Death of An Iconic Brand: RIP Toys R Us

Today we say good-bye to another iconic brand. At least in the US Toys R Us has touched most, if not everyone, alive Today. That’ makes it’s passing at age 70 all the more heart felt. With so many people sharing experiences, growing up with the store and bring their own children, it’s much like losing a part of the family.

I for one grew up with Toys R Us, and later enjoyed bringing my sons to Toys R Us, sharing the wonder of all that was there. Some of the most special moments were in the Times Square store watching the T-Rex roar to life and exploring floor after floor of toys. A child’s paradise for sure. Please feel share your memories.

At look back at Toys R Us

Born in June 1948 in Washington, DC, Toys R Us went from it’s humble beginnings in the baby furniture store, Children’s Bargain Town to have 1,690 locations around the world. It’s founder, Charles Lazarus, passed away just 3 months ago (October 3, 1923 – March 22, 2018). Lazarus was 25 when he founded the store. He stepped down as CEO and Chairman in 1994

The success of the Children’s Supermarket came as Lazarus followed the business principle of the entrepreneur – give your customers what they want. When he first opened the story he had requests for baby toys. As his success grew customers asked for toys for older children as well. He obliged and business grew.

As toys replaced furniture as his primary business Lazarus shifted focus and in 1957 opened the first Toys R Us branded store in nearby Rockville, MD. As business grew, it caught the attention of bigger stores and was acquired in 1966 by a department store holding company, Interstate Department Stores. Through the 1970s, most of Interstate’s brands were struggling and may stores were closed, except to successful Toys R Us. By 1974 Interstate filed for bankruptcy. In 1978 Charles Lazarus took over Interstate and renamed the business Toys R Us, the brand we’ve come to know and love today. In 2005 Toys R Us was then acquired by the private equity group Vornado Realty Trust.

Anyone with children who visited New York City was sure to stop by the flagship store in Times Square, complete with Ferris wheel and live action T-Rex. That store opened in 2001 and closed in December 2015.

Toys R Us was considered a “category killer”, pushing out smaller, local toy stores where ever it opened. The smaller stores simply could not match the variety, volume and pricing of the larger Toys R Us brand. Ironically, in the age of super stores and online business Toys R Us itself is falling victim to today’s category killers like Walmart and Amazon.

Going on Life Support

Toys R Us first lost is market dominance to Walmart in 1998. Since then it has been on a long struggle to regain, and even maintain, it’s position. The last time Toys R Us had an annual profit was 2013. It’s quarterly loss for the quarter ending in April 2017 was $164 million.

On September 18, 2017 Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to deal with $5billion of long term debt and borrow and additional $2billion to pay suppliers for the 2017 holiday shopping season and improve operations. However, it just wasn’t enough.

Soon after the holiday season, it was time to start closing stores. In January 2018 it announced 182 US stores would close. By February 2018, the UK stores were placed into administration and by March 2nd it was announced all stores in the UK would be closing as would all stores in the US. The last of the UK Toys R Us stores closed on April 24, 2018. All stores in the US will close by June 29, 2018, if not sooner.

Not All Bad News

Toys R Us stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are being purchased by a rival company, Smyths, and will be rebranded. Toys R Us stores in Canada will continue operating, at least for now.

Saying Good Bye

Earlier this week I stopped by one of our local Toy R Us stores. As you can see from the photos, it had been emptied out and large sections of the once Walmart sized store were cordoned off. Geoffrey was gone, and the few remaining toys that there simply was a large excess of the week before remained. It’s been a great run. Thank you for the memories. All the best to the employees who will be losing their jobs today.

For more fun reading about Toys R Us as well as sources of information for this post see these sources

https://www.toysrusinc.com/about-us/history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys_%22R%22_Us

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Department_Stores

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