Another anchor store about to die, another nail in the shopping mall coffin.

[sarahtasher]

I don't think anyone was ever touched/moved by going to the Toysaurus (I have extremely fond memories of my only visit at the FAO Schwartz when I was a kid-even at ten, there was something ice cold about Toysaurus), but c'mon, at one point, there will nothing left to take your kids to...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-soon-as-today

[yetgdhfgh]

Iam glad that i dont expect to see the age of 50!

When the trucking industry is gone thanks to driverless trucks, when nobody goes to malls thanks to online shopping that is done in warehouses fully automated, When nearly every thing is cheaply made in China! Is there gonna be anyone left employed that isnt in the Entertainment business or in IT?

[Moralgy]

Damn millennials killed another store!

Toys are kinda outdated since video games give far better interaction, learning, and so on so it isn't surprising really. Giant hunks of plastic can not compare with the expansiveness of video games, not to mention those toys tend to cost a shit ton.

[Sunseeker]

Toys R Us has been slowly dying for over a decade due to absolutely horrendous business models.

[Kellhound]

Damn millennials killed another store!

Toys are kinda outdated since video games give far better interaction, learning, and so on so it isn't surprising really. Giant hunks of plastic can not compare with the expansiveness of video games, not to mention those toys tend to cost a shit ton.

Physical toys are superior to electronic games for learning actually.

[Deleted]

Physical toys are superior to electronic games for learning actually.

It has been known for ages that physically doing things is the best way of learning just about everything. It makes me wonder why this fact seems to be overlooked so much.

Video games may help with learning foreign languages (assuming you are a non-English speaker), but that's about the one thing where they are better than physical toys.

[MonsieuRoberts]

Here in Canada Toys R Us has always been expensive. More So than EB Games, than Walmart, than Zellers before it. They might have ALL the toys but you're paying for that selection regardless if you're buying a $200 lightsaber or a $8 Bionicle. That was the way it was like 15 years ago when I would window shop and sometimes get a Hot Wheels track or a small Lego set, and from looking through flyers a few years ago that doesn't seem to have changed. Still expensive comparatively.

I know they have Babies R Us and I know they've come to sell a lot of video game stuff...but I haven't stepped foot into a Toys R Us SINCE I was a young kid. Have they diversified at all or is it essentially 100% toys? Do they have an online presence?

[Deleted]

all hail amazon, you can only transact with Bezos cradle to grave

die infel brick and mortar

[PACOX]

Toys R Us was the shit when I was little. We used to go there just to look at toys. Do kids still play with toys?

[yetgdhfgh]

Toys R Us was the shit when I was little. We used to go there just to look at toys. Do kids still play with toys?

Damn i remember each birthday my mom taking me to my local toys R Us in Birmingham City Centre to pick out any toy i wanted!

- - - Updated - - -

Kids must still play with toys i had nick jr left on mute when my cat sat on my controls and i could see in the corner of my eye all the paw patrol toys and shit and i think wow i wouldve loved that crap back when i was young!!

[kail]

Sad to hear, but again just the transitions of the industry. While I will always see a demand for physical toys, I don't think the demand is high enough to warrant an entire retail store.

I am curious if this simultaneously affects Babies R Us. If anything I foresee that side of the company outlasting Toys R Us.

[Skroe]

Some of my best memories as a child were of my brother and I going Toy shopping at TRU with my mom. Asiles line with Video games, bikes, GI Joes and Transformers. And good lord, I'll remember the enormous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle wall. Probably 20 feet across with the entire line on every peg. For a child it was like a dream.

Toys'R Us went wrong wen they got away from that. The TRU by where my parents live (where I grew up) was torn down years ago and replaced with a modern building. The crowded toyshop was replaced with wide modern asiles bright lights and a spacious layout. And in every way worse. It wasn't better. It was clinical. It was like visiting a hospital. Now, when I go Christmas shopping for the children in the family, I go to a TRU a little further away that never got revamped, that still has the late 1980s/early 1990s "feel". Even as an adult, it's fun.

TRU went wrong because it stopped feeling authentic. The reason that SNES classic, NES classic and retro-gaming is all the rage is because despite modern consoles, advanced computers and AAA games, there is a significant lack of authenticity and personality. It's not just nostalgia, but a feeling of intimacy during the experience. Going shopping at clinical-TRU is something to just get done. Going shopping at "classic" TRU is being a kid again for half an hour.

If TRU keeps wanting to go to the mat against Target and Amazon for efficient shopping, it'll lose forever. If they want to make it an experience again, they'll find more success.

[s_bushido]

The only thing I remember from Toys R Us was playing the Super Mario World demo. That place was always too expensive compared to literally any other store.

[cparle87]

Toys R Us was the shit when I was little. We used to go there just to look at toys. Do kids still play with toys?

Yeah, it was so awesome when you were little. I remember saving up my allowance for six weeks to buy a Voltron model. Even though I knew exactly what I wanted and where it was in the store I still spent almost an hour just going down the isles and looking at everything before making my purchase. Child's dreamland.

[Squishy Tia]

Ahhh...the good ol' days. Back when video games and stuff were actually sold there. Sure there are some things now, but their selection is so pared down within each line it's pitiful. But one of my fondest (but not TRU's fondest) memories was back when Nintendo was holding the Starfox competition. TRU was the retailer that sponsored it, and I went to the Chula Vista (San Diego) TRU and got in my score. Then I went right to the National City TRU and did it there too. I'd spend the next few days calling each store and asking for updates on the scores to see if anyone beat me (they didn't). Made them bonkers with all my calls. I ended up with two Starfox jackets from the competition since I won at both stores. And the Nasty City TRU employee even gave me all of their remaining Starfox pins and the apron, which I also still have.

The 80s commercials with the tagline "I wanna be a Toys R Us kid!" sum up why they were so good then, and why they aren't worth anything now. I went into a TRU about a year ago to get a birthday present for a nephew. Aside from being horribly laid out with zig zagging isles, the store felt too "bright" and there was literally nobody else in it but me. Gone were the long isles of the San Diego stores that had endless rows of toys. Nothing but short, mom and pop store sized isles with mostly toys I couldn't care about. Now part of the problem is that older toys were just made better and more appealing. Which would you prefer, a modern plasticky Transformer, or the badass die cast metal Megatron from 1984? Would you prefer the current dull and gawdly looking Voltron, or the die cast metal infused Voltron from 1984? I'd be going for the older versions because they did more, lasted longer, and cost less.

If toy manufacturers want to insist on cheaping out on every last component of their toys, you better bet we're going to look for the cheapest and easiest place to get and later replace them, which won't be TRU. It'll be Amazon. Give me a good solid "lasts you a long time" toy and I'll go to TRU to check it out and likely get it while I'm there. Otherwise, forget about it.

[endersblade]

Toysaurus

What dinosaur is that? Never heard of it.

- - - Updated - - -

Ahhh...the good ol' days. Back when video games and stuff were actually sold there. Sure there are some things now, but their selection is so pared down within each line it's pitiful. But one of my fondest (but not TRU's fondest) memories was back when Nintendo was holding the Starfox competition. TRU was the retailer that sponsored it, and I went to the Chula Vista (San Diego) TRU and got in my score. Then I went right to the National City TRU and did it there too. I'd spend the next few days calling each store and asking for updates on the scores to see if anyone beat me (they didn't). Made them bonkers with all my calls. I ended up with two Starfox jackets from the competition since I won at both stores. And the Nasty City TRU employee even gave me all of their remaining Starfox pins and the apron, which I also still have.

The 80s commercials with the tagline "I wanna be a Toys R Us kid!" sum up why they were so good then, and why they aren't worth anything now. I went into a TRU about a year ago to get a birthday present for a nephew. Aside from being horribly laid out with zig zagging isles, the store felt too "bright" and there was literally nobody else in it but me. Gone were the long isles of the San Diego stores that had endless rows of toys. Nothing but short, mom and pop store sized isles with mostly toys I couldn't care about. Now part of the problem is that older toys were just made better and more appealing. Which would you prefer, a modern plasticky Transformer, or the badass die cast metal Megatron from 1984? Would you prefer the current dull and gawdly looking Voltron, or the die cast metal infused Voltron from 1984? I'd be going for the older versions because they did more, lasted longer, and cost less.

If toy manufacturers want to insist on cheaping out on every last component of their toys, you better bet we're going to look for the cheapest and easiest place to get and later replace them, which won't be TRU. It'll be Amazon. Give me a good solid "lasts you a long time" toy and I'll go to TRU to check it out and likely get it while I'm there. Otherwise, forget about it.

Right. Toys'R'Us used to be the best place to find niche toys. Things that are collectables nowadays. And whatever happened to the freaking Giraffe?!?!?

Also, I've NEVER seen a TRU attached to a mall. Not once. Every single one I've been to was by itself or attached to one or two more big stores. I don't consider 3 stores strung together to be a mall.

[Nihilist74]

The only thing i remember going to toys r us for was to buy nes games.

[yetgdhfgh]

So what can possibly save brick and mortar stores?

Heavy tax on shopping websites? Telling nut cases not to go on shooting sprees in shopping malls? Tax free shopping in malls?

Whats the solution?

I would love to see brick and mortar stores make a come back its a right of passage for teenagers and its something children used to love to do with there parents for toys and clothes.

We shouldnt let this shit die just so Amazon can make a quadtrillion bucks!!!

[aviger]

If they had better customer service and their things werent fucking expensive maybe they be in business.
We went looking for a car seat for the kid, the ones at babysrus were 100-150$ more than on amazon.
Sure amazon may have less overhead and shit but 100+ dollars more is just robbery :P

[Demona3]

I don't think anyone was ever touched/moved by going to the Toysaurus (I have extremely fond memories of my only visit at the FAO Schwartz when I was a kid-even at ten, there was something ice cold about Toysaurus), but c'mon, at one point, there will nothing left to take your kids to...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-soon-as-today

They overcharge for their toys, BIG TIME. We go shopping during Christmas season. We usually stop by Toys R Us first, but just frown when we see the prices. We find the same toys for cheaper online or at wal-mart. They need to be comptitive. Honestly, they should open up an online toy store, shut down the majority of their stores (except for big cities if they are actually not making a profit), and try to be competitive with Amazon or Wal-Mart.

I will miss this store though. I loved going there as a kid and now I love taking my kids, but I struggle with the cost difference between Toys-R-Us and Amazon. Amazon wins the majority of the time.

However, I do have to point out - they have the absolute BEST deal I've seen when it comes to back to school shopping. They sell the backpacks and give you a free lunchbox with the purchase of a backpack. We go there every year to buy the kids backpacks. Hands down best deal in our area at least.