Say it ain't so Geoffrey... http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/09/investing/toys-r-us-closing-hasbro-mattel/index.html?iid=EL
This is pretty big. I read an article that said 10 to 15% of the retail market for toys could just evaporate overnight because of this, and it will never come back. On a personal note, it's sort of sad because one of the first stores to be closed is in my home town of Livingston, NJ. It was one of the first handful of stores ever opened, and I remember going there for the grand opening in the 70s. Someone dressed in a (defintiely unlicensed) Darth Vader costume would greet folks as they walked in. Later on, in the 80s, I'd ride my bike there and buy super-cheap Japanese robot toys from Dougram and Mospeada.
This is pretty depressing news. I loved going as a kid and just started taking my almost 2 year old daughter. Hope this doesn't happen.
Unbelievably depressing to see what I considered an empire as a kid falling into nothing. I grew up with very little, but my parents worked their asses off, and they took me to Toys ‘R Us a few times to let me pick something out(within reason). I’ll never forget the feeling, as a kid, walking through those aisles. I’d never seen anything like it! As much as this bums me out, I’m definitely glad I grew up in an era that I could thoroughly experience and appreciate it!
As much as I would hate for this to happen, I wouldn't mind the steep discounts at Babies R Us, especially with a baby on the way.. lol
The scary part about this is how many people will be losing their jobs. Another chunk of people looking for work and having to go on unemployment.
@xSuicide Squadx - It was similar for me as a kid growing up in the middle of nowhere. I only got to set foot inside a Toys 'R' Us once or twice, which was quite the experience, and I even felt that way when I got a rare trip to a K-B Toys in a mall. I remember having something like a religious experience on one of those rare trips when I spotted an Empire-era AT-AT walker on the shelves in the early 80's.
Well said. As a kid, Toys 'R' Us was the most magical place on earth. The multitude of toys brewed a truly distinct smell that would hit you upon first step inside. Whether allowance funds permitted a purchase or not, it was always a blast just to take in all the awesome toys hanging on shelves far as the eyes could see. Then Nintendo came along and my focus shifted... in hindsight, I'd say that was the beginning of the end for the toy landscape as we once knew it. Sure, there will always be a market for children's toys, but the age when they lose interest (in favor of the latest/greatest Apple product) seems to be getting lower by the day. Kids' worlds have shrunk from yards/woods/neighborhoods to explore to one that fits in the palm of their hand. My heart breaks for them the most.
I remember being blown away by the NYC flagship store...and how disappointed I was when it was closed when I visited a couple years ago I always checked the Sunday ads for TRU, and it was often my most important Black Friday stop as a kid. I used the catalogs as my Christmas wish lists Hopefully there will be decent sales on LEGO and there are some board games I've been meaning to pick up
One of my best memories was the time i got Voltron. It was sold out for months and went in and it was in stock...
Just a heads up you can right now get the new Netflix version and the upgraded 80s version. They are massively tall.
Toys R Us as a brand holds so many great memories for us, but in reality they could never have survived with the shitty shitty offerings the major toy companies are producing these days.
Prices have sky rocked for poor quality toys. My son loves to go to TRU, but the offerings are so shitty to me that it’s hard to justify spending the prices asked. It’s definitely not the TRU of years ago and it shows. This was a long time coming. I mean how many times can you spend 10 dollars on a very small LEGO pack. Or 90 dollars on a cheaply made megazord. 18 dollars for the cheapest transformer. Even with inflation for prices the quality isn’t there anymore. Toys break wayyy to easily almost before they are even out the box. Plus everything is a film licensed product which just adds to the price tag. I’m hoping this is a wake up to the industry and something will come to fill the void and fix the issues. Still sad, but not surprising. Also anyone remember Child World ?
Toy industry problems are part of it for sure but the missing piece here is Amazon and online retail in general. Amazon is going to kill many more retail sectors and employees will have few places to go besides their godawful warehouses. Look at what they've done to books. And of course we're the ones who let it happen, drawn in by convenience and free shipping. Damn it all to hell.
Child World!!!! I loved that store. They had the panda mascot, right? There was only one in my area. It's been a Staples ever since it closed. Bummer. So much better than TRU back then. The other BS thing I noticed with TRU is that the price varied by location. There was definitely a consistent markup between the TRU in White Plains as opposed to Yonkers. (Both in New York, FYI.)
Just a few blocks from the beach, the Santa Monica TRU store was a sight to behold. Taking up 2 floors, I never tired of walking through their isles and finding gifts for the kids (or myself)! It was sad when they closed a few years ago, and left a hole in the neighborhood.
I'm glad that our kids grew up with the chance to walk into a warehouse sized store stacked to the ceiling with toys and have their tiny-minds blown. I still remember the joy of my parents taking me to the crappy little toy shop (by comparison) we used to visit when I was a kid. I feel sad that future generations will miss out on that experience! . . . . but I also feel sad that video games, the interwebz, the nanny-state and social-retardation mean a good majority also miss out on careering down slag-heaps on car bonnets, rolling down hills wedged in giant tractor tyres, rooting through refuse dumps for tossed treasures, jumping off roof's onto piles of mattresses, finding someone's porn mag stash in the woods, using building-sites as climbing frames, verbally abusing the local paedophiles, building BMX tracks in the quarry and being chased by the police for riding stolen mopeds on the aforementioned BMX tracks! Life was just better back then!
Dude, I did almost all of that shit when I was younger.. You forgot throwing snowballs at cars, ding dong ditch and setting tires on fire and jumping over them on our dirt bikes..
