Yep. This is the end of Toys R Us (as well as Babies R Us). By tomorrow – this once king of toys and everything there was to be a child in this world will be gone forever.
Friday, June 29, 2018, is the last day for the Bridgewater, NJ location – as well as all the other locations across the country (from what an employee told us at least).
And by the way, while many people blame the internet (Amazon) or big box stores like Walmart – most of what “killed” Toys R Us was simply horrible management. How the high-payed executives in suits that cost more than most people make in a week could destroy a company like that is sad and pathetic.
What qualifications did they have to command massive salaries when they made shoddy decisions? Were they just simply charming with convincing (psychopathic, sociopathic, narcissistic) personalities?
Did they knowingly destroy the companies while collecting generational wealth? We’ll probably never know the real answer.
Goodbye old friend!
But Toy Stores will be welcome in the world
Luckily – this is not the end of TOY STORE itself – just pretty much massive toy stores. We still have our favorite local shops (like Toys With Love in Chester, NJ).
Perhaps this will open the gates for MORE independently-owned toy shops. Maybe, maybe not. It’s so hard to get a business going in 2018 – unless you have some inside track and already are worth millions or billions.
Plus true “toys” today are horrible compared to what they had just 40 years ago. Most toys are electronic crap made in China, or tie-in marketing merchandise (usually movies or cartoons), or simply shoddily-made, which break very quickly. How many toys can be passed along between siblings for 15-20 years? Not too many.
If you’re parents out there – some good advice is to allow your kids to be innocent children as long as possible. Before they get tainted by the evils of the “real world” or the “digital world.” But that’s a conversation for another day perhaps. But maybe never – because it’s a very sensitive subject that should probably be kept offline anyway.
I’ll have a glass of wine in memory of Toys R Us tomorrow night. Thanks for the memories!
