I know this is now old news, but it struck me as odd Sunday Evening cruising around with Wife looking for a place to eat and we ended up at Poke Joe's on Ben White and Lamar. After we sat down and were mostly done eating, it was almost dark, but not yet, Wife looked over my shoulder out the back doors of the restaurant and you can see the Toys 'R Us storefront, she said "hmm, looks like Toys 'R Us closed early and they are maybe even really closed, even the lights look off. I said "uh, yeah, they went bankrupt like 2-3 months ago. I believe all the stores closed and they are gone (I say I believe because I remember this happening to K-Mart and it somehow survived and I've seen a couple of those stores still open). I thought it most funny that even Javalina had a comment, saying he saw a meme where Geoffrey the Giraffe had his hobo stick and bag on the end saying "I guess everyone grew up." as he walks away into the sunset. That was pretty tear jerky, I thought, from a 13 year old.
It didn't have to go down that way. I liked going in there when the boys were younger, we would let Boy have "whatever" he wanted as he always went for action figures and Lego boxes, then we repeated the same recipe for Javalina, although he wasn't much for action figures, like Boy. I think the store should have been focused on toys, instead, you walked in and the whole middle section was gutted and filled with clothes you could get cheaper at Wal-Mart, about a third of the store was filled with electronics, but where at Best Buy you can handle the games, there, they wanted to treat you like a thief and keep the games locked up, which sucks for just shopping when you can't get a person to help you. Then another third or so was dedicated to furniture, yet they themselves had competition for that in their own Babies 'R Us, which sells nothing but furniture. This only left the two ends of the store for toys, one side was for boys and one side was for girls, how PC.
They were never going to beat Best Buy, Wal-Mart or even Amazon in the video game business, they should have bowed out and brought in more exotic toys. Trying to sell clothes was also a foolhardy plan because then you are competing with the malls, Old Navy, Wal-Mart, Target, too much competition, if you ask me. When we went to Toys 'R Us, it was to splurge on the boys. Even with Grandma in tow, she would frequently say, pick out a toy. No kid has ever said "shit, I'll take the corduroy pants, the toy can wait."
But put freaking grown-ups in charge, and they'll do that, Think like grown-ups. They should have asked a couple kids "how can we make the store better?" Oh well, I guess it had a good run. It served my boys well. We can say kids play with toys less and less, by the time I have grandkids, it'll be just tablets and live screens that talk too much.
😢😭
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