Toys‘R'Us Expands CE Assortment

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 11/3/2011

Wayne, N.J. - Toys ‘R' Us has expanded and redesigned its CE departments to carry more tablets, headphones, media players and Apple accessories.

The toy chain has also added its first pre-paid phones and plans, from AT&T, TracFone and Net10, and T-Mobile.

To present the expanded assortment, the retailer has developed an open floor plan that "significantly increased" the size of its existing CE departments, and is adding interactive displays to its stores nationwide.

The expanded selection will also be available online, a spokesman told TWICE.

"At Toys ‘R' Us, we continually seek ways to offer the latest in consumer electronics products and we are excited to add new portable items to our assortment such as no-contract mobile phones, tablet computers, electronic reading devices and more," said Troy Peterson, the company's VP and divisional merchandising manager for electronics and entertainment. "Our customers are sure to enjoy the newly redesigned department, which allows them to get hands-on experience with many of our new products, as well as demos of some of the hottest video games available."

New additions include:

• A broader selection of portable media players, including touchscreen devices from Sony, Samsung, Sandisk, Riptunes, Archos and Sakar, in addition to the latest Apple iPod iterations;

• The new generation of Kindle e-readers;

• New tablet models including the Sony S, Samsung Galaxy, as well as entries from Acer, Archos and Asus;

• An expanded selection of headphones, including SKUs from Skullcandy and an exclusive line of Safe Sounds in-ear and over-ear headphones from Maxell, and;

• A wider variety of iPod and iPad accessories, including colored and licensed cases and a larger selection of iHome docks.

The chain will also continue to offer a full assortment of video games and hardware, karaoke machines, movies, musical instruments, and character-licensed TVs and other CE products.

Toys ‘R' Us is also offering a layaway payment option this holiday season for select CE categories.