I am Going to Miss Toys R Us

So long Jeffery

I’ve read a few headlines today that all seem to say that Toys R Us will be closing all their doors, at least in the US, for good. I’m not exactly sure when, but it seems imminent.

This is a real bummer for me. I have loved Toys R Us since I was a child. Now, my children have grown to love the store. I know my wife loves the place. My parents have bought so many things from there, I can’t imagine how much money they could have saved. I’m terrified to tell my 6 year old because I fear he will freak out. Sure, he can still get Legos, video games and Imaginext toys at other stores, Target, but Toys R Us was always a fun adventure for him and I. His face lights up every time we go there. So this is going to devastate him.

But, as I said, it kind of hurts me too. I can remember getting a lot of my early sports equipment from there. I’d get gloves, wiffle ball bats and balls, footballs, basketballs, all kinds of early sports stuff for cheap at Toys R Us. This was all before I got very serious about sports too. It was more cost effective and it let me try a plethora of things. But, the very few actual toys I had as a child, again, sports equipment were toys for me, I got at Toys R Us. I used to play with GI Joe figures. All of those were purchased there. The Starting Lineup sports figurines I owned, another Toys R Us purchase. Some older Simpsons toys I had I got there. Hell, even as I got older and started to play video games, I would get a good majority of them at Toys R Us. PlayStation games were always cheaper there. So were Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games. It was the spot to save a few dollars when I needed too. And even when they started to sell movies I would opt for Toys R Us over other retail stores, especially when it came to Disney movies. They always seemed like the first stores to get movies when they “came out of the Disney vault”. I know for a fact that I had VHS copies of “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” that I got from Toys R Us. Even DVD’s became a staple for me to purchase at Toys R Us. When I went through watching all the “Star Wars” movies recently, the only spot I could find the prequels at a reasonable price was Toys R Us. I never should have bought them, but spending 15 bucks for “The Phantom Menace” at Toys R Us, compared to the 30 plus dollars at a Best Buy or online, was the much better option.

I’m going to miss all this from this store. Hell, I liked Toys R Us so much that my friends and I would go hang there in middle school because they had open rims that we would play intense games of one on one basketball in, until we got kicked out. I remember having full on tournaments, and sometimes, even dunk contests. Same thing can be said for games of wiffle ball. We’d find an open isle and pitch and hit against one another. It was perfect. I’m really going to miss this place. It has given me, and now my son, so much joy.

This is the day and age we live in now. People would rather shop online than go physically buy stuff. I’m very guilty of that myself. I just wished I had patronized Toys R Us a little more. Maybe it would still be around. Well, RIP to probably the greatest toy store, outside of FAO Schwartz, that has ever existed. You were a true gem and a big, big part of my childhood. You will be missed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He may be a millennial, but Ty still prefers to shop for his toys in person and not online. His philosophy even extends to his grocery shopping.

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