dangit, getting old sucks
If you pick a news outlet, any news outlet really, it sounds as if Toys R Us is going under. Well, they always specifically mention the US brick and mortar stores but never the online component. However, for the sake of my sorrow, it's the actual stores that are important here.
I know TRU has been struggling for years, especially since they were raided during their Bain buyout. It doesn't help that you can't throw a rock without hitting someone complaining that all TRUs are in shady, gross areas and that ick, they haven't been there in years. Sigh. My TRU isn't in a super shady area, it's just in a pain in the ass area to get to and really fucking inconvenient to visit. I tend to go twice a year unless I'm on the prowl for something and the inside usually looks either spotless or like a hurricane just blew through. There is no real in between. It's usually the hurricane option, but it's also a toy store so... I get it.
Thing is, if TRU goes under, there goes pretty much the last big toy store. Wonder Works is technically a toy store, but I remember taking Widget to TRU as a young kid and to WW and WW was nice but his eyes got as big as saucers and he was quiet for the first minute and a half after walking into TRU. Kids deserve that whoa moment and you don't get that at Target, Walmart, or online shopping. I'm not saying that cities don't have their own toy stores, but TRU is, for me, the last of the toy stores of my youth.
Someone fetch me Rarity's fainting couch...
Alas, I remember TRU killing the other toy stores so my sorrow is also mixed in with a bit of like... seven year old me being vindictive. Bad younger me, bad. It won't bring back stores long gone and only makes things worse.
I remember Children's Palace and how it was probably my favorite toy store to go to as a kid. It was probably the most expensive but it was the one that made my eyes go wide and I wanted to spend hours examining everything. It didn't last too long once TRU and possibly Walmart moved to town. Alas. I believe I cried and was less than pleased anytime we went by the ~palace~y building afterwards. Extra awkward because it was right by Phar-Mor and Mom went there a lot. :p
There was also Lionel, which I don't remember a ton about honestly but I do remember getting a lot of my ponies there. Sigh.
I always forget about KB because we didn't frequent one when I was younger and didn't have one in the immediate area my parents did most of their shopping in so for me KB is something I associate more with when I got into MyScene dolls much later.
Thing is, for as much as I wanted to dislike TRU after it chased out the other two 'big' names, the one I went to as a kid is still pretty much permanently tattooed in my brain. I still dream about it. When I have the "found the hidden stash of all the dolls you never got or never knew existed!" dream, it's always at that TRU. If I'm aimlessly wandering a toy store, it's always that TRU. I could probably still draw you a fairly accurate map of where things were, particularly when they still had the party section in a slightly different building. We spent a lot of time there because with two kids in an age where you were invited to many a party and expected to bring a toy, TRU was your best option. Plus, in the summer if your AC was broken, TRU had you covered and usually had some activity going on... or you'd run into someone you knew and the next thing you knew an hour had passed and so had the threat of heat stroke.
It's been ages, but whenever I go to the one in the north area, it still takes me a minute to remember the right aisles because my brain still tries to send me to the aisles I grew up with. That kind of nonsense makes sense for work because, y'know, 13 years or so in a building versus less than one in another does mean I'll get tripped up but not the friggin' toy store.
Clearly the place made an impression on me.
It's where Kate and I bought our friendaversary toys, it's where I spent my first paycheck from Hades, and I can still remember the grin on Widget's face when they announced it was his birthday and he spent the rest of the time waving at people and getting birthday hellos.
Target's nice, but it's not the same and Walmart is, y'know, hell on earth and everyone knows it. I love getting stuff in the mail, but when it's a new line by a new brand, I'd rather see it in person first. For a lot of brands/lines, without TRU that's going to be more difficult. Also, childhood is already painfully short and this just feels like it'll make it shorter.
Someone fetch me a rocking chair and a blanket so I can be the right type of crotchety old person complaining about their youth being destroyed.
I know TRU has been struggling for years, especially since they were raided during their Bain buyout. It doesn't help that you can't throw a rock without hitting someone complaining that all TRUs are in shady, gross areas and that ick, they haven't been there in years. Sigh. My TRU isn't in a super shady area, it's just in a pain in the ass area to get to and really fucking inconvenient to visit. I tend to go twice a year unless I'm on the prowl for something and the inside usually looks either spotless or like a hurricane just blew through. There is no real in between. It's usually the hurricane option, but it's also a toy store so... I get it.
Thing is, if TRU goes under, there goes pretty much the last big toy store. Wonder Works is technically a toy store, but I remember taking Widget to TRU as a young kid and to WW and WW was nice but his eyes got as big as saucers and he was quiet for the first minute and a half after walking into TRU. Kids deserve that whoa moment and you don't get that at Target, Walmart, or online shopping. I'm not saying that cities don't have their own toy stores, but TRU is, for me, the last of the toy stores of my youth.
Someone fetch me Rarity's fainting couch...
Alas, I remember TRU killing the other toy stores so my sorrow is also mixed in with a bit of like... seven year old me being vindictive. Bad younger me, bad. It won't bring back stores long gone and only makes things worse.
I remember Children's Palace and how it was probably my favorite toy store to go to as a kid. It was probably the most expensive but it was the one that made my eyes go wide and I wanted to spend hours examining everything. It didn't last too long once TRU and possibly Walmart moved to town. Alas. I believe I cried and was less than pleased anytime we went by the ~palace~y building afterwards. Extra awkward because it was right by Phar-Mor and Mom went there a lot. :p
There was also Lionel, which I don't remember a ton about honestly but I do remember getting a lot of my ponies there. Sigh.
I always forget about KB because we didn't frequent one when I was younger and didn't have one in the immediate area my parents did most of their shopping in so for me KB is something I associate more with when I got into MyScene dolls much later.
Thing is, for as much as I wanted to dislike TRU after it chased out the other two 'big' names, the one I went to as a kid is still pretty much permanently tattooed in my brain. I still dream about it. When I have the "found the hidden stash of all the dolls you never got or never knew existed!" dream, it's always at that TRU. If I'm aimlessly wandering a toy store, it's always that TRU. I could probably still draw you a fairly accurate map of where things were, particularly when they still had the party section in a slightly different building. We spent a lot of time there because with two kids in an age where you were invited to many a party and expected to bring a toy, TRU was your best option. Plus, in the summer if your AC was broken, TRU had you covered and usually had some activity going on... or you'd run into someone you knew and the next thing you knew an hour had passed and so had the threat of heat stroke.
It's been ages, but whenever I go to the one in the north area, it still takes me a minute to remember the right aisles because my brain still tries to send me to the aisles I grew up with. That kind of nonsense makes sense for work because, y'know, 13 years or so in a building versus less than one in another does mean I'll get tripped up but not the friggin' toy store.
Clearly the place made an impression on me.
It's where Kate and I bought our friendaversary toys, it's where I spent my first paycheck from Hades, and I can still remember the grin on Widget's face when they announced it was his birthday and he spent the rest of the time waving at people and getting birthday hellos.
Target's nice, but it's not the same and Walmart is, y'know, hell on earth and everyone knows it. I love getting stuff in the mail, but when it's a new line by a new brand, I'd rather see it in person first. For a lot of brands/lines, without TRU that's going to be more difficult. Also, childhood is already painfully short and this just feels like it'll make it shorter.
Someone fetch me a rocking chair and a blanket so I can be the right type of crotchety old person complaining about their youth being destroyed.