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

[bigbleach]

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.

How many toys past the age of like 8 really teach kids anything? Or that the kid actually wants... video games have their place, and offer far more in the way of learning than most toys not targeted at a very young age. But I'll keep your words of wisdom in mind, I'm sure GI joe has a lot to teach. Or Barbie. Or furby. Or my real friends. Or hatchimals, etc. maybe some Legos...

[Deleted]

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Toys are kinda outdated since video games give far better interaction, learning, and so on so it isn't surprising really.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.

I'm sorry, I hate the media anti-video game trend, but come on. Video games are definetly not better than toys. Kids need toys to learn motoric basics. And I've enough children in my family to see what is really good for them.

Nephews that grew up with smartphones and lot of TV in their young age are exhausting as fuck, learned to speak pretty late, had other problems, I never believed the ADHS hype until they grew up. I am damn sure that TV and video games is the reason for that, while my nephew that got blocked from all these stuff in the young age is such a lovely and nice boy entertained by simple stuff, learning faster than average and is mostly easy to handle.

Giving 2yo a Smartphone or sit them in front of the TV so that they are quiet is just something terrible parents do.

But people living in forums of course think this way.

[Halicia]

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.

I think the one near me is in a separate building in the parking lot.

Last time I went in one, it wasn't that pleasant an experience. Maybe it'd be different from a kid's point of view, but I doubt it... the aisles were crammed together and looked messy, like a Walmart shoved in a closet.

Its hard to defend videogames compared to actual "toys" that I played with when I was younger... don't get me wrong, I love videogames... but there's generally not much to learn from them compared to the !@#$ I built and broke. =)

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I'm sorry, I hate the media anti-video game trend, but come on. Video games are definetly not better than toys. Kids need toys to learn motoric basics. And I've enough children in my family to see what is really good for them.
.

They certainly are better from a store's point of view, and I think thats what the comment was directed at.

[Xargoth6634]

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

Not sure that I'd say I was touched or moved by the store, but I loved to go there when I was a kid and we were back in the states. Was cool to see all the awesome toys/games, even if my family couldn't afford much from there.

[Nathreim]

Toys R Us was always way over priced even before the internet.

[gaymer77]

I'm showing my age here but I remember going to Kaybee Games as a kid instead of Toys R Us because they were cheaper. Kaybee went out of business and I'm not surprised about Toys R Us but I'm actually surprised it lasted this long.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Haha, reminds me of my local no-brand toy store, I haven't been in it for over 15 years and when I needed some game/toy quick for a gift I learned they no longer even had games. Action figures and games are too short lived these days, they can no longer stock them without risking to keep sitting on them. That even the giants struggle does not surprise me, if you really want the latest fad online is just the way to go. Pricewise at least here in Germany they were always expensive no matter what, didn't matter if I went to a toys r us or some other store, they usually adhered to the same pricing recommendations for the things I wanted.

[Moralgy]

I'm sorry, I hate the media anti-video game trend, but come on. Video games are definetly not better than toys. Kids need toys to learn motoric basics. And I've enough children in my family to see what is really good for them.

Nephews that grew up with smartphones and lot of TV in their young age are exhausting as fuck, learned to speak pretty late, had other problems, I never believed the ADHS hype until they grew up. I am damn sure that TV and video games is the reason for that, while my nephew that got blocked from all these stuff in the young age is such a lovely and nice boy entertained by simple stuff, learning faster than average and is mostly easy to handle.

Giving 2yo a Smartphone or sit them in front of the TV so that they are quiet is just something terrible parents do.

But people living in forums of course think this way.

I learned all the math my first 12 years of school taught through a video game. I learned typing and spelling through a video game. If there was a video game for any subject, I would learn it far better through adding an artificial achievement system, like video games do, to the learning process than I would ever reading a book and studying. The "achievement" nature of video games appeals to humans so well, so anything that adds a learning function to that is going to be amazing. The best part of it is, those games like mavis beacon and what ever the hell that math game was were actually fun where as reading books and notes were boring as hell in early education.

Before age 5ish, yes, toys are better because humans are still learning motor functions and barely have any real cognitive function past existing, but after that, those piles of plastic become pointless. A game like minecraft is going to teach spatial learning once a kid can reasonably interact with the medium far better than building blocks. The expansive nature of video games vastly outpaces the limited nature of typical toys. Why buy a kid legos that are expensive as shit and restrictive when you can give them minecraft and do the same type of learning?

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How many toys past the age of like 8 really teach kids anything? Or that the kid actually wants... video games have their place, and offer far more in the way of learning than most toys not targeted at a very young age. But I'll keep your words of wisdom in mind, I'm sure GI joe has a lot to teach. Or Barbie. Or furby. Or my real friends. Or hatchimals, etc. maybe some Legos...

My barbies taught me so much about life it was crazy, you don't even know!11!!!!!11! I wish I had video games when i was 5 or 6, I envy kids these days because the possibilities of learning and fun in general has expanded so much thanks to the outlet. At 6 i was putting a dress on a barbie and pretending it had a personality. My little cousins are building castles in minecraft, which has almost no limit. Shooters are probably cancer for learning given stuff I've seen lately, but creation games expand the mind quite a lot.

[PACOX]

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.

Oh man. I remember saving up for action figures and N64 games as a kid for months and knowing exactly where they were in the store as well. Starfox 64 and Mario Party 2 (or 3 don't remember), I hustled hard for those games. I don't know how much sympathy I have for some brick stores for not adapting when they had plenty of time and opportunities but Toys R Us was definitely a part of my childhood. We were bless with the only one in the entire county for some time. I've driven past the thing to one see 3 or so cars in the parking lot sad times.

[Afrospinach]

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.

Lego master race. It is a shame Lego today is kinda crap though.

[Lochton]

Shame to see so many jobs lost but well, it was one of the more expensive options. Just hope people will find a job easy enough.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

Physical toys are superior to electronic games for learning actually.

Source? 10char

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I'm sorry, I hate the media anti-video game trend, but come on. Video games are definetly not better than toys. Kids need toys to learn motoric basics. And I've enough children in my family to see what is really good for them.

Nephews that grew up with smartphones and lot of TV in their young age are exhausting as fuck, learned to speak pretty late, had other problems, I never believed the ADHS hype until they grew up. I am damn sure that TV and video games is the reason for that, while my nephew that got blocked from all these stuff in the young age is such a lovely and nice boy entertained by simple stuff, learning faster than average and is mostly easy to handle.

Giving 2yo a Smartphone or sit them in front of the TV so that they are quiet is just something terrible parents do.

But people living in forums of course think this way.

Link research how you feel is fucking irrelevant.

[Teri]

Web shops here are often so much cheaper then physical stores when it comes to things like big brands like LEGO

Even if it means ordering from another country + shipping. (Europe)

[Deleted]

I learned all the math my first 12 years of school taught through a video game. I learned typing and spelling through a video game. If there was a video game for any subject, I would learn it far better through adding an artificial achievement system, like video games do, to the learning process than I would ever reading a book and studying. The "achievement" nature of video games appeals to humans so well, so anything that adds a learning function to that is going to be amazing. The best part of it is, those games like mavis beacon and what ever the hell that math game was were actually fun where as reading books and notes were boring as hell in early education.

Before age 5ish, yes, toys are better because humans are still learning motor functions and barely have any real cognitive function past existing, but after that, those piles of plastic become pointless. A game like minecraft is going to teach spatial learning once a kid can reasonably interact with the medium far better than building blocks. The expansive nature of video games vastly outpaces the limited nature of typical toys. Why buy a kid legos that are expensive as shit and restrictive when you can give them minecraft and do the same type of learning?

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My barbies taught me so much about life it was crazy, you don't even know!11!!!!!11! I wish I had video games when i was 5 or 6, I envy kids these days because the possibilities of learning and fun in general has expanded so much thanks to the outlet. At 6 i was putting a dress on a barbie and pretending it had a personality. My little cousins are building castles in minecraft, which has almost no limit. Shooters are probably cancer for learning given stuff I've seen lately, but creation games expand the mind quite a lot.

You also miss social aspects. Online Multiplayers are NOT social life or teach social skills, with those toxic communities it probably makes everything as worse as possible. And toys bring kids together. Or sports. And not videogames.

And this is something you see in the millenial generation already. We heavily grew up with video games and stuff like that. And there are so many in my agespan (I'm 26) that are unable to have a social life. These tend to live in the internet, they want attention from people in the internet and are uncapable of having friends in real life because real life is unfair or something like this.

Even in this forum you see enough examples of those individuals.

EDIT: Just checked your account and posts. Nothing to say anymore. You are one of those individuals as it seems. Of course you think video games are the things because you probably failed real life. I'm sorry for that but I won't discuss something further as it makes no sense.

It is sad to see that thouse with thousands of posts here in this forum (and probably another on reddit, 4chan or whatsoever) are so critical about toys and think games are there for everything. Failed individuals.

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Source? 10char

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Link research how you feel is fucking irrelevant.

I'm sorry but this is something I learned from real life. 2,7k posts in 1 year means you should try this, too. Wierd reallife thing. Then you would learn something useful, too.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

You also miss social aspects. Online Multiplayers are NOT social life or teach social skills, with those toxic communities it probably makes everything as worse as possible. And toys bring kids together. Or sports. And not videogames.

And this is something you see in the millenial generation already. We heavily grew up with video games and stuff like that. And there are so many in my agespan (I'm 26) that are unable to have a social life. These tend to live in the internet, they want attention from people in the internet and are uncapable of having friends in real life because real life is unfair or something like this.

Even in this forum you see enough examples of those individuals.

EDIT: Just checked your account and posts. Nothing to say anymore. You are one of those individuals as it seems. Of course you think video games are the things because you probably failed real life. I'm sorry for that but I won't discuss something further as it makes no sense.

You can play video games with friends and there is local multiplayer/split screen. You can use them to interact with other people and the discussion was is better for educational purpose toys are video games. Not if having a social life is important or not.

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You also miss social aspects. Online Multiplayers are NOT social life or teach social skills, with those toxic communities it probably makes everything as worse as possible. And toys bring kids together. Or sports. And not videogames.

And this is something you see in the millenial generation already. We heavily grew up with video games and stuff like that. And there are so many in my agespan (I'm 26) that are unable to have a social life. These tend to live in the internet, they want attention from people in the internet and are uncapable of having friends in real life because real life is unfair or something like this.

Even in this forum you see enough examples of those individuals.

EDIT: Just checked your account and posts. Nothing to say anymore. You are one of those individuals as it seems. Of course you think video games are the things because you probably failed real life. I'm sorry for that but I won't discuss something further as it makes no sense.

It is sad to see that thouse with thousands of posts here in this forum (and probably another on reddit, 4chan or whatsoever) are so critical about toys and think games are there for everything. Failed individuals.

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I'm sorry but this is something I learned from real life. 2,7k posts in 1 year means you should try this, too. Wierd reallife thing. Then you would learn something useful, too.

I am clearly a bad example... I work 36-48 hours a week and still have a social life plus the time for gaming. Then find peer reviewed research rather than anecdotes which are irrelevant.

[Flarelaine]

Its hard to defend videogames compared to actual "toys" that I played with when I was younger... don't get me wrong, I love videogames... but there's generally not much to learn from them compared to the !@#$ I built and broke. =)

I invite you to try your hand at Civilization or any of Paradox's empire builders and then say there's not much to learn.

[Macaquerie]

It's pretty absurd to hear you guys trying to do the "back in my day" routine touting the benefits of mass marketed cheap plastic toys, which have only really been around for a few decades and hardly have any educational value, except to teach kids the overpowering effect of branding and advertising. Going to your local Toys R Us and gawking at the shiny Transformers or Ninja Turtles toys that your parents can't afford is hardly some kind of timeless childhood ritual, it is specific to the time period in which we grew up, and evidently its time has come and gone just like so many other things do.

[draynay]

good riddance

[Gaidax]

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!!!

And why it should be saved exactly? These things will go the way of horse carriages and so on. It is going to be outdated soon.

[Moralgy]

You also miss social aspects. Online Multiplayers are NOT social life or teach social skills, with those toxic communities it probably makes everything as worse as possible. And toys bring kids together. Or sports. And not videogames.

And this is something you see in the millenial generation already. We heavily grew up with video games and stuff like that. And there are so many in my agespan (I'm 26) that are unable to have a social life. These tend to live in the internet, they want attention from people in the internet and are uncapable of having friends in real life because real life is unfair or something like this.

Even in this forum you see enough examples of those individuals.

EDIT: Just checked your account and posts. Nothing to say anymore. You are one of those individuals as it seems. Of course you think video games are the things because you probably failed real life. I'm sorry for that but I won't discuss something further as it makes no sense.

It is sad to see that thouse with thousands of posts here in this forum (and probably another on reddit, 4chan or whatsoever) are so critical about toys and think games are there for everything. Failed individuals.

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I'm sorry but this is something I learned from real life. 2,7k posts in 1 year means you should try this, too. Wierd reallife thing. Then you would learn something useful, too.

Did someone really just drop the "you post on the internet too much so you failed at life" argument? Like, is this real life?

Hint, in high school, the closest nit social groups in my school were video game nerds. We had weekly club meetings where we stayed after hours into the night playing video games together. Nerds can be social too, shocking information I know, and being a fucking asshole brings nothing to the discussion. If you want to be an adult, feel free to come back to the conversation, but until then, enjoy your life, I guess?

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You can play video games with friends and there is local multiplayer/split screen. You can use them to interact with other people and the discussion was is better for educational purpose toys are video games. Not if having a social life is important or not.

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I am clearly a bad example... I work 36-48 hours a week and still have a social life plus the time for gaming. Then find peer reviewed research rather than anecdotes which are irrelevant.

No No, don't you see, video games are impossible to be social in. Nerds are loners that have no friends. The only way to learn anything is throw barbies and gi-joes at kids to teach them real stuff!