In 1998, Toys “R” Us, the number one toy
retailer in the United States, suddenly fell into second place. The 41-year-old chain had
been surpassed by Wal-Mart in the battle for toy supremacy. Toys "R" Us was finding it increasingly
difficult to compete with big-box retailers. However, Wal-Mart and similar big-box stores
were not the only cause of the chain’s decline. Customers viewed Toys “R” Us stores as
dirty warehouses, with no character or charm. On top of this, the management and service at
stores was less than stellar. Recognizing this, the board of directors of Toys “R” Us looked to
another toy chain that was known for their quality and class, FAO Schwarz. The famous toy stores
were experiences in themselves, and the chain was ingrained into popular culture after appearing in
the 1988 Tom Hanks film Big. FAO Schwarz had just the strategy that Toys “R” Us needed, so the board
of directors recruited their chairman John Eyler to be Toys “R” Us’s next chairman and CEO. To
assist him, Eyler brought with him Joanne Newbold, a designer that had helped him construct 25
stores for FAO Schwarz. Of the move, Newbold said, “We call it going over to the dark side.” Despite
the difficult task ahead, Eyler referred to his plan for Toys “R” Us as “Mission Possible.” To
improve the reputation of the chain’s stores, he approved an ambitious redesign that favored
visual aesthetics over everything els. In order to improve customer service, Eyler approved
wage increases for Toys “R” Us employees, but this was just the beginning. The most
ambitious of Eyler’s ideas was to open a brand new flagship Toys “R” Us store in the crossroads
of the World, New York City’s Times Square. On August 1, 2000, just months after Eyler and
Newbold had joined Toys “R” Us, the company announced the construction of the new Times Square
location. The space was 101,000 square feet split throughout four stories. The owner of the real
estate Charles B. Moss Jr. had been holding onto the space throughout a rapid revitalization of
Times Square, seeing the area turn from a dirty, seedy tourist trap to a premiere shopping
district. Stores like The Gap and Virgin Megastore moved in, and rents began to skyrocket. Moss was
waiting for the right partner to rent his real estate, which sat on the corner of Broadway and
44th Street, and when Toys “R” Us made an offer, he accepted it. The resulting Toys “R” Us would
be the largest toy store in the world and the largest retailer in Times Square, one third
larger than the Virgin Megastore. The location would cost $35 million to build. It was to be “The
Center of the Toy Universe” according to Eyler. Designing Toys “R” Us’s Flagship Store was no easy
task. Not only was Newbold designing in some of the most lucrative real estate space in the world,
but she was designing far more than just a store. Toys “R” Us Time Square would be part store,
part mall, part theme park, and part event space. The store was constructed throughout the fall of
2001, with a grand opening date set for November 17, 2001. On November 14, three days before
the grand opening, Toys “R” Us held its first event. A key aspect of the plans for Toys "R” Us
Times Square was for the space to be a stage for toy manufacturers to hold launch events.
The first of these would be for the XBox, with Bill Gates himself present to launch the
console and hand it out to the first lucky gamer. Three days after this, Toys “R” Us was ready
to open to the public. To celebrate the store’s opening day, an hour-long character procession
was organized. At 9 am, over 50 beloved children’s characters would walk hand in hand from 48th
and Broadway to the store. The four-block parade featured such beloved characters as Spongebob
Squarepants, Bert, Ernie, Barbie, Shrek, and Elmo, which must have been awkward considering there
were at least three other Elmos roaming the area at the time. After the parade, the ribbon was cut,
with Toys “R” Us’s mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe dressed to the nines. The Toys R Us International
Flagship Store was officially open to the public. As guests approached the store they were
greeted by an impressive video billboard display with 165 panels, cycling through various
advertisements and interior views of the store. As guests entered the store, they were immediately
confronted by Geoffrey the Giraffe, welcoming them to the store. The most striking element of Toys
“R” Us Times Square was its main attraction, a 60 foot tall Ferris Wheel, which was
placed in the store’s atrium and spanned all four stories of the store. The Ferris Wheel
featured the chain’s signature backwards “R” in the center with 14 themed cars, all
featuring famous characters from toys, movies, television, and more. The cars
included a Pokemon car, a tonka truck, a Toy Story car, a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head car, a
FisherPrice car in the shape of a Lil Snoopy toy, a Matchbox Fire Truck, a spaceship, with
E.T. on one side and Geoffrey on the other, a Little Tikes car, aand a Nicktoons car featuring
multiple characters, including Jimmy Neutron, Blue, Spongebob Squarepants, Tommy,
Chuckie, Reggie, and Little Bill. The cars to the ferris wheels were, according to
Newbold, a “tortuous exercise in design.” Newbold admitted that the final result of some of the cars
was less than ideal. She said that the Mr. and Mrs. Potato head car specifically looked off, and
that, to her eye, “Mrs. Tate looks way too much like Bette Midler.” The licensing agreements
for each car was for two years, and most of the companies chose to renew the license again and
again. However, sometime between 2001 and 2007, two cars were replaced. The Pokemon car was
replaced with a Scooby-Doo car, and the Tonka Truck was replaced with a My Little Pony car.
Sometime after this, the Barbie car’s design was changed to the Glam Convertible, and Fisher-Price
car replaced their Lil Snoopy with a School Bus. The store’s street-level floor was actually its
second floor, and in order to board the Ferris Wheel, guests had to take an escalator down to
the first floor. Also on this floor were video game displays, an ice cream shop called Scoops
“R” Us, and a UPS Store. The UPS Store allowed shoppers to purchase toys and immediately ship
them as gifts to friends and family. The third floor featured the majority of the store’s retail
space. An elevated ceiling was painted yellow, and from it, models were suspended. One depicted
Superman saving shoppers from a falling truck. The other was of Spider-Man, swinging
from webs above the heads of guests. The third floor also featured an elaborate Lego
section, with sculptures of prominent New York City icons. Nearby was the Candyland candy store,
which brought the famous board game to life. One of the most popular spots on the third floor
was a two-story, 4000 square foot walk-through Barbie Dreamhouse. This impressive feature
could only be overshadowed by the third floor’s signature feature, a robotic 20-foot tall
Tyranassorus Rex that moved and roared. This was part of a Jurassic Park display, and the
dinosaur weighed 5 tons. During construction, an entire side of the building had to be left open
to install the creature. Finally, the fourth floor was much smaller in comparison in order to allow
for the high ceilings of most of the third floor. Its main feature was the Pepsi-World soda
fountain. Also on the fourth floor, off limits to guests, was a boardroom for meetings that had
an incredible view of the store and Times Square. As aforementioned, Newbold and Eyler designed Toys
R Us Times Square with built-in stages for toy unveilings. Toys R Us Times Square did hold many
product launch events, bringing in big crowds and rolling out celebrity guests. In retrospect,
some of these events were quite interesting. Nate: And now…Some of the Product Launch
Events Held at Toys “R” Us Times Square, “or” One of the First Times the Early 2000s
Unique Visual and Cultural Aesthetic Can Be Viewed in Retrospect “or” Oh my
God, Am I Nostalgic for 2003?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with
celebrity guest, audiobook narrator Jim Dale The VideoNow portable video player
with celebrity guest Hillary Duff iZ, the musical robot thing
with celebrity guest Rihanna Rubiks Revolution with
celebrity guest Vanessa Hudgens Dolls from the TV show Lost with
celebrity guest Jorge Garcia. Deal or No Deal merchandise with
celebrity guest Howie Mandel Miranda Cosgrove’s debut album Sparks
Fly with celebrity guest Miranda Cosgrove Twilight New Moon merchandise with
celebrity guests Nikki Reed and Kellan Lutz EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002
with celebrity guest Tiger Woods The Tamogachi Connection virtual pet
with celebrity guest Ryan Cabrera VideoNow Color with celebrity guests
Hillary Duff again and Tony Hawk The store was also used as a
location for open auditions for child stage shows such as Dora the
Explorer Live and Blues Clues Live. As far as design and implementation went, Toys “R”
Us Times Square appeared to be a massive success. However, there were many other factors to
consider. The first was rent. The space alone would cost Toys “R” Us $12 million a year,
over $100 per square foot. On top of this, the store opened in November 2001, just over two
months after the September 11 terrorist attacks. American’s willingness to travel was greatly
impacted by the events, especially travel to New York. Sales in Times Square specifically
were down 40 percent. However, Elliott Whale, General Manager of Toys R Us Times Square said,
“If the traffic numbers are off in Times Square we are certainly not feeling it. Based on the
circumstances you are seeing a lot of folks just wanting to have a good time.” Toys “R” Us
estimated that their flagship store would draw in 20 million visitors a year, two-thirds of the
total traffic of Times Square at the time. However, the first year’s numbers, in part due to
the attacks of September 11, were reported to be nearly half that, with roughly 10 million shoppers
visiting the store in its first year of operation. Toys “R” Us Times Square enjoyed an eventful
existence. In 2003, the store was featured in the 2003 Disney television film, Eloise at
Christmastime. That same year was the beginning of the flash mob craze that swept the nation for some
reason, and nowhere was safe, especially not Toys “R” Us Times Square. In August of 2003, a large
group of people went to the store’s third floor not to perform a choreographed dance, but instead
to kneel in front of the T-Rex and scream for a very, very long time. Every holiday shopping
season was a busy, eventful, and sometimes dangerous event for Toys “R” Us. On November 27,
2004 at around 3:25 PM, a rush of holiday shoppers were overwhelmed with pepper spray, which
was discharged from an unknown person within the store. Three people had to be taken to the
hospital, and all 3000 shoppers were evacuated. By 2004, Toys “R” Us’s hopes of overtaking
Walmart had been dashed. When asked whether Toys “R” Us was still focusing on reclaiming the
#1 spot, vice president Ursula Moran said no, adding “We’re number two.” In 2005, Toys “R”
Us was bought by three investment companies for $6.6 billion dollars. Of this capital, 80% was
borrowed, and as a result of the leveraged buyout, Toys “R” Us was now 5 billion dollars in debt.
Eyler stepped down from his role as CEO after the buyout, and Toys “R” Us began a new, uncertain,
debt-ridden future. On top of all of this, the Times Square location had still not turned a
profit, although Moran said that it was “pretty close to making money.” Toys “R” Us continued
to operate the location off of the idea that the prestige and elegance of the location and
experience was worth accepting the losses from the store itself. However, this concept was becoming
more difficult to sell as the corporation as a whole continued to lose market share and
close stores across the country. By 2007, alternative revenue streams were considered for
the Toys “R” Us Times Square location, namely children’s birthday parties. Utilizing the fourth
floor’s office space, the store created birthdays packaged for children, including the Dancing
Divas party and the Pirates Passage package. In 2009, on a seeming-crusade to acquire as
much debt as possible, Toys “R” Us acquired FAO Schwarz. With the acquisition, Toys
“R” Us now operated the two most famous and popular toy stores in New York City.
In 2010, The Delicious World of Wonka, the first ever Wonka retail experience, opened on the
second floor of Toys “R” Us Times Square. A short time after this, the space on the fourrth floor
was replaced with a new attraction, the Rcade. A sort of annual tradition at the store for a few
years was the anti-war-toy protest put on by the Granny Peace Brigade and the Raging Grannies, two
protest groups composed of old women. Every year, the grannies would march throughout the store,
protesting violent video games and toys that glorified weapons and war. The first year of
the protest the grannies commandeered the Ferris Wheel and waved banners off of it. However,
they failed to account for their escape route, and being on the Ferris Wheel, it didn’t
take long for employees to stop them and promptly escort them out of the store. The third
year they decided to switch it up, spreading out throughout the store and waiting until a
specific time to reveal their granny protest, a "grambush" if you will. Every year the grannies
would be rounded up and escorted out of the store, where they would continue their demonstration
next to the unlicensed street characters. On the subject of Times Square streetmosphere,
in 2012, in classic, Times Square fashion, a man dressed in a knock-off Elmo costume
was arrested outside of Toys R Us after he began screaming anti-semitic rants. The man’s
name… Adam Sandler. But not that Adam Sandler. By 2015, Toys “R” Us was continuing to struggle
with its debt. The company made the decision to close the famous 5th Avenue FAO Schwarz store in
July citing high rents. However, the fifth avenue FAO Schwarz was not the only casualty of Toys “R”
Us financial troubles, because not long after, Toys “R” Us announced that it would not be
renewing its lease on its Times Square location. The rent was set to quadruple, and it was now
being marketed for $2,500 per square foot, and it was estimated that Toys “R” Us’s second
floor, the street-level floor, was worth $42 million a year in rent alone. The massive hole
in real estate would be filled in part by the Gap and Old Navy, which combined would fill 60% of
the space, with no plans for the remaining 40%. And thus, Toys “R” Us Times Square, the
company’s flagship store and the tentpole of its early 2000s revitalization effort, was
officially ending its run, and it didn’t take long for the autopsies to pour in. The general
consensus was that in spite of Toys “R” Us’s aspirations to gain prestige from their flagship
store, the benefits did not outweigh the costs. After news was announced that the store was
to be closed, thousands of visitors poured into the store to ride the Ferris Wheel, see the
Tyrannasorus Rex, and tour the Barbie Dream House one final time. Crowds flocked the store in its
final days, clearing out the shelves. Toys “R” Us Times Square officially closed on December
30, 2015 after a 14 year run. The interior was promptly demolished, and construction on
the Gap and Old Navy began in early 2017, with the stores debuting to
shoppers later that year. In 2018, McDonald’s took 7000 square feet of the
remaining space, opening a two-story restaurant. Toys “R” Us remained out of Times Square for just
18 months, before the toy chain returned with a new, two-story pop store open for the holiday
season. The new store, while much smaller, also featured elaborate toy displays and, in a nod
to the original store, a smaller dinosaur robot. The store was planned to stay open until the
new year, but it lasted a few months longer, continuing its run into 2018. Less than one month
after the pop up location opened, on September 18, 2017, Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy. The
company began liquidating assets, and after a disastrous 2017 holiday season, the chain had
no hope of recovering. By May of 2018, all of Toys “R” Us’s domestic stores had been closed.
The brand would see a small-scale revival effort within the past two years, but as of now, there
have been no more ventures into Times Square. Many wondered what became of Toys “R” Us
Times Square’s most beloved attractions, such as the dinosaur animatronic. When asked, the
president of the construction company tasked with demolishing Toys “R” Us Times Square said ““The
dinosaur? We shredded it and burnt it to pieces.” The Superman figure saw a better fate, and it
would re-emerge on a collectors site with a hefty price tag of $9.800. The best preservation
of Toys R Us Times Square however would be that of the Ferris Wheel, with many of the
character cars being transported to Orlando, Florida, where they would become parade
floats at Give Kids the World Village. Due to licensing issues, E.T. had
to be covered up with a gift bag. Toys “R” Us Times Square did not save the company,
and it was not a profitable venture. However, it was successful in creating a memorable
and beloved location for tens of millions of shoppers and tourists from around the world. It
was far more than a store or even an attraction. It was an experience. But it takes a lot more
than creative toy displays, a unique location, or even a Ferris Wheel to elevate a store into
something more meaningful. It takes people. And the employees of Toys “R” Us Times Square were
given a tall order. They had to raging grandmas, pepper sprayers, flash mobbers, holiday shoppers,
stage parents, anti-semitic Elmos, and millions of more people, but despite the challenge, the team
at Toys “R” Us Times Square was able to deliver a unique and memorable experience to millions.
Joanne Newbold’s brilliant store design would have never been appreciated in full without the
work of these people, many of whom were there from the store’s opening in 2001 to its closure in
2015. There is no better summation of the weird, chaotic, and special experience that was Toys “R”
Us Times Square than the one that was provided by Customer Service Manager Johnny Tammaro
on the store’s final day of operation. Johnny: "Fourteen years. That's how long we've
been here. That's how long this store has been an amazing place for millions of people from all over
the world and all over the country and all over the city. Who else do you know in your life that
either lost their job or their job was finished and the whole freaking world knew
about it? Not too many people." Worker: "We're famous fires!" Johnny: "We're famous fires! *crowd laughs* Johnny: "I have a list of things I won't forget! Number one, do you know where the
bathroom is? Number two, is this candy free? Number six, well can't you check the back
room? Number eight, how do I get out of here? Those are things I will not miss.
I got a list of things I will miss. It's just one word. You.
I think this is the first Defunctland episode where I’ve actually been there. It was the summer of 2002, and I remember it well. The Hot Wheels section with the big Twin Mill and the metal version of the Toys R Us jingle (each section had their own version), the LEGO Statue of Liberty, the giant T-Rex that scared the fuck out of my brother, and yes, the Ferris Wheel that my mom had to drag me on because I was a total wimp. We took the Nickelodeon car, which was what I wanted. Part of me wanted to go back someday, even though I knew it’d never happen. And now it’s gone.
Gosh, seeing this makes me wish I had explored it more throughly when I was there as a kid back in 2010. That palce was so cool...
Also, I just miss Toys R Us and Toy Stores in general. I just have fond memories of the store chain in general going to the one near my house all the time as a kid. Good times, good times...
Man, This place will always be remembered as the one store that had a giant wheel in it for me.
This is probably the second episode on defunctland that I could relate to because we've actually been to this store, next to the big NBC store that's also in NYC. But I remember back in the day, I believe we were Christmas shopping after seeing the nutcracker?
forgive me, my memory on this trip is extremely foggy.But yeah, I remember this store all too well I guess, I remember riding the nickelodeon cart on the wheel, and I totally remember the cool kickass sections in the storeMainly the hot wheels one.And the Giant T-Rex that scared the ever living shit out of me. But other than that, I just remember being excited whenever New Years Rockin Eve would show the inside, because it honestly felt like magic.Part of me was very upset at the fact that it's gone, but another part of me also is super thankful we went in there.
YESSSS!!
I used to love this Toys R Us as a kid it was the coolest!
I'm really excited to watch this one. I live in the city, but I avoid Times Square like most folks here tend to do because it's a hellhole but I went to this TRU every once in a while. I brought some visiting friends here once, and went a few times with other friends just cuz.
they had a glass bridge on the topmost floor and me being afraid of heights, I had to go around the other way to get to the other side of that floor if I wanted to. never went on the ferris wheel because of that same fear of heights but it was a cool thing to see. the giant dinosaur upstairs was awesome too. was a cool store.
man I loved this store, went to it all the time growing up and even after I moved to the city as an adult I still would go if I ended up in Times Square
Despite being a New Yorker, I didn't frequent the store until its later years when I had to commute into the city for college. It was a real treat stopping by after a long day of school. I had my first ever claw machine win in the Rcade. I was incredibly sad that the T-Rex stopped working some months before the store closed, so it just stood there lifeless until its last day. I really miss Toys R Us and wish it never left. Still, I'm really glad to have been a Toys R Us Kid.
Used to work there as Spiderman