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Abandoned - Toys R Us
- Thread starter Pix
- Start date
I know Target's failure was launching too many stores simultaneously and underestimating the demand on their supply chain.
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Yeah, it was notorious for not keeping up with the demand. That and the overwhelming amount of stores launched over a short time caused Target to exit Canada.
I am weirdly legitimately emotionally distressed at what happened with TRU. Didn't help that my daughter was distraught that we couldn't go there anymore.
Fucking Bain Capital. It's obscene that the mechanisms of vulture capitalism are legal in the first place.
Fucking Bain Capital. It's obscene that the mechanisms of vulture capitalism are legal in the first place.
Went to the local TRU after work today after hearing all stores will close next Friday, most of the store was inaccessible, barricaded off by yellow tape or by shelving. Only about a quarter of the store was freely available to walk around, and there was very little of note left, think the only interesting thing I saw was a shelf full of Olaf the snowman from Frozen, no one wants poor Olaf. Did notice they were selling their shopping carts for 35 dollars, so if anyone wants a TRU shopping cart now is your chance.
Why switch to a new pos and an untested inventory management no one really need knows
Great video, this must have required a lot of research.
Honestly I'm a little unsure of why Toys 'R Us is still open in Canada... it has the same number of visitors that Zellers had before it closed (ie. virtually none).
Honestly I'm a little unsure of why Toys 'R Us is still open in Canada... it has the same number of visitors that Zellers had before it closed (ie. virtually none).
Man, I remember when they had Crash, Mario 64 and Nights all lined up together on kiosks. Those were good times. Makes me sad, yet... there was really no reason to go there over the alternatives for, like, over a decade now tbh. Its like game magazines, they just don't make sense here and now no matter how great they were.
I guess what I'm saying is, lets destroy the internet and Target/Walmart so we can make TRU and magazines viable again! Who's with me?
I guess what I'm saying is, lets destroy the internet and Target/Walmart so we can make TRU and magazines viable again! Who's with me?
You can always go on a European vacation if you want to show Toys 'R' Us to your kids.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/toys-r-us-lives-on-in-germany-austria-switzerland.42720/
Or Canada, for now.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/toys-r-us-lives-on-in-germany-austria-switzerland.42720/
Or Canada, for now.
Toys R Us is weird because in the last ~20 years when I had gone in one (hell even worked at one for a bit), they always seemed so run down and dirty. But as a kid in the 1980s I remembered them being amazing places.
I guess given the condition of their stores and their generally high prices, it's not exactly shocking they went out of business.
I guess given the condition of their stores and their generally high prices, it's not exactly shocking they went out of business.
The stores in my country are still around. To my knowledge a company with another toy store chain owns the brand here.
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Both that and Canada will likely be the stores that will remain the longest, that's my guess.
I stopped in to my local Boardman, OH Toys R Us to see it pretty much stripped since the last time I had been there. I was last there maybe a month ago and bought Poi for the Switch, and it's looking like that might be my last ever TRU purchase. A month ago, the place still looked pretty normal but today it looked depressing. My store is one of the only stores that still has the rainbow colors outside with the wood exterior look and I'm quite glad they never made it over.
We have a PetCo next door taking up the old Kids R Us spot, and they barely do any business now, so I can't imagine them sticking around once TRU is done. I imagine the whole place will be demolished since it's always been in a jammed up area of town that has only gotten busier throughout the years. The last day is Friday and I plan on going for the hell of it, just to say I was there.
We have a PetCo next door taking up the old Kids R Us spot, and they barely do any business now, so I can't imagine them sticking around once TRU is done. I imagine the whole place will be demolished since it's always been in a jammed up area of town that has only gotten busier throughout the years. The last day is Friday and I plan on going for the hell of it, just to say I was there.
I never got to experience the store as a kid, but as an adult I would stop by every few months on a Friday right after work. The amount of Legos I got when they started to close down before it became official will be the best memory of that place to me.
I should have gone to the times square location again before it shut down. Only ever been there twice.
Experience what? Inflated prices?
I never liked that place, even as a kid.
So as a kid I loved every chance I could to go to Toys R Us from about ages 5-12. I ended up working there for three weeks in the spring of 2006 and it was horrible. The managers were okay but no one shopped in the video game section where I worked and they played the same six songs on the in store music in a rotation. SIX... SONGS...
Fiancee and I just left one that closes in 5 days. Got a full stroller/car seat travel system, 2 pairs of infant shoes, and a few other baby things for $125. Great deals, store was packed.
TRU didn't open in my hometown until late 1994 or so - missed most of my childhood. Then when we moved the area had a TRU but I only used it for N64 preorders, really. Then by 1998 I was already using EB & GameStop and using TRU not at all.
It is crazy that there will basically be no toy stores anywhere around here - and many areas, probably ever again.
It is crazy that there will basically be no toy stores anywhere around here - and many areas, probably ever again.
I remember going to the TRU on opening night in the city where I was born. My dad brought me and we both waited in a huge line around the building to go into this magical place. I'm sad my daughter won't have that memory. Toy stores were important to me, even if I could rarely get anything there. Just the experience of going and seeing such amazing things and the whole building catered towards children. It was sort of magical.
Different ownership most weren't updated past the mid 2000's.
My mom hated ToysRUs because I could spend all day just staring at the games/etc not being able to decide what I wanted. Always will have fond memories of the store...sad its gone :/
Today's the last day for operation of Toys R Us stores in the US, at the end of the day the stores close for good.
I feel like this is a sadder day for millennials that grew up browsing TRU stores than modern day children. Modern day children would be more sad if the ios app store closed
Assuming the two near me aren't closed already, I check them out right after work.
Though.. It's starting to sink in that it's an end of an era.
Just as depressing is the giant NYC store, with the ferris wheel, is gone too.
I rarely gone, but it still hurts.
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I'm a grown man, currently at work.
Toys R Us closing was met naturally with me, passage of time.
This picture is making me cry though.
We reached the end Geoffrey. :(
I will always be a Toys R Us kid.
It fascinates me how Target flopped in Canada. I don't think I've met a single person who doesn't love Target. That place is like Disney World for my generation!
I suppose the closing of TRU is sadder or perhaps a bit bitter when one realizes it wasn't failing that hard, but was used to pump and dump debt.
I mean, maybe it would have gone under naturally in a few more years, but maybe not.
I mean, maybe it would have gone under naturally in a few more years, but maybe not.
I'm in the UK and we have two other big toy store brands so this isn't as big a deal to me. Toys R Us always seemed a bit spread out here too, those other brands are everywhere and TRU just wasn't which doesnt help.
I don't have anything against the corporation, but I never had any kind of whimsical attachment to Toys R Us even though we did go there. It was basically a K Mart or Target, but with only toy aisles.
FAO Schwarz is the kind of toy store that I can see getting nostalgic and upset about closing down. That's a place with real production values. There was one near me growing up, and walking through those doors was almost like walking into Disneyland.
FAO Schwarz is the kind of toy store that I can see getting nostalgic and upset about closing down. That's a place with real production values. There was one near me growing up, and walking through those doors was almost like walking into Disneyland.
I agree with that, but you also paid for those production values. FAO Schwarz wasn't really competitive on their pricing which is why they are down to just 1 store. After today that's still more stores than TRU and KB Toys combined, however
For what its worth, both my kids 8 and 5 experienced TRU their childhoods so far and when I told them about it closing they didn't give a shit. The "magic" of a toy store existed for many of us because it was in a world pre internet, pre smart phones, tablets, Fortnite etc etc.. Kids today don't grow up with the same feeling of only being able to play with the same 5 toys all year, where when you walk into a dedicated Toy Store being washed over with that Wonka Factory feeling. I mean don't get me wrong my kids still beg for toys and hit toy isles at stores but neither of them blinked an eye when I told them TRU was going away forever.
My 8 year old straight up told, Amazon is still around right? LOL
Now this shit hurts. I know it's just a person in a costume, but god damn does that picture hit me in the gut.
Oh yeah, definitely. Hell, we went in all the time and rarely bought anything. It's the story with all of these stores, but especially the places with real production values.
It's why I now try to buy my son toys from our local mom and pop toy store that still tries to make it special, even though I could buy the same thing from Amazon for X% less.
I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid
they got a million toys at Toys R Us that I can play with
I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid
they got the best for so much less, it'll really flip your lid
From bikes to trains to video games
it's the biggest toy store there is~
I don't wanna grow up, cause maybe if I did
I couldn't be a Toys R Us kid...
they got a million toys at Toys R Us that I can play with
I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid
they got the best for so much less, it'll really flip your lid
From bikes to trains to video games
it's the biggest toy store there is~
I don't wanna grow up, cause maybe if I did
I couldn't be a Toys R Us kid...
I was always impressed with the video game selection at Toys 'R Us too. Back in the early 2000's when it wasn't always easy to find certain games online, Toys 'R Us was a hot bed for limited run titles and rare games. Was so fun to scour my hometown at places like Circuit City, Toys 'R Us, Game Crazy, etc. looking for hidden deals. That was my childhood... miss it :(