For some, Toys "R" Us is just another giant store you've never been to. But for others, it was a paradise. It was a place for hopes and dreams. A place where anything was possible, even for your family, who had no money and was clearly lower middle class.
When we had nothing to do in the little go-nowhere town I lived in, me and a few of the other grubby, penniless, latch-key urchins would head fifteen minutes up the freeway just to get out of the heat and look at the toys at the one near our town. We'd walk those long, air conditioned hallways, looking at all the toys we'd never have, pretending that our parents had had more ambition when they were younger, pretending that they'd wanted more than just a "good time" in the back of a chevy down some dark and dusty road, until that same "good time" came crashing down due to a cheap, discount store pregnancy test.
Sometimes, staring at the rows of gleaming toys, pretending, was enough.
But now, that fantasy must come crashing down. After a series of increasingly poor business decisions, their inventory must be liquidated, and their doors must be shuttered.
It was reported that the company was initially planning on keeping some of their 700 stores across the globe open, but then someone said, "What the hell are you talking about? Are you stupid or something?"
So, they didn't.
All Toys “R” Us locations will liquidate their inventory through June.
