I’ll always be a Toy R Us Kid

Where did they go wrong? I can’t believe one of MY favorite places is going the way of Blockbuster Video! I’m genuinely saddened by the demise of Toys R Us, which has been a longstanding pastime in my family! I have brought both of my kids here since they were babies, we used Babies R Us! There is nothing like taking your kids to a place that has nothing but toys! Watching their faces light up as we pulled in they parking lot. I know I still enjoy seeing all the advancements in toy tech and the revival of retro toys from my childhood. They knew us at our local store because we spent a lot of money on toys over the years! It was nice to see their familiar faces also, our store manager Rick who was always there to help us find exactly what we needed. We actually had our local store shut down so we had to travel to the next town over to get our toys, but it was worth it. We made it a weekend pastime, Toys R Us and then lunch nearby, ahh the glory days!

Where and how did they go wrong? I have a few ideas. Fierce competition from Amazon and other online etailors is one of the reasons they are bankrupt. Another was their failure to adapt to the ever changing retail landscape, and embrace online shopping, too late to the game as they say. I think with the right leadership they could have survived, or at least lasted longer than they had, or made themselves a worthwhile buyout target at the very least! They also had poor sales and reward programs! The technology they used didn’t make your rewards easily accessible, they used an outdated system that forced you to redeem your rewards at the store, but half the time they couldn’t tell if you had them or not! Then when you get your rewards, there were limitations on what items you could purchase, specialty items, sale items, electronics, basically you could use them for the crappy games and toys no one wanted!😤. I never bothered using my Toys R Us credit card because my other cards gave me way better rewards! Yes I had a Toys R Us credit card, told you I was a big fan!😂. They also paid the CEO over 4.4 million dollars a year to run it into the ground! They paid top executives over 13 million in annual compensation, didn’t get their money’s worth! Despite all of this my shopping experience was always pleasant. Friendly people, smiling faces, and great attitudes make the demise of Toys R Us so much harder to bare! Who wouldn’t enjoy working around toys all day long! I’m still hopelessly awaiting some angel investor to come in and make a sweet buyout deal before the final day! A fellow can dream can’t I? I think there may be but a week or so left at most stores, I may go one more time to pay my final respects to this staple and tradition in my family’s life! I think I’m more saddened than my kids, they don’t understand what it has meant to watch them grow up and head to the store buying things from Play Doh to XBox games! There is nothing like going into a store , seeing those toys, touching them, testing them, holding them and saying Dad, I want this one! 😢Sigh! Lost forever will be that shopping experience we all have grown to love! You can’t fall in love with a toy over the internet!
It really is the biggest toy store there is! From planes, to trains to video games.......I’ll always be a Toys R Us Kid!!! Farewell TRU, it will, just be a story, a myth, we tell our grandchildren about, as we click and put in cart!😠

Voltron Defender of the Universe, if only they had this one when I was a kid!

Reminiscing about taking the kids to see Thomas!

Where else can you get these great games?

Animals, animals, animals!