Toys R Us RIP

[Shinchu]

final sales liquidation... everything up to 70% off.
i went a couple weeks ago for the real final ever last time. (its where i bought the spin-tires off road game for xbox for $20) i barely held it together walking out for the last time.

but in a shimmer of hope that we might not be without a toy store ever again...

PARTY CITY doing pop up stores for the holidays?!
https://toynewsi.com/1-31288
just like the owner of KB toys said they would do.
the best thing about party city, if they keep the toy stores permament, is the name.
TOY CITY!
the same name of the old 80's toy chain in California that i went to in Garden Grove because it was closer, and just as big as toys R us!
the only pic i could find...

so many good memories in this store... i remember walking down the isles and it was from END TO END with GI Joes, next isle, END TO END with STAR WARS! TRANSFORMERS! HE-MAN!
so while not the same, even if party city keeps them year round it would be awesome to have TOY CITY in my life again!

credit to plaidstallions for the pic, a great site worth looking at the vintage pics and to see what i mean about ENTIRE ISLES for each line of toys! Vintage Toy Store Pictures: Star Wars toys : Plaid Stallions

[BJoe]

TRU has this at the top of their website.

Now as someone who was a "Toys "R" Us Kid" and then spent 5 years of their early adulthood as a a Toys "R" Us employee, this kinda brings a tear to my eye.

[Shinchu]

me too. "Jefferey's dying wish" is how i took it.

[MattTheGenus]

My parents always drove past them and said we’d stop on the way back. Lies

[DVS]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

me too. "Geofferey's dying wish" is how i took it.

Fixed it for you.

[BJoe]

Forwarded that to a buddy of mine via text, this was his response.....

Oh wow, that's pretty heartbreaking and heartwarming to read at the same time.

[hpiguy]

[cartronicshn]

this makes me really sad, like i said previously, i am from the late 70's early 80's era kid, every year my parents brought us to new orleans and later to miami i was all over the toy stores, i got to buy at the lionel toy stores (playworld) , loved to go to hobby stores one in particular in miami, orange blossom was called, later tru came into play, i loved going there as a young adult into my early 30's , then i got married and was time to do for my kids what my dad did for me, to bad my youngest wont be able to finish growing up with a large only toy store ,she is currently 8, but i will tell her about the golden days of the walk in toy super stores.

[Shinchu]

Originally Posted by hpiguy

My wife showed me that one yesterday and I nearly burst into tears

[hpiguy]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

My wife showed me that one yesterday and I nearly burst into tears

I never had a TRU growing up, don't even remember going to them. I'm a little older, so I remember going to the mall, K&B toys, etc. So I can still relate. Now, as an adult, when I'd take my nieces or nephew to TRU, don't doubt that I didn't snag some stuff once in a while too. It's sad for sure.

[JatoTheRipper]

There aren't many store closings that affect me. But Electronics Boutiqe/EB Games (GameStop took them over and killed EB as far as I'm concerned), KB, Sears (almost surely coming) and Toys 'R Us do hurt a little. All give me a sense of nostalgia from my childhood.

I vividly remember the Toys 'R Us jingle on commercials especially around Christmas time which was the same time we got the Sears Wish Book (dead as well).

"I don't wanna grow up 'cause baby if I did I couldn't be a 'Toys 'R Us' kid..."

Looking back at this video I recognized Urkel.

[Habanero]

Not sure this was posted before but they promised the employees severance pay but the greed-heads in charge denied them at the last minute and said no because they could legally. They got millions and screwed the kids there royally THAT is the real story here.

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

My wife showed me that one yesterday and I nearly burst into tears

That does't get to me much, but that "Play On', I can't read that out loud straight through yet

[Shinchu]

They both get me.

Sucks about the severance pay too. Terrible all around.

[NoobCrawler]

Originally Posted by BJoe

TRU has this at the top of their website.

Now as someone who was a "Toys "R" Us Kid" and then spent 5 years of their early adulthood as a a Toys "R" Us employee, this kinda brings a tear to my eye.

Oh man, yeah. Reading their website was gut wrenching. I too worked there for a time...still have the blue vest.

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by NoobCrawler

Oh man, yeah. Reading their website was gut wrenching. I too worked there for a time...still have the blue vest.

My store was one of two smaller (maybe the two smallest) stores TRU had in the Chicagoland area if not the whole district and it was closed back in 2011 and had reopened as a since failed Savers store. I go past it on a regular basis and kinda get sad looking at it, sitting there empty in it's boring two tone brown/beige Savers paint scheme covering the TRU colors, while remembering the good times spent working there. A couple months back I ran into a friend I had worked with there at his current job and he said that with TRU's closing being in the news so much at that time, he had a dream about some of the shenanigans we pulled there, especially working overnights during Christmas and even Easter one year.

[chevy4life]

That post of the picture above gets me. Just makes me think that geoffrey is like.....

"To all you screaming ,whinny ass kids, it's been real. Thanks for the fun times and not so fun times. i'm tired off this shit. I'm out" (mic drop).

I will miss this place. They have gotten quite a bit of my money over the years. Not to mention just walking around looking at what's new. RIP toy's r us.

On a side note: The scenery was not to bad as well, if ya know what i mean.

[BJoe]

Originally Posted by chevy4life

That post of the picture above gets me. Just makes me think that geoffrey is like.....

"To all you screaming ,whinny ass kids, it's been real. Thanks for the fun times and not so fun times. i'm tired off this shit. I'm out" (mic drop).

I will miss this place. They have gotten quite a bit of my money over the years. Not to mention just walking around looking at what's new. RIP toy's r us.

On a side note: The scenery was not to bad as well, if ya know what i mean.

The screaming, whiney kids weren't much of an issue at mine.......now the screaming whiney adults at the return counter, especially after Christmas.......lets just say I prefered scubbing toilets to dealing them that sort of crap......

[BJoe]

Here's my old store as it sits right now. Didn't grow up shopping there, but I spent 5 years working there. I went in there once when it was a Savers and the only things I recognized were the bathrooms and the hallway to the breakroom then the compactor that I could see through the doorway into the store room. I hate seeing it there, empty and looking like this, just hate it.

[NoobCrawler]

I don’t know how I’ll react driving by mine....as of Wednesday it was officially done. When the sign comes down...then it’ll probably hit me. I’ve been in this city since 1985, when I was four. I am now 37. TRU hasn’t just been a part of my childhood, it was a part of my life. Even when I wasn’t buying toys, I’d still go walk around & see what was what.

Dammit.