21 Facts About KB Toys

K·B Toys was an American chain of mall-based retail toy stores.

KB Toys was founded in 1922 as Kaufman Brothers, a wholesale candy store.

KB Toys opened a wholesale toy store in 1946, and ended its candy wholesales two years later to focus entirely on the toy industry.

KB Toys opened 40 new stores during that year, and stated that it was the nation's fastest-growing toy store chain, with 170 locations across the Midwestern and Eastern United States.

KB Toys' website was revamped and relaunched in July 1999, as KBKids.

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At the time, KB Toys was the second-largest toy retailer in the United States.

The KB Toys sale included its various divisions: KB Toy Works, KB Toy Outlet, KB Toy Liquidators, KB Toy Express, and KBKids.

KB Toys began focusing more on video games, which accounted for 20 percent of the company's revenue as of 2001.

KB Toys suffered tough competition during the 2003 Christmas season, in addition to expensive store leases in malls with decreased customer visitation.

Creditors stated that the 2002 dividend deal with Bain Capital had rendered KB Toys insolvent, resulting in a loss of $109 million leading up to the bankruptcy filing.

Bain Capital stated that KB Toys was financially well at the time of the dividend deal, and that the company's financial problems later on were unrelated to the deal.

In February 2005, KB Toys' creditors, including Hasbro and Lego, accused the company's top executives and majority shareholders of improperly providing themselves with multimillion-dollar payments prior to the bankruptcy.

KB Toys exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2005, with 90 percent of its ownership under PKBT Holdings, an affiliate of Prentice Capital Management.

Bain Capital had attempted to retain control of KB Toys, which was instead awarded to Prentice Capital by a bankruptcy judge.

KB Toys had 277 mall locations, 114 KB Toy Outlet stores, 40 KB Toy Works stores, and 30 KB Toys Holiday stores, for a total of 461.

TERC alleged that KB Toys' policy was discriminatory against black people, stating that the policy was enforced at eight stores in predominantly black neighborhoods located in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area.

KB Toys denied the allegation, and stated that racial demographics were not a consideration when enacting the policy 13 years earlier.

KB Toys further stated that checks from white people were not accepted at the stores specified in the lawsuit.

In 2001, the district attorney for Napa County, California filed a lawsuit alleging that KB Toys misrepresented sale prices and that it sold returned items as new.

In 2003, a class action lawsuit was filed in Chicago against KB Toys, alleging that the company's stores engaged in using deceptive price tags to manipulate consumers into believing that they were buying products at a discounted price.

The lawsuit was settled with KB Toys providing a one-week 30 percent discount on purchases of $30 or more.