What poor timing, oh well he had a great life and great accomplishments during his prime.<p>> saddled with more than $5 billion in debt<p>Wow, I haven't yet followed the story of Toys R Us but that is a huge amount of debt. I can't imagine what severe mismanagement happened at the company to allow this. Must have had some ex-government workers managing finances (/s)...<p>> Since Lazarus stepped down as chief executive officer in 1994<p>Ah, so it was well after he left. It's sad to see your creation falter but it wasn't his baby anymore. Many great companies end up failing after their original founders leave. I'd be curious to read more about how they messed it up so badly.
My son just had his birthday, we took him there and gave him a $20 (we got him a few other things, but we wanted to teach him about money) and let him choose how to spend it.<p>You could do that online, but when you get to run around the store looking at the toys, it's clearly more fun for him.<p>There are a few bespoke toy stores around me, but Toys R Us is his favorite.
I admired Toys R Us. It was a complete shock and utter disbelief when I heard the news of the bankruptcy. Because the way the stores are run it never felt that way, although the question that how do they manage to do all this was always there in the back of my mind. I wonder why, if they are so much in debt and not doing well, nothing much has changed inside the store over years. Its the same huge store with loads of stuff pouring out of every corner. I don't know why they didn't consider cutting down costs at the store level.
I've been having an interesting loop of thought about this chain's bankruptcy. Obviously, I'm nostalgic about it, and it's sad, but I am hesitant to say that a national chain going away is some cultural blow.<p>Given my age, I tend to think it's sad that shopping is less of a social event now. However, I don't think it's a core spiritual need that we go somewhere and spend money together. In fact, I'm not even sure it's a positive.<p>If people are taking care of their shopping at Amazon, maybe that's more time to do real social stuff and not consumerism masquerading as social stuff.
I still don't think online will take off soon as a popular way to buy for toys. There is a reason why almost all toys come semi demo-able with buttons you can push and open-ish boxes. Amazon is apparently behind in apparel for a similar reason, you can't try anything on!
Might I suggest we link to the Bloomberg article which Kotaku references? It offers a longer biography of the founder:<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-22/charles-lazarus-who-founded-toys-r-us-retailer-dies-at-94" rel="nofollow">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-22/charles-l...</a>