is a
Toy Store chain based in the
United States ,
Canada ,
Australia ,
South Africa and the
United Kingdom . The company operates 587 stores in the
United States and nearly 600 stores are operating in 29 other countries, some of them under franchises or licenses. The flagship store in
New York City 's
Times Square is the largest toy store in the United States, featuring a colorful
Ferris Wheel . It is also the second largest toy store chain in the
US (
Walmart being the biggest).
Charles Lazarus initially started Toys "R" Us (LTD) in
Washington, DC during the
Post-war Baby Boom era in 1948 as a
Baby Furniture Retailer known as "Childrens Supermart" and later "Children's Bargain Town USA". Its first location was at 2461 18th St, NW, where the
Nightclub ,
Madam's Organ Blues Bar is currently located. Lazarus began receiving requests from customers for baby
Toy s.
, made entirely of
Lego Blocks , on display at the
Times Square location of Toys "R" Us in
New York City .]]
After several major missteps in the marketplace, mainly precipitated by the removal of one of the Board of Directors, Toys "R" Us experienced difficulty. In an effort to shore up their enterprise,Toys R Us entered a competition to sell out with the ither store-TARGET so the Board of Directors installed John Eyler, formerly of
FAO Schwarz . Eyler launched an unsuccessful, and very expensive plan to remodel and re-launch the chain. Blaming market pressures (primarily competition from
Wal-Mart and
Target Stores ), Toys "R" Us considered splitting its toys and baby businesses. On
July 21 ,
2005 , a
Consortium of
Bain Capital Partners LLC ,
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), and
Vornado Realty Trust completed the $6.6 billion
Acquisition of the toy giant. Public stock closed for the last time at $26.74, just pennies from the 52-week high, but far short of its all time high of almost $45 in fourth-quarter 1993, and its five-year high of $31 in 2Q 2001. Toys "R" Us is now a privately owned entity.
,
Georgia ,
United States .]]
In early
2006 , Toys "R" Us won a major battle against
Amazon.com after years of bitter battles over their original 10 year contract made at the height of the
Dotcom Boom at the turn of the century. The battle focused on exclusivity rights as viewed from both company's perspectives. The judge in the matter had this to say about Amazon's top brass testimony:
:In her opinion, McVeigh took a rather dim view of the trial testimony of some Amazon executives, including that of the company’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, saying she had "no doubt his knowledge and understanding (of the Toys "R" Us agreement) went much deeper than revealed." When pushed on the witness stand, "certain information 'just came back to him'" she said in the ruling, while another of Bezos’ explanations was referred to as "rather childlike."
1
Toys "R" Us, after winning the right to end its contract with Amazon.com, forged a partnership with , Amazon's stock had taken serious 15% losses, one consideration being the $50 million per year payment lost from Toys "R" Us. Amazon announced the loss of the case late in the quarter to its stock owners.
2 3
On
January 9 ,
2006 , Toys "R" Us announced that 87 stores in the
United States would close that year, most closing within the spring. 12 more stores are to be converted to the "Babies "R" Us" format. Approximately 3,000 jobs will be eliminated as a result of the closures.
4
.]]
It was reported on
July 12 ,
2007 by various news sites, that Toys "R" Us is undergoing a lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against black customers. Toys "R" Us calls these allegations "entirely ridiculous" and doesn't tolerate discrimination of any kind. The lawsuit is reportedly around $200 million.
5 6
The is the video game and consumer electronics department of Toys "R" Us stores. It carries a wide variety of products from
Xbox 360 ,
PlayStation 3 ,
Wii ,
Nintendo DS and
PlayStation Portable , to televisions, stereos, cell phones, MP3 players, and DVD players. The "R" Zone is much like its own store in that it also has security gates; in some branches, customers must purchase their items at the checkout within the "R" Zone.
In 2006, the company announced that it would award a $25,000 savings bond as a prize to the first American baby born in the year 2007 whose parents had submitted a contest entry form. All "expectant New Year's mothers" were encouraged to apply. At the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2007, Yuki Lin was born at New York Downtown Hospital, and she won a runoff drawing against two other children. However, while Yuki is an American citizen, contest officials believed that the child's parents were not legal residents of the United States (a violation of the published rules), so they gave the prize instead to Jayden Swain, from
Gainesville, Georgia .
This launched a firestorm of bad publicity worldwide, including China (her parents' homeland). Ironically, the chain had just entered the mainland Chinese market and had opened their first store in the country in the last weeks of 2006. Critics also pointed out that the other child's parents had immigrated from
El Salvador , suggesting that the choice of a child whose parents were also American-born was motivated by
Xenophobia .
The company rapidly announced that all three children will be awarded $25,000 bonds. The prizes are intended for college tuition.
Mall, Singapore]]Toys "R" Us, Inc. also owns other chains:
- - A store chain no longer operating independently, Kids "R" Us deals in children's clothing. Kids "R" Us stores now are co-branded with some Toys "R" Us stores, located inside these Toys "R" Us locations. Kids "R" Us is also the brand name label of kids' clothing found at the Geoffrey Stores.
- - Baby superstore
- - Stores named for Toys "R" Us mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe, offering toys, juvenile merchandise, and children's apparel all in one location. Other features include a "Studio G" activity center. Mostly found in the American Midwest . The first store under the "'''Geoffrey'''" banner opened in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin , but eventually closed. Two other remaining Geoffrey's Toys "R" Us stores in Wisconsin still exist in nearby markets, such as the Green Bay, Wisconsin and Appleton, Wisconsin markets.
- (introduced in 2003 ) - This version of Toys "R" Us is found in Albertsons , Giant , Jewel-Osco Supermarket s, and stores in Hong Kong and Singapore .
- - A Toy Superstore format introduced in 1996. Stores were built in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Fairfax, Virginia (which was remodelled in 2006 into a standard Toys "R" Us).
- - co-branded stores found in markets not served by the Geoffrey Stores. A current example of these stores can be found in markets such as the Horseheads, New York market or the York, Pennsylvania markets.
- - mini store version of Toys "R" Us, found inside Asian stores. ( Hong Kong , Macau , Malaysia , Taiwan ( Republic Of China ), and other)
- - An independent chain of kids toy stores with a focus on learning toys, located mostly in malls was bought by Toys "R" Us in 1999. Its mascots were Cosmo (a purple puppy) and Professor Fun. When most of the Toys "R" Us stores were remodeled, their layouts were redesigned to included an Imaginarium department.
- - Toys "R" Us in the Philippines, found in the Robinsons Galleria mall.
The yellow reverse "R" in
Quotation Marks , which is similar to the character
"" () in the
Cyrillic Alphabet , imitates a small child's backward writing of "R", which is short for "are". The "R" is the most distinctive part of the retailer's
Color ful kid-friendly
Logo . The current, modernized Toys "R" Us logo was introduced in the 1980s, a blue
Star was added to the
Logo in 1999. The "R Us" name was derived as a pun on the founder's first name, Lazarus. It has been imitated by many other
Businesses .
In the
1960s , an
Anthropomorphic Cartoon Giraffe character was introduced as Toys "R" Us's
Mascot . His name, , followed in the
1970s , after a "Name the Mascot"–type contest. In
1973 , Geoffrey was given a family with the addition of his wife Gigi. However, over time and with different marketing campaigns, it has been unclear as to whether Gigi is Geoffrey's wife or sister. Also in 1973, Geoffrey's daughter, Baby Gee, was introduced. In
1979 , his son Junior (a.k.a. Geoffrey Junior) was added. Geoffrey was then re-introduced in
2001 after being given a full makover. Now he appears not as a
Cartoon Character , but rather as a real-life
Giraffe who talks; an
Animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by
Stan Winston Studios ) was voiced by
Jim Hanks in
Commercials for
Radio and
Television .
Starting September 25, 2007, The returning Toys R Us commercials featuring ''That's not a toy'' and ''Pick one thing'' commercials from 1999. The 2 commercials return on
Cartoon Network ,
Nickelodeon , and
Toon Disney .
- "The World's Store!"
- "Big Fun! Low Prices!"
- "Lower Prices. Bigger Selection. Guaranteed."
- "The World's Biggest Toy Store."
- "R toys us? You bet they R!" (as seen in a 1978 print ad)
- "The World's Greatest Toy Store."
- "The Biggest Selection"
- "Play More, Spend Less."
- "You'll never outgrow us."
- "There's millions says Geoffrey all under one roof, it's called Toys "R" Us, Toys "R" Us, Toys "R" Us!" (used in the UK only)
- "I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys "R" Us kid!"
- "When you think of toys, think of Toys "R" Us."
- "Gee, what a toy store!"
- "Britain's greatest toy store" (UK use)
- "Canada's greatest toy store!" (Canadian use)
- "Yo Quiero ser un niño Toy R Us" (Puerto Rico) ''"I want to be a Toys R Us kid"''
is a separate division of which operates the toy stores outside of the United States. Toys "R" Us, International opened its first stores in 1984 in Singapore and Canada. Today, Toys "R" Us International operates, licenses or franchises approximately 570 toy stores in 29 countries outside the United States.
- Australia , established 1991
- Austria , 10 Stores
- Bahrain
- Canada , established 1984
- China ( Mainland ), established December 2006
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Finland , established 2006
- France
- Germany , established 1987, 48 Stores, domicile of Toys "R" Us Europe ( Cologne )
- Hong Kong
- Iceland , Announced for October 2007
- Indonesia
- Israel , established 1995 23 stores in 2006 [http://www.toysrus.co.il
- Japan , established 1989
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Philippines Opened late Feb
- Portugal
- Qatar 1 store, in Doha
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore , established 1984, 7 stores including Vivocity
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden , established 1994
- Switzerland , 4 Stores
- Taiwan ( Republic Of China )
- Thailand , established 2005
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates , Located in Sharjah near the Reef Mall and a recent one just opened in Festival City
- United Kingdom , established 1985, 74 stores and 2 Babies "R" Us stores
- United States , established 1948 as Children's Supermart
- Toys "R" Us (retail)
- Toys "R" Us (corporate)
- Toys "R" Us Australia , Canada , China , Israel , Japan , Hong Kong , [http://www.toysrus.com.my/ Malaysia], Singapore , Taiwan (Republic of China) , Thailand , UK , Turkey
- The Caldor Rainbow's Toys "R" Us Design Timeline
- A 1975 Toys R Us Flier at Plaidstallions.com
