Remember when you were a young child, and you begged your parents to go to Toys “R” Us so you could buy the latest toy. For just about every millennial this was a normal part of childhood, unfortunately younger generations will not be able to have this experience.
Toys “R” Us was founded in 1968 by Charles P. Lazarus. The store’s headquarters is located in New Jersey. The store operated 800 locations in the United States and approximately 800 locations outside of the United States as well.
In September of 2017 Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy, the once popular toy store was hoping that they could escape their debt and reinvest in the store but this did not work. In January of this year they announced they would close 182 stores in the United States. Since 2012 the store has lost $2.5 billion and has reportedly not earned a full years profit in six years.
On Wednesday Toys “R” Us announced that they will be closing all of its locations in the United Kingdom, as well as hundreds of stores worldwide. The company has also notified employees that it will close or sell almost all of its 800 remaining stores in the United States. 33,000 jobs are at risk due to the store closings, and it is reported that the stores could close as early as this week. Aside from the jobs that are at risk, toy brands such as Hasbro and Mattel are at risk as well. It is being predicted that both Hasbro and Mattel’s sales will drop drastically due to the Toys “R” Us store closings.
It is believed that the reason for the stores decline in popularity is online shopping, and other stores that sell both toys and other items. With the increase in online shopping on sites like Amazon and Ebay, less people have been shopping at Toys “R” Us. Those who do shop in person have gravitated toward stores like Target and Walmart, where they can purchase other items in addition to toys.
The company’s clothing store Kids “R” Us shut down in 2003. In 2015 the company shut down it’s toy store FAO Shwarz, which it had acquired in 2006. There is currently no word if the company’s other store Babies “R” Us will be shutting down its 260 locations in the United States. The company is reportedly looking to keep two hundred Toys “R” Us locations in the United States open by merging them with stronger Canadian companies, however this has not been officially confirmed.