As someone who worked at Toys R Us when I was in college, I have mixed feelings about Toys R Us’s demise. While 6 year old me was sad that Toys R Us was gone, 20 year old me laughed at their demise, remembering the bad hiring decisions, the bad management and the propensity to fire the good managers at the store I worked at specifically, deciding that karma was, in fact, a female dog in heat. Also, I was fine dealing with screaming, whining kids. It was having to deal with their screaming, whining parents who were less mature.
I agree. Worked there in high school and college. Kids were fine. Parents were the a-holes! I get twitchy when I hear Pocahontas... Heard it so much there when the movie came out!😂
My kids are 18 21 and 22. When toys are r us announced they they where closing. We went out as a family for one last trip to toys r us with out going out of business sings 12 15 and 16. At the time. My kids said that when they realized their childhood was coming to an end
As a Canadian, the whole story of Toys R Us for us is completely different. In fact, since the US division closed, Toys R Us Canada has expanded opening stores in cities like Guelph.
@@AdhamOhm it’s because although America has great ideas …. the greed of management and shareholders eventually kill the business model that made it successful in the first place 🤦🏻♂️
23:32 I remember I worked at Toys R Us for a holiday season and on Christmas Eve, this single dad and his son were out shopping at the store. The next ten minutes legit felt like a movie because this kid asked for a bike, the very last bike we had in the store, which was on the very top bike rake. The kid looked so happy when I brought the bike down and the dad shook my hand and thanked me for making his son's Christmas. I had completely forgotten about that moment until now and now here I am, over a decade later wondering if he remembers how happy he was that day. It's weird to think about for me but I hope he enjoyed his Christmas.
as a kid, as a reward for getting good grades, my dad would take me to toys r us & let me pick out a toy or video game. one day when he took me, i got banjo-kazooie for the n64, & just outside was a pet adoption van with kittens up for adoption. he also let me get my first cat, who i had for 21 years. this is without a doubt my biggest memory of toys r us lol. i also remember going to toys r us a lot for the pokemon events, & trading pokemon with other kids there
Toys R Us was THE store when I was a kid. We always begged to stop there but rarely did. On the morning of my 7th birthday, right before school there was a radio station giving away $100 if it was your birthday and you were caller number 5. My mom dialed the number for me and I actually won. That weekend I got to go on a shopping spree at Toys R Us with my winnings (this was early 90s) and I was on top of the world walking in there with my $100 and nobody to tell me no lol. I was feeling so sporty I was even nice to my sister and let her pick something out. Thanks for the memories!
Nobody wants to go into Walmart. In fact, you can feel in the air how.... oppressive it is. You can see the jaded look in the workers' eyes. It's like... they thrive on their bad reputation.
Yet people still shop there. I would gladly trade Wal-Mart and Amazon to have Toys R Us and malls back, but the convenience outweighs the experience, it seems.
I don't have any issues I can clearly articulate with Walmart. The greeters are nice older folks who smile and say hello when I walk in (I know it's the job, but plenty store greeters just nod or whatever. Which also doesn't bother me, but I digress). Yet still, the atmosphere is just... drab. I actually kinda look forward to browsing around when I go to Target for a particular item, but not really with Walmart
I'm 25, so an older gen Z, and I remember Toys R Us fondly. Like you, we were okay enough to get by as long as we budgeted well, but weren't able to go on grand summer vacations or get a lot of toys. But I remember a few young birthdays, getting to go pick something out there... it was so exciting. So I was sad when it went under. It's nice that they're still doing well in other countries, and making tentative steps again here too
@@elliot20201 being 25 also I remember always loved going to toys R us, we didn’t have one in our hometown and had to drive all the way to phoenix for one but was always so magical going there and I always loved seeing the monster trucks they had there at the time and LOVED collecting all the tonka trunks😭 me and my brother also always got the imaginex dinosaur sets. The old ones were sooooooo much better than the modern ones in quality and articulation 😭😭
After 10 years with the company, I was one of the last 4 employees to be there for the final.closing. Absolutely, one of the saddest days of my, and my family's lives.
@@skinni_the_P00hBearwelcome to the Real World; enjoy your stay for the next 50-ish years and maybe you'll have a kid or two along the way to remind you of when you didn't want to take substances or confide with your SO about how you are ready to exit but want to be sure they have what they need prior to your exit. The only light at the end of your tunnel is retirement for a few years or whatever comes after. There is no "eternal summer" but we hope for things unseen. Dear Father, forgive me.
There will never be the same interest in toys the way that Star Wars/GI Joe figures, Transformers, Cabbage Patch dolls, Care Bears, Go Bots, gen 3 consoles and games, pizza parlors and arcades, AD&D gatherings, even board games - the 80’s excitement will never be matched.
I was a kid during the dying years of toys r us. Occasionally my parents or grandparents would take me and my brother there to get something with either for ourselves or a gift for someone else. The places were always pretty barren. Hardly anyone else was there. In retrospect I shouldn’t have been but I was surprised to hear when they were going out of business.
You must be a gen Z, because in the 90’s the stores were a MAGICAL experience. It was like walking into a toy utopia full of life and joy. Everybody was happy. It was like a city for toys.
@@solarflare623 If you were born in the late 90’s as a Gen Z’er then you weren’t able to remember memories until Toys R Us was on its downfall in the 2000’s unfortunately. The mid-late 90’s TRU was a magical experience 🥹
There was a Toys "R" Us in my hometown, but as far back as I remember, my family NEVER went in it. Most of my toys came from our local Zellers, which is like Target. Luckily, it still is alive and kicking, so I can still go in there and see what I've been missing.
The founder should also get credit for the “R us” suffix that still gets used. We’d never have the classic “where’s you get this guy? Psychos R Us?” I still use that one too….actually I just hear it a lot🤪
Awwww my husband would pick up a seasonal job here every holiday season when our kids were little to pay for their gifts. It allowed him to get a discount on the toys too, last time he did that may have been 2016. Oh the memories
When I was a kid in the 60’s we only had one local tv station, the other two came from DC. I was so upset that we didn’t have one. When my son was a child, we finally had one. Even as an adult, I loved shopping there. And I hate shopping. I think I enjoyed it more than my son.
Gen-X.. Loved Toys R' Us. I can still remember looking at the Atari 7800 games I wanted then walking around looking at all the toys I had no idea existed. I mean what kind of monster wants to see Toys R' Us go out of business?
Being a former collector of most things Star Wars/Trek and Marvel/DC, the "Toys R Us" in Everett, WA was my Mecca. The nearby Port of Everett would be the first place the cargo ships dock after their voyage across the Pacific ocean, then their precious bounty went to my local 'Toys R Us' before any other store in the United States. Granted, being able to say "I was the FIRST person to buy this in America!" was the only real bonus, but it was an INCREDIBLE feeling.
I went into a Toys R Us for the first time in years in 2016, excited to buy my niece something special. I could not have been more disappointed with the selection and left upset, wondering if my memories of the place were wrong...but now I understand why. Great channel man!
I worked at the one here in Layton Utah in 2017 and 2018. I had also been shopping at that Toys R Us since I was about 4 years old. That was absolutely soul-crushing, closing that store down. They also had a rule where you could not price match but I did it anyway whenever I could get away with it, not that it was fixing anything but it's still felt like I was helping something. We all started doing it and then my boss, at the very last minute in 2018 said, yeah it's policy now we can price match. We all looked at her and said, yeah it's a little too late for that.
@@blondebomber-qo2uy that really should not have made me laugh as hard as it did. No joke though, my boss was acting like it was going to close the store down earlier if we price matched. And then towards the end she thought price matching would save it. Dude there was no winning at that point
@@blondebomber-qo2uy I hope so. I mean at that point we already knew we were done, we were liquidating and when more of it started being sold we would push the store forward as much as we could so we knew there was no damn way this could be saved. So yeah whatever I could do to get the toys out of the store and make our customers happy one more time I took part in
I wish you had spoken a bit about how the jingle was created and by whom. I feel it wasn't for that jingle. We wouldn't remember Toys R Us as we do today. It probably has to be the greatest jingle ever created, and that artist should get some recognition.
Toys Я Us didn't just lose a department store. Losing Toys Я Us was like losing the heart and soul of children all over America. It is something we will see in history books.. But there's hope for a revival. ❤
I’m cheering for Toys R Us. It was always a FANTASTIC and mind blowing experience going into there when I was in kid in the 90’s. It seemed like everyone truly cared, and they put in so much effort into the stores and the experience. It was just a really good time. I wish them the best. It’s a great brand.
I’m a fairly young man, so my sister and I were part of the last generation of “Toys R Us Kids” (which I will define as born within the first decade of the present century). Our mother used to take us to one of these somewhat often. I was young enough to have been unaware of the financial situation of these stores, and while some of my earliest Internet activity was browsing Thomas-branded wooden trains on Amazon, I didn’t really put two and two together. It was unexpected when the Toys R Us in our city closed.
I remember going to Toys r us. The places that I always visited was the Skylander section the Lego section and the Thomas the tank engine section. I'm really glad that it's coming back.
13:43 another advantage of shopping for toys online is you don't need to go to the store with your kids and have them go crazy with excitement. And you don't have to tell them no. If you go without them, then they find out and get upset that you didn't take them. I remember kids throwing tantrums because they were not allowed to go. Just order the damn pokemon cards online for your friend's kids' birthdays.
In Portugal Toys R Us stores are the same since the early 90s. They never closed, but never had any renovation 😂. Still its awesome to go there (around 10 shops across the country)
The last thing I ever bought from Toys R’Us was a Detective Pikachu amiibo and Palutena amiibo. Palutena was like $3 and Detective Pikachu was like $25-$26.
I'm 19, I think I've only been to toys R Us once in my entire life and It still feels like I lost an entire chapter of my life, can't really recall what age or year exactly
I really hope Toys R us can come back cuz I’m sick of almost every child nowadays getting an iPad for Xmas. Toys are so much more engaging and fun for development!
Any toy you could find at toys r us would end up in a landfill because of planned obsolescence and iPads have apps that can do anything a toy can do 🧏♀️
no you dont. go to new jersey. the big mall called American Dream... theres a toys r us there. i was happy.. as a parent, i took my kids there recently .... BUT as a parent ...i took my kids there... my god is it expensive lol
Never got to go to Toys R Us as a kid because we were poor and there wasn't a location nearby. Did start going there around 2010 when I got back into Lego. While it was great to see some sets that no other stores had, it was annoying that all the sets seemed to be priced 5 dollars higher than everyone else. They did however have some awesome sales and gift with purchase promos sometimes.
Toys r us has been the one and only company/stores that closed down over the last few decades that legitimately hurt my heart. I loved going there as a kid, loved taking my daughter there even more.
I was born in 1976. Going to Toys R Us was a special treat. They had all the latest toys. I remember my grandma taking me there to pick out toys for my birthday. I bought a Puffalump I think it was called and a Pound Puppy. In the summer of 1992 I worked at Child World as they were liquidating and going out of business. I remember customers coming in and asking where Toys R Us was since there was a location close by. My parents brought my sons to buy gifts for Christmas once when they were little. But it was so expensive! I would rather buy my kids toys from Walmart. My husband and I did buy our sons a Wii from TRU with birthday money they had (their birthdays were 11 days apart).
Toys R us was so super expensive more than anywhere I went what they had was a selection that couldn't be matched and if they didn't have they could order it for you.. they had seasonal bike building jobs.. I hated the place but also loved it there I love action figures and if I couldn't find the one I wanted at literally anywhere else I could go to them and rely on them having it
I was kind of lucky when my kids were little in the late 90’s…we still had Toys R Us’ here in San Diego, we still had Kay-Bee but we still also had the absolute NIRVANA of toy stores because we had a branch of the late great FAO Schwarz, also
Being a Millennial, my reward for every Headmaster's List report card in elementary school in the '90s was a videogame from Toys R' Us, picking out the slip of paper for the game you wanted from the WALL of pockets, and taking it to the cashier for the game. A mistake by a Toys R' Us stock boy is actually the reason why I was able to get the pre-order edition of Ocarina of Time without actually pre-ordering it. It was a few strokes of luck for sure. Longish story ahead, you've been warned. OoT was my first Zelda game. My first stroke of luck was being able to snag a copy of it from Hollywood Video in the first couple DAYS it was released. I played it, and I was hopelessly hooked. I BEGGED my mom to take me to Toys R' Us to get my report card game a couple weeks early (I was one of those overachieving straight-A kids who burned out as an adult lol). Since my parents knew that I would make the Headmaster's List, they let me get my game early. When we got to Toys R' Us they had a literal WALL of OoT boxes all lined up in individual security box things. When I went to grab one, one on the bottom shelf caught my eye because the box was different. It was reflective. So I grabbed that one and took it to the register. I stg the color drained from the poor cashier's face. "Where did you find that??" I pointed. "It was on the shelf down there. The blank spot is where it was. Why?" Cue the second stroke of luck: "That's the special edition that you could ONLY get by pre-ordering the game. It must have been set out by mistake. But since it was on the shelf, I HAVE to sell it to you." And that's how I got my special edition gold cart OoT. The third stroke of luck was the poor sod who hadn't been prompt in picking up their pre-order. Over the years I've almost felt bad for them. _Almost._ 😂
Excellent video, Darkness! Thoroughly enjoyed that one. Now GameStop! There's a story worth the telling! How did the most ubiquitous video game retailer ever come within a hair's breadth of turning the stock market upside down? And how does a blatantly obsolete market continue to have stores literally everywhere despite seemingly not having any customers? How has it become the zombie of retail outlets? How do you kill a store that's already dead?!
Since my family wasn't the wealthiest and my interests as a child were always... niche (read in modern terms: Very mildly autistic), I only ever visited Toys R Us a few times. But I do have some fond memories of it. One of my first model train sets was a Life-Like starter set that included a Toys R Us boxcar. That set would be one of the things that started a lifelong passion and a hobby that has begun to burn in me again; I think I still have that same boxcar to this day. Toys R Us was also my main source for ERTL die-cast figures for Thomas the Tank Engine, a collection I treasured throughout my childhood and have only recently finally bid farewell to. While times have changed, there is still a place for toys in this world; arguably now more than ever, kids need an escape from the ever present screens. So I hope that the new Toys R Us is able to make a comeback, or at least carve a niche for itself alongside the specialty toy stores it once tried to kill but which may hopefully now welcome them as a friend. Because in these dark days, be it a teddy bear or a corporate partner, there's nothing we should cherish more than a friend.
Great to see the company back! I think Toys R Us should really focus on customer experience and offering more niche toys that you wouldnt find in Walmart or Target (in addition to the popular stuff). They already have locations in Asia, so they could really offer some unique and exciting stuff if they're able to easily import stuff from overseas. Focusing on higher end or more niche toys will make them unique.
I loved going into Toys R Us. I bought cabbage patch dolls, A big bucket of Legos. Toy cars, dolls, etc. My brother worked there in HS, bought his first MP3 player, a Zune there. Just a great childhood memory.
Before watching the video I want to tell a story, I went to Toys R Us a lot as a kid due to my mother working there at the time and she liked her job, it was a mess a bit but she told me she liked it and all the other staff there were nice to her (this is only one location mind you so it may have been different for other stores.) I remember the isles and all, a lot of lego of course, even k'nex (their Mario theme was awesome.) The isles were always massive, this store had them so tall you needed a latter to grab some toys almost like a library so if you needed a specific toy you had to call for someone, maybe it was because of the store size and a Babies R Us was in the same store? I'm not too sure. But my mother would often bring home small lego bags with 10-50 piece builds due to a discount (I'm pretty sure, again I was young) and defects with the packaging. It was all nice, I still even have some stuff from their video game section, amiibo specifically I got. The section was pretty big; it was big as a Walmart's video game section and thats all you needed really. Unfortunately my mom found news of the store closing and I found out earlier than most kids or even people; it was indeed so, I wasn't upset really. I just thought "Its a toy store, I can get toys from somewhere else right?" but now when I remember it I miss it all. Sometimes me and my mom fond about it and remember. It was a truly fun time. Now on a light hearted note: My mother also hated Frozen at this time because there was "let it go" played on a video screen on repeat in the princess section. I hated it too. Not even different songs in between, just "LET IT GO! LET IT GO!" Day in and day out, it was there from when she was hired and from when she was let go. The horror.
Toys R Us is still strong where I am live in South East Asia. In fact if you wanted to buy any toy there are 2 well know stores here like a duopoly between Toys R Us and locally named Toy Kingdom. I am more familiar with our local Toy Kingdom than Toys R Us but both offers the same categories, I still visit each store to check for Hot Wheels and Video Games.
You’re right, this one hits different 😢literally dropped a tear. Sad that the new kids won’t experience this feeling! ❤ I love your videos you’re hilarious at storytelling 😂
I want to say it was around 2017 or 2018 (will have to check my records), I run an IT business and was a 3rd party on a large project for Toys R Us. The company had purchased brand new Dell Poweredge servers and I believe an HP Blade server. The first phase was to go and actually upgrade the RAM in the old servers so they could handle the migration on phase 2. We also had to take out the old 3Com token ring switches and put in newer Cisco 26xx switches. I did my state and surrounding states on this project without any issues. The next project came shortly after where we ran tons of cable across their stores and mounted anywhere from 15-20 wireless access points. Then, literally a couple months after this massive project was completed.....Toys R Us announced they were going under... I had also done a TON of kiosk installs for Babies R Us as well. It took almost 2 years to get paid for all the work (luckily I was a 3rd and 4th party and the companies contracted HAD to pay me). My crew I hired (also close friends) were like "Why did they spend so much on the infrastructure when they knew they were in deep trouble?"
Damn. That sucks. All that work for pretty much nothing. Do you happen to remember what kind of software they ran on those servers? I've always been fascinated by how stores run their IT equipment (or not). I work in K-12 IT as a technician, but never for a store.
@@JJFlores197 Ya know, it was so long ago yet it's sitting in the back of my brain right now!! I know it was Linux based and EXTREMELY finicky. Lot of stores were having to start the migration process over halfway through if things weren't perfect. I know I was there until the morning on one store and we found out that the actual store manager LEFT the store at close and we were there locked in the entire night until the morning shift came in. We actually rode bikes and threw footballs across the store...we played with the lightsabers, you name it. I was still pretty heated that we were left there and weren't able to get access to a lot of areas we needed for testing. Man, I'm telling you....the version and name of what they used on the servers is right there!!
TRU was an amazing place in the 80s. There was no place else like it if you were a kid, at a time when marketing to kids was at its absolute zenith in the US.
In Singapore and other places outside the US they still have a presence in malls. Not the monolithic buildings where you’d pick up the power wheels in the back but they’re adapting. It was wild seeing Gunpla and Anime figurines on the shelves next to the hot wheels and educational toys.
So may memories going to Toys R Us with my parents in the 80's and then again with my kids around 2007-2012, before the stores started closing... I also remember a huge toy store called Child World that was in the chicago suburbs back in the 80's.. Does anyone remember that one? If I remember correctly, Child World was built like a big castle.
So many memories came rushing back. Memories of trip to Toys R us with my father. Memories of my wife and I buying our daughters toys. I even had a chance to buy my grandson son a few toys there. Life just flyes by so fast.
Great video! I was a 90's kid too. What a great time to grow up. Although I was sad to see Toys R Us go, I get it. Growing up, we only went to Toys R Us specifically for a toy purchase on special occasions like a birthday or Xmas. Most toy purchases were an afterthought or impulse buy like while buying other things from a big box store. I remember buying my N64 at Costco while we were there for Costco stuff. See! Amazon just put the nail in the coffin IMO. Saved time and gas just to get it online. When Toys R Us came back in the Macy's stores recently, I made sure to take my kid and buy them something there.
Didn’t expect to tear up during this video, but here I am. I drive by the old Toy R Us locations in my area and it makes me legitimately sad. Going there as a child felt like a truly magical time.
Watching this video at work during my lunch break and I broke out in tears over the goodbye message.😳 I really wasn’t expecting it, I’m 34 so I definitely grew up with the store but my family didn’t really shop there that often because they were too expensive. Like I spent more time and K-mart and was totally fine watching that one. Wow, it’s nice to hear they are trying to make a comeback tho.
Early 2000's kid/Millennial. I remember Toy's R Us, it was very popular for a time, but eventually dried up, went there one final time. Shut down later on, but the final time was memorable, figured out how to use claw machines->Hold the button down for a long period->tighter grip.
These videos make me sad. I always explain to my 12 yr old son how amazing the 90s was. I cant believe we will never experience going to these stores. Have that same exciting feeling, of going out. Now streets are dead, parks are empty, and not much life outside
Our toys r us was a 90 min drive from my home. We went several times a year. The store was in our biggest mall in our province (Canada). It was there from the 80s until 2008. They filed for bankruptcy, closed our store and built a brand new giant stand alone store in our business park where they have been doing very well ever since.
I didn't go to Toys R Us as a child and I never had any children myself...but one of my fondest memories was taking my nephew to the one in Times Square. I was probably smiling as big as he was!! Oh and that story about the people buying the stock of 2 stores and donating it to kids in their area....made me all teary eyed!
I’ll never forget when as a child I went to the toys r us in New York City. It was beautifully crafted and the floors were all elaborately placed and it was very nice. I’m not saying every toys r us needed a Ferris wheel, but that level of care in all the stores probably would’ve helped quite a bit.
Good lord, these things were EVERYWHERE when I was a kid. I saw one in Fresno when I was 6, and another one in Bridgeport when I was 10 though that one was a Babies R Us.
So a huge thing this video overlooked was they changed their business model to be less about selling toys and more about (for lack of a better term) "selling" credit cards.
My little brother always thought ToysRUs was never open bc anytime he would see one and ask my dad if they could go inside, dad would say they had just closed. My brother is almost 30 now, and we all laugh about it to this day lol
After they ditched sellung ordinary toys for "theme" based merchandise, they lost their appeal. I used to buy model cars there before they stopped selling them
Toy R Us was a childhood Mecca. To actually go there once in a while as a kid was awe inspiring, I hope they come back strong soon, I remember my experience going there growing up very fondly
I worked at 2 different locations in the past, the first time being the 2011 holiday season and the 2014 holiday season. By that time, the stores had lost a lot of the magic that captivated me as a child of the 1990s. I do hope they could come back strong enough to bring that magic back to the children who are currently growing up without it...
I miss Toy R Us because it will forever remind me of my childhood in the 80's and Christmas time as a child. I'm 47 years old, and I still get nostalgic thinking of Toys R Us. However, when I was a teen in the 90's Toys R Us was too damn expensive compared to stores like Walmart so I am not surprised that most of them went out of business.
Didnt they just open a store or two in a couple airports? Are they actually coming back or is it just a stunt to try and price gouge people like they did before they went out of business.
@@Mandem_Nj I’m sorry you missed out on the wonderful childhood experience of the stores man. Some of my fondest memories as a child were at toys r us I hope you’re able to go to one of the new locations even though you’re older now
Going to Toys 'R Us as a kid in the late 80's and 90's was as close to a real life Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (but for toys instead of candy) as we could get. It didn't matter WHERE you looked you saw something that interested you. Walking in, seeing all those shiny packagings and the bright colors, just gave you that feeling of wonder and endless possibilities. I am truly said future generations of kids won't know or feel like this. 😢
I Used To Work For TRU. For 33Years.My Last Day Was June 30Th 2018.That Was Definitely & Absolutely An Extremely Sad Day For Me.They Had A Farewell Party But I Felt Soo.Bad I Sneaked Out Early.😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Toys R Us trying a rebirth like Laz R Us
:V 👉👉
i approve this joke
I'll be stealing that one!😂
@@Uncle_Smidge Ahhhhh I see what you did there 👏👏👏
@@Uncle_Smidge Lazarus pit?
Witty
As someone who worked at Toys R Us when I was in college, I have mixed feelings about Toys R Us’s demise.
While 6 year old me was sad that Toys R Us was gone, 20 year old me laughed at their demise, remembering the bad hiring decisions, the bad management and the propensity to fire the good managers at the store I worked at specifically, deciding that karma was, in fact, a female dog in heat.
Also, I was fine dealing with screaming, whining kids. It was having to deal with their screaming, whining parents who were less mature.
@@CSXIV I could imagine 😂
What are adults if not just children that got old?
Knowing my level of patience working the jobs I did in college, I'd probably fight the parents. Not proud of that, but younger me wouldn't take shit.
This. All of this. They were a horrible company to work for
I agree. Worked there in high school and college. Kids were fine. Parents were the a-holes!
I get twitchy when I hear Pocahontas... Heard it so much there when the movie came out!😂
I’m 52…my son is 22…this was the only store that we could go to back in the day together where we were both equally excited about what we would find.
My kids are 18 21 and 22. When toys are r us announced they they where closing. We went out as a family for one last trip to toys r us with out going out of business sings 12 15 and 16. At the time. My kids said that when they realized their childhood was coming to an end
As a Canadian, the whole story of Toys R Us for us is completely different. In fact, since the US division closed, Toys R Us Canada has expanded opening stores in cities like Guelph.
So many businesses that were born and died in the US are thriving in other countries.
I know there's a Toys R Us store in Metropolis at Metrotown in BC.
@@AdhamOhm it’s because although America has great ideas …. the greed of management and shareholders eventually kill the business model that made it successful in the first place 🤦🏻♂️
@@sonhuynh8222 As someone living in America your absolutely correct.
Yes as Canadians we still have toys r us as its separate from the us company
23:32 I remember I worked at Toys R Us for a holiday season and on Christmas Eve, this single dad and his son were out shopping at the store. The next ten minutes legit felt like a movie because this kid asked for a bike, the very last bike we had in the store, which was on the very top bike rake. The kid looked so happy when I brought the bike down and the dad shook my hand and thanked me for making his son's Christmas. I had completely forgotten about that moment until now and now here I am, over a decade later wondering if he remembers how happy he was that day. It's weird to think about for me but I hope he enjoyed his Christmas.
going to a toys r us as a kid was like visiting a theme park or heaven
The best description of a toys r us trip I've read.
Yo lemme get your handle
@@feIon when the super nintendo section and video games in general was introduced, man how epic it was!
as a kid, as a reward for getting good grades, my dad would take me to toys r us & let me pick out a toy or video game. one day when he took me, i got banjo-kazooie for the n64, & just outside was a pet adoption van with kittens up for adoption. he also let me get my first cat, who i had for 21 years. this is without a doubt my biggest memory of toys r us lol. i also remember going to toys r us a lot for the pokemon events, & trading pokemon with other kids there
I remember those pokemon events! Good times, good times :)
Toys R Us was THE store when I was a kid. We always begged to stop there but rarely did. On the morning of my 7th birthday, right before school there was a radio station giving away $100 if it was your birthday and you were caller number 5. My mom dialed the number for me and I actually won. That weekend I got to go on a shopping spree at Toys R Us with my winnings (this was early 90s) and I was on top of the world walking in there with my $100 and nobody to tell me no lol. I was feeling so sporty I was even nice to my sister and let her pick something out. Thanks for the memories!
Nobody wants to go into Walmart. In fact, you can feel in the air how.... oppressive it is. You can see the jaded look in the workers' eyes. It's like... they thrive on their bad reputation.
Yet people still shop there. I would gladly trade Wal-Mart and Amazon to have Toys R Us and malls back, but the convenience outweighs the experience, it seems.
Nothin wrong with WaMart. Never had an issue there.
I don't have any issues I can clearly articulate with Walmart. The greeters are nice older folks who smile and say hello when I walk in (I know it's the job, but plenty store greeters just nod or whatever. Which also doesn't bother me, but I digress). Yet still, the atmosphere is just... drab. I actually kinda look forward to browsing around when I go to Target for a particular item, but not really with Walmart
You can thank the Walton children for that atmosphere.
@@elliot20201 depends on your market
I'm 25, so an older gen Z, and I remember Toys R Us fondly. Like you, we were okay enough to get by as long as we budgeted well, but weren't able to go on grand summer vacations or get a lot of toys. But I remember a few young birthdays, getting to go pick something out there... it was so exciting. So I was sad when it went under. It's nice that they're still doing well in other countries, and making tentative steps again here too
@@elliot20201 being 25 also I remember always loved going to toys R us, we didn’t have one in our hometown and had to drive all the way to phoenix for one but was always so magical going there and I always loved seeing the monster trucks they had there at the time and LOVED collecting all the tonka trunks😭 me and my brother also always got the imaginex dinosaur sets. The old ones were sooooooo much better than the modern ones in quality and articulation 😭😭
I'm 27, and i miss Toys R Us.
After 10 years with the company, I was one of the last 4 employees to be there for the final.closing. Absolutely, one of the saddest days of my, and my family's lives.
But you was ok. I left before that boat hit the iceberg. I met good people
I've been to the Toys R Us in Mall of America, it's such a surreal feeling entering a store from my childhood that disappeared right when I turned 20
It went out of business right after I turned 18. Just before graduation I think. The WORST introduction to adulthood. 😭😭
@@skinni_the_P00hBear damn
@@skinni_the_P00hBearwelcome to the Real World; enjoy your stay for the next 50-ish years and maybe you'll have a kid or two along the way to remind you of when you didn't want to take substances or confide with your SO about how you are ready to exit but want to be sure they have what they need prior to your exit. The only light at the end of your tunnel is retirement for a few years or whatever comes after. There is no "eternal summer" but we hope for things unseen. Dear Father, forgive me.
There will never be the same interest in toys the way that Star Wars/GI Joe figures, Transformers, Cabbage Patch dolls, Care Bears, Go Bots, gen 3 consoles and games, pizza parlors and arcades, AD&D gatherings, even board games - the 80’s excitement will never be matched.
@@robertbeckman2054 kids still live toys and video games. They just get their sh online now
Being a kid in the 80s was so good!
I was a kid during the dying years of toys r us. Occasionally my parents or grandparents would take me and my brother there to get something with either for ourselves or a gift for someone else. The places were always pretty barren. Hardly anyone else was there. In retrospect I shouldn’t have been but I was surprised to hear when they were going out of business.
You must be a gen Z, because in the 90’s the stores were a MAGICAL experience. It was like walking into a toy utopia full of life and joy. Everybody was happy. It was like a city for toys.
@@jaredchampagne2752 doesn’t gen z start in the 90s? But you are right. I was born in the 2000s though
@@solarflare623 If you were born in the late 90’s as a Gen Z’er then you weren’t able to remember memories until Toys R Us was on its downfall in the 2000’s unfortunately. The mid-late 90’s TRU was a magical experience 🥹
There was a Toys "R" Us in my hometown, but as far back as I remember, my family NEVER went in it. Most of my toys came from our local Zellers, which is like Target. Luckily, it still is alive and kicking, so I can still go in there and see what I've been missing.
What town is it in?
@@dre4534 Regina, Saskatchewan. also helps that the store is on the city's main street
Im sorry your family was poor 😟
The founder should also get credit for the “R us” suffix that still gets used. We’d never have the classic “where’s you get this guy? Psychos R Us?” I still use that one too….actually I just hear it a lot🤪
Lethal Weapon. I still remember that line as well.
Awwww my husband would pick up a seasonal job here every holiday season when our kids were little to pay for their gifts. It allowed him to get a discount on the toys too, last time he did that may have been 2016. Oh the memories
When I was a kid in the 60’s we only had one local tv station, the other two came from DC. I was so upset that we didn’t have one. When my son was a child, we finally had one. Even as an adult, I loved shopping there. And I hate shopping. I think I enjoyed it more than my son.
when our toys r us closed, they sign said "I guess everyone grew up. it's been wonderful"
Gen-X.. Loved Toys R' Us. I can still remember looking at the Atari 7800 games I wanted then walking around looking at all the toys I had no idea existed.
I mean what kind of monster wants to see Toys R' Us go out of business?
Being a former collector of most things Star Wars/Trek and Marvel/DC, the "Toys R Us" in Everett, WA was my Mecca. The nearby Port of Everett would be the first place the cargo ships dock after their voyage across the Pacific ocean, then their precious bounty went to my local 'Toys R Us' before any other store in the United States. Granted, being able to say "I was the FIRST person to buy this in America!" was the only real bonus, but it was an INCREDIBLE feeling.
By the mall? I think there was one there, but I can only remember the lynnwood location.
That's sounds sad af
I went into a Toys R Us for the first time in years in 2016, excited to buy my niece something special.
I could not have been more disappointed with the selection and left upset, wondering if my memories of the place were wrong...but now I understand why. Great channel man!
I worked at the one here in Layton Utah in 2017 and 2018. I had also been shopping at that Toys R Us since I was about 4 years old. That was absolutely soul-crushing, closing that store down. They also had a rule where you could not price match but I did it anyway whenever I could get away with it, not that it was fixing anything but it's still felt like I was helping something. We all started doing it and then my boss, at the very last minute in 2018 said, yeah it's policy now we can price match. We all looked at her and said, yeah it's a little too late for that.
Breaking news: Toys R Us finally reveals they went out of business due to a rogue group of Utah teenagers who price matched
@@blondebomber-qo2uy that really should not have made me laugh as hard as it did. No joke though, my boss was acting like it was going to close the store down earlier if we price matched. And then towards the end she thought price matching would save it. Dude there was no winning at that point
@ArchiesMom518 heck no there wasn't any winning, hopefully you made someone's day with a little price match madness 😀
@@blondebomber-qo2uy I hope so. I mean at that point we already knew we were done, we were liquidating and when more of it started being sold we would push the store forward as much as we could so we knew there was no damn way this could be saved. So yeah whatever I could do to get the toys out of the store and make our customers happy one more time I took part in
Brings me some joy to imagine the brand thriving in Canada. As a Midwest kid in the 80s and 90s, I have a deep affection and nostalgia for Toys R Us.
Yes I’m also a 90s kid born in 95 and Pokemon and Thomas Barney Disney was the best time of me as a child ❤
I wish you had spoken a bit about how the jingle was created and by whom. I feel it wasn't for that jingle. We wouldn't remember Toys R Us as we do today. It probably has to be the greatest jingle ever created, and that artist should get some recognition.
You obviously don't know about O'Reillys or Chili's 😂
Toys Я Us didn't just lose a department store. Losing Toys Я Us was like losing the heart and soul of children all over America. It is something we will see in history books..
But there's hope for a revival. ❤
I’m cheering for Toys R Us. It was always a FANTASTIC and mind blowing experience going into there when I was in kid in the 90’s. It seemed like everyone truly cared, and they put in so much effort into the stores and the experience. It was just a really good time. I wish them the best. It’s a great brand.
I’m a fairly young man, so my sister and I were part of the last generation of “Toys R Us Kids” (which I will define as born within the first decade of the present century). Our mother used to take us to one of these somewhat often. I was young enough to have been unaware of the financial situation of these stores, and while some of my earliest Internet activity was browsing Thomas-branded wooden trains on Amazon, I didn’t really put two and two together. It was unexpected when the Toys R Us in our city closed.
I remember going to Toys r us. The places that I always visited was the Skylander section the Lego section and the Thomas the tank engine section. I'm really glad that it's coming back.
Toys R Us was my mom's very first job back in the 1980s. I also remember going into Toys R Us when I was little, and wanting to be in there for hours.
13:43 another advantage of shopping for toys online is you don't need to go to the store with your kids and have them go crazy with excitement. And you don't have to tell them no. If you go without them, then they find out and get upset that you didn't take them. I remember kids throwing tantrums because they were not allowed to go. Just order the damn pokemon cards online for your friend's kids' birthdays.
In Portugal Toys R Us stores are the same since the early 90s. They never closed, but never had any renovation 😂. Still its awesome to go there (around 10 shops across the country)
I remember my last purchase from the old big box Toys R Us. It was a DVD of Journey Beyond Sodor. It was shuttered soon after.
The last thing I ever bought from Toys R’Us was a Detective Pikachu amiibo and Palutena amiibo. Palutena was like $3 and Detective Pikachu was like $25-$26.
0:25 it's Steve urkel as a lil kid
I though the same thing. It would not be surprising considering that Jaleel White was a child actor well before Family Matters.
A Pokémon Yellow was $30 Brand new Good luck finding that now for that Price 😢
I'm 19, I think I've only been to toys R Us once in my entire life and It still feels like I lost an entire chapter of my life, can't really recall what age or year exactly
I only recently became a Walmart customer. My family and I genuinely like going there, especially since they hired more cashiers
I really hope Toys R us can come back cuz I’m sick of almost every child nowadays getting an iPad for Xmas. Toys are so much more engaging and fun for development!
Any toy you could find at toys r us would end up in a landfill because of planned obsolescence and iPads have apps that can do anything a toy can do 🧏♀️
@@blondebomber-qo2uysped comment
no you dont. go to new jersey. the big mall called American Dream... theres a toys r us there. i was happy.. as a parent, i took my kids there recently .... BUT as a parent ...i took my kids there... my god is it expensive lol
Never got to go to Toys R Us as a kid because we were poor and there wasn't a location nearby. Did start going there around 2010 when I got back into Lego. While it was great to see some sets that no other stores had, it was annoying that all the sets seemed to be priced 5 dollars higher than everyone else. They did however have some awesome sales and gift with purchase promos sometimes.
Toys r us has been the one and only company/stores that closed down over the last few decades that legitimately hurt my heart.
I loved going there as a kid, loved taking my daughter there even more.
I thought I saw a Toys R Us section inside a Khols store ... now that I have kids I want them to have the Toys R Us experience
I was born in 1976. Going to Toys R Us was a special treat. They had all the latest toys. I remember my grandma taking me there to pick out toys for my birthday. I bought a Puffalump I think it was called and a Pound Puppy. In the summer of 1992 I worked at Child World as they were liquidating and going out of business. I remember customers coming in and asking where Toys R Us was since there was a location close by. My parents brought my sons to buy gifts for Christmas once when they were little. But it was so expensive! I would rather buy my kids toys from Walmart. My husband and I did buy our sons a Wii from TRU with birthday money they had (their birthdays were 11 days apart).
Toys R us was so super expensive more than anywhere I went what they had was a selection that couldn't be matched and if they didn't have they could order it for you.. they had seasonal bike building jobs.. I hated the place but also loved it there I love action figures and if I couldn't find the one I wanted at literally anywhere else I could go to them and rely on them having it
I was kind of lucky when my kids were little in the late 90’s…we still had Toys R Us’ here in San Diego, we still had Kay-Bee but we still also had the absolute NIRVANA of toy stores because we had a branch of the late great FAO Schwarz, also
Being a Millennial, my reward for every Headmaster's List report card in elementary school in the '90s was a videogame from Toys R' Us, picking out the slip of paper for the game you wanted from the WALL of pockets, and taking it to the cashier for the game.
A mistake by a Toys R' Us stock boy is actually the reason why I was able to get the pre-order edition of Ocarina of Time without actually pre-ordering it. It was a few strokes of luck for sure.
Longish story ahead, you've been warned.
OoT was my first Zelda game. My first stroke of luck was being able to snag a copy of it from Hollywood Video in the first couple DAYS it was released. I played it, and I was hopelessly hooked.
I BEGGED my mom to take me to Toys R' Us to get my report card game a couple weeks early (I was one of those overachieving straight-A kids who burned out as an adult lol). Since my parents knew that I would make the Headmaster's List, they let me get my game early.
When we got to Toys R' Us they had a literal WALL of OoT boxes all lined up in individual security box things. When I went to grab one, one on the bottom shelf caught my eye because the box was different. It was reflective. So I grabbed that one and took it to the register.
I stg the color drained from the poor cashier's face. "Where did you find that??"
I pointed. "It was on the shelf down there. The blank spot is where it was. Why?"
Cue the second stroke of luck: "That's the special edition that you could ONLY get by pre-ordering the game. It must have been set out by mistake. But since it was on the shelf, I HAVE to sell it to you."
And that's how I got my special edition gold cart OoT.
The third stroke of luck was the poor sod who hadn't been prompt in picking up their pre-order. Over the years I've almost felt bad for them.
_Almost._ 😂
Excellent video, Darkness! Thoroughly enjoyed that one.
Now GameStop! There's a story worth the telling! How did the most ubiquitous video game retailer ever come within a hair's breadth of turning the stock market upside down? And how does a blatantly obsolete market continue to have stores literally everywhere despite seemingly not having any customers? How has it become the zombie of retail outlets? How do you kill a store that's already dead?!
@@sirrliv this made me laugh harder than it probably should have
A firmly valid argument
Since my family wasn't the wealthiest and my interests as a child were always... niche (read in modern terms: Very mildly autistic), I only ever visited Toys R Us a few times. But I do have some fond memories of it. One of my first model train sets was a Life-Like starter set that included a Toys R Us boxcar. That set would be one of the things that started a lifelong passion and a hobby that has begun to burn in me again; I think I still have that same boxcar to this day. Toys R Us was also my main source for ERTL die-cast figures for Thomas the Tank Engine, a collection I treasured throughout my childhood and have only recently finally bid farewell to. While times have changed, there is still a place for toys in this world; arguably now more than ever, kids need an escape from the ever present screens. So I hope that the new Toys R Us is able to make a comeback, or at least carve a niche for itself alongside the specialty toy stores it once tried to kill but which may hopefully now welcome them as a friend. Because in these dark days, be it a teddy bear or a corporate partner, there's nothing we should cherish more than a friend.
Great to see the company back! I think Toys R Us should really focus on customer experience and offering more niche toys that you wouldnt find in Walmart or Target (in addition to the popular stuff). They already have locations in Asia, so they could really offer some unique and exciting stuff if they're able to easily import stuff from overseas. Focusing on higher end or more niche toys will make them unique.
Thanks for another great video!
I loved these toys as a kid!! 💗
I loved going into Toys R Us. I bought cabbage patch dolls, A big bucket of Legos. Toy cars, dolls, etc. My brother worked there in HS, bought his first MP3 player, a Zune there. Just a great childhood memory.
Before watching the video I want to tell a story, I went to Toys R Us a lot as a kid due to my mother working there at the time and she liked her job, it was a mess a bit but she told me she liked it and all the other staff there were nice to her (this is only one location mind you so it may have been different for other stores.) I remember the isles and all, a lot of lego of course, even k'nex (their Mario theme was awesome.) The isles were always massive, this store had them so tall you needed a latter to grab some toys almost like a library so if you needed a specific toy you had to call for someone, maybe it was because of the store size and a Babies R Us was in the same store? I'm not too sure. But my mother would often bring home small lego bags with 10-50 piece builds due to a discount (I'm pretty sure, again I was young) and defects with the packaging. It was all nice, I still even have some stuff from their video game section, amiibo specifically I got. The section was pretty big; it was big as a Walmart's video game section and thats all you needed really. Unfortunately my mom found news of the store closing and I found out earlier than most kids or even people; it was indeed so, I wasn't upset really. I just thought "Its a toy store, I can get toys from somewhere else right?" but now when I remember it I miss it all. Sometimes me and my mom fond about it and remember. It was a truly fun time.
Now on a light hearted note:
My mother also hated Frozen at this time because there was "let it go" played on a video screen on repeat in the princess section. I hated it too. Not even different songs in between, just "LET IT GO! LET IT GO!" Day in and day out, it was there from when she was hired and from when she was let go. The horror.
Yeah this was before the stores lost their soul. The high stacked aisle setup was magic.
@@ShmurkyDurky it was! I felt tiny, it felt like it went infinitely.
I will only remember TRU as the store with the most expensive, yet most expansive LEGOs
Toys R Us is still strong where I am live in South East Asia. In fact if you wanted to buy any toy there are 2 well know stores here like a duopoly between Toys R Us and locally named Toy Kingdom. I am more familiar with our local Toy Kingdom than Toys R Us but both offers the same categories, I still visit each store to check for Hot Wheels and Video Games.
Got to say I really enjoy your narration
You’re right, this one hits different 😢literally dropped a tear. Sad that the new kids won’t experience this feeling! ❤ I love your videos you’re hilarious at storytelling 😂
I want to say it was around 2017 or 2018 (will have to check my records), I run an IT business and was a 3rd party on a large project for Toys R Us. The company had purchased brand new Dell Poweredge servers and I believe an HP Blade server. The first phase was to go and actually upgrade the RAM in the old servers so they could handle the migration on phase 2. We also had to take out the old 3Com token ring switches and put in newer Cisco 26xx switches. I did my state and surrounding states on this project without any issues. The next project came shortly after where we ran tons of cable across their stores and mounted anywhere from 15-20 wireless access points. Then, literally a couple months after this massive project was completed.....Toys R Us announced they were going under... I had also done a TON of kiosk installs for Babies R Us as well. It took almost 2 years to get paid for all the work (luckily I was a 3rd and 4th party and the companies contracted HAD to pay me). My crew I hired (also close friends) were like "Why did they spend so much on the infrastructure when they knew they were in deep trouble?"
Damn. That sucks. All that work for pretty much nothing. Do you happen to remember what kind of software they ran on those servers? I've always been fascinated by how stores run their IT equipment (or not). I work in K-12 IT as a technician, but never for a store.
@@JJFlores197 Ya know, it was so long ago yet it's sitting in the back of my brain right now!! I know it was Linux based and EXTREMELY finicky. Lot of stores were having to start the migration process over halfway through if things weren't perfect. I know I was there until the morning on one store and we found out that the actual store manager LEFT the store at close and we were there locked in the entire night until the morning shift came in. We actually rode bikes and threw footballs across the store...we played with the lightsabers, you name it. I was still pretty heated that we were left there and weren't able to get access to a lot of areas we needed for testing. Man, I'm telling you....the version and name of what they used on the servers is right there!!
The old Toys R Us store in my city was turned into a huge discount liquor store that is commonly referred to as Drunks R Us.
TRU was an amazing place in the 80s. There was no place else like it if you were a kid, at a time when marketing to kids was at its absolute zenith in the US.
It was nigh impossible to convince parents to make a stop in another city just to look at toys. I cherish every visit.
Thank you for creating the video It’s really touching
In Singapore and other places outside the US they still have a presence in malls. Not the monolithic buildings where you’d pick up the power wheels in the back but they’re adapting.
It was wild seeing Gunpla and Anime figurines on the shelves next to the hot wheels and educational toys.
All my friends talked about missing toys r us as if they weren’t broke growing up like me and could never afford it
Its the nostalgia, dude.
So may memories going to Toys R Us with my parents in the 80's and then again with my kids around 2007-2012, before the stores started closing... I also remember a huge toy store called Child World that was in the chicago suburbs back in the 80's.. Does anyone remember that one? If I remember correctly, Child World was built like a big castle.
So many memories came rushing back. Memories of trip to Toys R us with my father. Memories of my wife and I buying our daughters toys. I even had a chance to buy my grandson son a few toys there. Life just flyes by so fast.
Just stumbled across your channel, excellent videos and research!! Binge watching it all as we speak. 👏🏼
I'm still blaming Mitt Romney. Bane Capital should be called a "debt transfer company".
Great video! I was a 90's kid too. What a great time to grow up. Although I was sad to see Toys R Us go, I get it. Growing up, we only went to Toys R Us specifically for a toy purchase on special occasions like a birthday or Xmas. Most toy purchases were an afterthought or impulse buy like while buying other things from a big box store. I remember buying my N64 at Costco while we were there for Costco stuff. See! Amazon just put the nail in the coffin IMO. Saved time and gas just to get it online. When Toys R Us came back in the Macy's stores recently, I made sure to take my kid and buy them something there.
Didn’t expect to tear up during this video, but here I am. I drive by the old Toy R Us locations in my area and it makes me legitimately sad. Going there as a child felt like a truly magical time.
Watching this video at work during my lunch break and I broke out in tears over the goodbye message.😳 I really wasn’t expecting it, I’m 34 so I definitely grew up with the store but my family didn’t really shop there that often because they were too expensive. Like I spent more time and K-mart and was totally fine watching that one. Wow, it’s nice to hear they are trying to make a comeback tho.
Early 2000's kid/Millennial. I remember Toy's R Us, it was very popular for a time, but eventually dried up, went there one final time. Shut down later on, but the final time was memorable, figured out how to use claw machines->Hold the button down for a long period->tighter grip.
These videos make me sad. I always explain to my 12 yr old son how amazing the 90s was. I cant believe we will never experience going to these stores. Have that same exciting feeling, of going out. Now streets are dead, parks are empty, and not much life outside
Our toys r us was a 90 min drive from my home. We went several times a year. The store was in our biggest mall in our province (Canada). It was there from the 80s until 2008. They filed for bankruptcy, closed our store and built a brand new giant stand alone store in our business park where they have been doing very well ever since.
I didn't go to Toys R Us as a child and I never had any children myself...but one of my fondest memories was taking my nephew to the one in Times Square. I was probably smiling as big as he was!!
Oh and that story about the people buying the stock of 2 stores and donating it to kids in their area....made me all teary eyed!
This video was super needed! Thank you!
I’ll never forget when as a child I went to the toys r us in New York City. It was beautifully crafted and the floors were all elaborately placed and it was very nice. I’m not saying every toys r us needed a Ferris wheel, but that level of care in all the stores probably would’ve helped quite a bit.
Good lord, these things were EVERYWHERE when I was a kid. I saw one in Fresno when I was 6, and another one in Bridgeport when I was 10 though that one was a Babies R Us.
So a huge thing this video overlooked was they changed their business model to be less about selling toys and more about (for lack of a better term) "selling" credit cards.
My little brother always thought ToysRUs was never open bc anytime he would see one and ask my dad if they could go inside, dad would say they had just closed. My brother is almost 30 now, and we all laugh about it to this day lol
After they ditched sellung ordinary toys for "theme" based merchandise, they lost their appeal. I used to buy model cars there before they stopped selling them
Great video Darkness. I loved my local Toys R Us, was so sad when it closed.
20:20 as someone who worked at toysrus. This was definitely not a fun place to work. Its just the same as any retail job
Toy R Us was a childhood Mecca. To actually go there once in a while as a kid was awe inspiring, I hope they come back strong soon, I remember my experience going there growing up very fondly
...should have started e commerce earlier and used the brick and mortal as local distribution centers for them
I worked at 2 different locations in the past, the first time being the 2011 holiday season and the 2014 holiday season. By that time, the stores had lost a lot of the magic that captivated me as a child of the 1990s.
I do hope they could come back strong enough to bring that magic back to the children who are currently growing up without it...
I miss Toy R Us because it will forever remind me of my childhood in the 80's and Christmas time as a child. I'm 47 years old, and I still get nostalgic thinking of Toys R Us. However, when I was a teen in the 90's Toys R Us was too damn expensive compared to stores like Walmart so I am not surprised that most of them went out of business.
My nephew got a thunderbird island set. Every kid was envious
Awesome videos. I remember KB Toys and remember them in the malls. I would love again to see you do defunct commuter rails.
Didnt they just open a store or two in a couple airports? Are they actually coming back or is it just a stunt to try and price gouge people like they did before they went out of business.
I use to go to Toysrus all the time,back in the 90s as a kid.
When they closed down, I still wanted to go buy a toy, I was 10 in 2018
I was sad when Toys R Us closed down too. But thankfully, they’re slowly coming back as part of Macy’s.
@@TrevortheTrainFanRetail Archeology did a walk through of one of those store-in-store Toys-R-Us's. It's not... it's not great. 😢
@@HardPourCorn Never heard of Retail Archaeology.
@@Mandem_Nj I’m sorry you missed out on
the wonderful childhood experience of the stores man. Some of my fondest memories as a child were at toys r us I hope you’re able to go to one of the new locations even though you’re older now
@@PapaJohnsPie the main thing I would get was LEGO®
Toy R Us is expensive these days, but still oh man, I would love for my boy along with nephews, niece, and my soon new baby to check out Toy R Us. ❤
I love the research you do, like with the first chapter 11 that I never knew about before hand and the personal interest in it!
These have been good, man. Even though I like train stuff, these have been great, keep it up!
Going to Toys 'R Us as a kid in the late 80's and 90's was as close to a real life Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (but for toys instead of candy) as we could get. It didn't matter WHERE you looked you saw something that interested you. Walking in, seeing all those shiny packagings and the bright colors, just gave you that feeling of wonder and endless possibilities. I am truly said future generations of kids won't know or feel like this. 😢
That slogan kind of stings these days, when I see it.
"You'll never outgrow us."
You're right, I never will. But now you aren't here anymore.
Great video, btw. Good tempo. Good Creator. 👍
I Used To Work For TRU. For 33Years.My Last Day Was June 30Th 2018.That Was Definitely & Absolutely An Extremely Sad Day For Me.They Had A Farewell Party But I Felt Soo.Bad I Sneaked Out Early.😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢