The Decline of Toys R Us...What Happened?

toys 'were' us

Remember that time when you have to beg your mom to go to Toys R Us?

EVERY time I went to Toys R Us everything seemed SUPER overpriced. Nothing seemed to be competitively priced at all. And it seemed like nothing EVER went on sale, which made this feeling even more real.

I visited a Toys R Us store in Yokohama, Japan a few months ago. It was packed full of kids. Most kids passing by the store were begging their parents to go in. I was quickly shot back to my childhood walking through it. Besides the Japanese toys it was virtually the same.

“My guess is they’ll stick around” That didn’t age well

1-Cellphone games 2- high prices 3- kid movies

2005: Toys are us! 2006:Debts are us...! ————— 2010-20: __ Are us!

"The Clothes part tell you what they sell" So KIDS "R" US is an adoption center?

I shit you not an eBay add came up when he said "Why aren't they generating enough money?"

Holy shit.. they filed for bankruptcy? I remember going there as a kid, in complete awe at the sheer amount of toys and games. Kind of sad now..

Yes its true, kids are more inclined to play mobile games but some of yall act like its the kids fault. But its really the parents. If you ever worked at a preschool or babysat other kids they will definitely stay engaged with toys for longer. I dont think thats the only/main reason for their downfall.... People say "Kids only want to play on phones" like its the kids fault they are addicted to phones or games from a younger age. Lots of parents just dont want to spend the money on toys or clean them up and find it easier to give their kids their phones to keep them busy. Its this pattern that stops families from buying toys. Its not like kids are suddenly not interested in toys anymore or something. If you find a really good interactive toy the kids would love to engage, its the parents who arent giving them this opportunity anymore.

Toys r us will be remembered as a piece of the holy grail

When ever I go in a toys R us looking for collectibles, it feels so cold and utilitarian. I can only imagine how this would feel for a kid, the whole things like a toy warehouse, rarely does anything catch your eye or feel special. Heck, when I was kid I only went to a toys r us once when I was four, but it stuck with me because of how fun and magical it felt, I remembered the store more than I remembered the toy I got. They should try to recapture that

I feel that the decline is due to kids these days simply not going to the "toy store". When I was younger, that was the thing. You go to toys r us to see all the exclusive stuff they had. We used to get the catalogs in the mail and I'd make my christmas list from that. It's crazy how things change

Growing up way back in the day, going to Toys R Us was an experience, and the fact that they only sold toys is precisely why. I mean, you'd go grocery shopping every week, you'd hit up the department store maybe once or twice a month for clothes or whatever, about that often to the mall just to browse around or eat overpriced hot dogs, but Toys R Us only happened once, maybe twice a year. And when that Toys R Us trip happened, as a kid you knew that you were walking out of that store with some new toys. I can still to this day remember the thrill of pulling into the parking lot, willing my parents to get out of the car & walk to the entrance faster, then finally walking inside to what seemed like a giant warehouse filled with never-ending possibilities. Aisles upon aisles, each overflowing with a specific brand or genre of toys. The smell of the tires walking past the bikes section. The long, switchback lines to the cash register filled with cheap, generic toys that weren't even worth looking at because I knew I had the latest G.I. Joe playset sitting in our cart & as soon as I got home that sucker was coming out of the box and into the yard. I don't know, maybe as a kid now seeing the latest console show up in a shipping box at the front door & waiting for mom or dad to be available to get it set up brings an equivalent level of excitement, or getting a $25 card to load onto your account & buy new skins or whatever...but I just can't imagine it's the same. And that, much more than the death of my favorite childhood storefront, is what saddens me.

“Why spend money on legos” DUDE EXCUSE ME

"Yay! I got a new Slinky!!!" 1 hour later.... "Awww man it's all twisted"

He said “toys r us” so many times it started to sound weird.

I’ve only been to toys r us maybe 4 times in my entire life. My mom would almost always refuse to take me. But everytime I would go there I would end up disappointed. Idk what it was. I would wander the store for, at some times, 2 hours. I felt that I could never find what I wanted. I would always do better whenever I simply went to Walmart or target

I only went to toys r us once in 2009 for a pair of swim goggles and I had to spend 30$ and they literally broke in half when I tried to put it on.