquidation that was founded in 1903 by Jacob Gordon. The company specializes in appraising the value of non-property retail assets, principally shop stock....
 handled the liquidation of these stores.

On February 9th 2009, KB closed the remaining stores following the second bankruptcy filing in four years. In addition, KB Toys' website was closed down.

External links

  • FundingUniverse.com, dense overview of business history as of 2006 (~15kb)