I mean, let's face it, some time you have to grow up. You can't always be a Toys R Us Kid. That sort of life is just unsustainable. We all knew that. Even though I was still in my early 20's waiting in line to buy toys at Toys R Us, the news that the stores were going to close came to no surprise to me. And before you start waxing nostalgic about the times you spent there as a kid, realize the store was always a mess and border line were just used as a free day care while mommy shopped at the store next door to it. It really isn't a surprise that they are now going to way of the dinosaur.
So where did it all go wrong? I would say that toys advanced, the company didn't and its attempt to be a little of everything in one just doesn't work in this current economic situation. Not in the world of Amazon.
On top of that, the stores were always in a mess of a condition, you would trip over kids left and right as they left the bikes and boxes all over the place. Sections of sought after toys would be vacant from the shelves and it just wasn't worth it in the long run to even go in there. As it would be fighting through a day care to just get around. If you ever wanted a better means of birth control, it's walking in to a Toys R Us on a weekend.
Another thing happened in the 20's that created a sort of bubble that was eventually going to burst. The whole concept of collectible toy market. The shit that would be bought on the shelf... or if it even made it to the shelf. I knew of stories where people would have Toys R Us employees just sell them whole cases of sought after "action figures" out of the back so they could resell them for 4x the amount. The scalping market basically made it that actually going to a toy store was pointless.
I remember when I was in my early 20's and I was dumb enough to wait in line for a midnight release of Star Wars Episode 1 action figures. Everyone was going crazy for the Darth Maul figure and the idea was that, like comic books in the 90's, that these figures would somewhat increase in value, especially since the original star wars action figures had gone up in price for resell.
I really wish time travel was invented so I can go back in time and just punch myself for being so stupid and wasting so much time and money on this whole collectors mentality market bullshit. None of that ended up being a damn and figures just sat by
But that made the whole point of going to stores in search for these diamond in the rough pieces even more pointless. There was no need for any of that. While I met some cool people and had some fun experiences.. as fun as they could probably be, they really made it that the market for buying toys was just not sustainable.
Yes, that's right, Jeffery. Your time was running out to begin with. Pack your bags, you worthless bastard, and remember the return policy for that baggage.
I sort of say good riddance. The store, as mentioned already, was just really terribly run. They were trying to compete in the electronics department, the children clothing and baby supply as well as video games - which shitty places like game stop and others like it just rule the market.
On top of that, it's sort of karma, bitches. Toys R Us was the top contender in the biz. It took out all the little small mom and pop shops. So much so that many toy manufacturers just stopped having show rooms in their companies because they knew they had the big clients like Toys R Us, so why bother even trying to appeal to the little smaller shops?
All those manufacturers are now fucked. They have to find a new market to sell their hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of products to keep afloat. So it will be some troubled times for the time to come for all the toy companies in finding a new consistent way to move their product.
That aside, the whole concept that you will no longer have a place to take your kids to buy toys is off. There's a small toy shop in just about every market that you probably never seen, probably has a little bit more higher prices than Toys R Us would - but to be fair, their prices were terrible anyway. And most of all, you'll be helping out the local community a whole lot more than being able to go to a store where the employees hate the fact that they're paid min. wage to baby sit dropped off children making a mess of the store and never give you any sort of decent customer service anyway.
So yeah. Good riddance.
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