J.C. Penney Bringing Back Toys To Stores And Online

Richard Gottlieb of Global Toy News has highlighted a Fortune.com article about J.C. Penney bringing back toys to their stores as well as online. 

J.C. Penney will add a 500 square-foot toy shop to all of its 1,000+ stores and carry toys from Mattel and Hasbro, among others, including Star Wars (lightsabers are specifically mentioned). With K-Mart stores closing and Walmart hit and miss on Star Wars toys specifically, it will be interesting to see what this could mean for Star Wars collectors as we see the launch of The Last Jedi toys in September and the return of the Vintage Collection in early 2018.

Although J.C. Penney carried toys online and in their catalog, the last time we recall for sure that they sold toys in their stores was 1999 for the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Their store in the York, PA Galleria Mall was a frequent stop for us and was one of the few stores you could pick up harder to find items like the 12″ Darth Maul after they sold through places like Walmart and Toys-R-Us.

It may be worth putting J.C. Penney on the short list for toy shopping later this year.