![]() ![]() The two killer words that changed retail for all of us: Walmart and computers. What happened to change all of that? A Toys R Us store stands in Brooklyn on J. Geoffrey the Giraffe became the marketing tool in 1973, and we extolled that “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us Kid.” But the store didn’t grow up, either. It also spun off its brand into Babies R Us (all baby products) and Kids R Us (furniture et al). The store sold about 18,000 different toys. – and represented about 25% of the world’s toy market. ![]() By 2001 it was $24 billion.Toys R Us went global, into 1,450 locations – some of which remained open after the closure in the U.S. By 1990, that number had grown to $12 billion. Industry analysts estimated that in 1950, about the time Lazarus was getting going, the toy industry was worth about $500 million. In 1978 the company started trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and its growth was a two-act play in the evolution of a retail business. About two years later, he expanded into that business, and in 1957 he dumped the baby furniture business and launched his dream, a large toy store, for which he created that iconic name with the flipped R. Lazarus was 25 and a veteran of World War II who opened a furniture store in Washington, D.C., called Children’s Bargain Town, where he also sold a few toys. Lazarus, 58, founded the toy supermarket chain that has become a dominant force in the toy industry. How did Toys R Us get started? Charles Lazarus, chief executive officer of the Toys “R” Us chain, stands in front of his Paramus, N.J., store, May 20, 1982. But the death and resurrection of Toys R Us are a remarkable slice of American business history. There were about 735 at the end, and 15 of them were in North Carolina.Almost all closed immediately, and about 33,000 people lost their jobs.Īnd that takes us back to the beginning, to the founder, a then-young business entrepreneur named Charles Lazarus. ![]() There had been as many as 800 – some have said 900 – of them across the country before 2017, when the company was forced to file bankruptcy without a plan to emerge (as most businesses would have). A spokesperson has said the timetable isn’t certain other than the fall – aka holiday shopping season.Īnd we also don’t know for sure how much of the store will be devoted to Toys R Us, but reports have said it could be as much as 10,000 square feet or as little as 1,000.Īll of that is quite a few notches below the stores so many of us came to know. There also will be stores in Charlotte (two), Durham, Raleigh and Fayetteville, but Greensboro will be the only option in the Piedmont Triad. In fact, by October, Macy’s will devote space in all 400 of its stores to that iconic toy shop. Under a new partnership with Macy’s, Geoffrey the Giraffe will stick his neck out once again at the Macy’s in Friendly Center. 9, 2019, file photo a girl hugs the Toys R Us mascot, Geoffrey, at the new store at a mall in Paramus, N.J (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) If you were a fan of the store and spent hours browsing its teeming aisles of games, dolls, puzzles and sports gear, you soon will be able to do so again in Greensboro – just not at the location on Gate City Boulevard (or then High Point Road) that might have lured you or in Winston-Salem, where there once was a store. (WGHP) – Taking a cue from its founder’s name, the iconic Toys R Us – you can’t type the R backward – is emerging from its retail tomb. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. “Consumer demand in the toy category and for Toys R Us remains strong and we will continue to invest in the channels where the customer wants to experience our brand.This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. “As a result of COVID, we made the strategic decision to pivot our store strategy to new locations and platforms that have better traffic,” Tru Kids told The Associated Press by email Friday. The plan was to open 10 locations in malls. During a visit to the New Jersey location in 2019, kids shot Nerf blasters and sat in a circle for story time while Geoffrey, the chain’s mascot, roamed around. Employees unwrapped toys so that kids could try them out. They sold fewer toys and focused on a more interactive experience. The reopened stores were smaller than the previous big box stores. The company operates branded stores and e-commerce websites in more than 25 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The Toys R Us website still works and 700 other stores outside of the U.S. The store at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, closed on Tuesday. The store at the Galleria mall in Houston closed Jan.
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