But you can still get a job there this holiday season!
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-toys-r-us-plans-holiday-hires-including-toy-demonstrators-2017-9
A lot of retailers have stopped drug testing applicants and only test employees if there is an accident and reasonable suspicion. I talked to some lawyers from a few restaurant chains and they said they can not get a work force if they drug test.
It would also be hard to get programmers if drug test was required.
Re: American Girl Dolls. Pleasant Rowland originally owned the American Girl dolls…called the Pleasant Company. She sold that a LONG while ago…a very long while ago.
We don’t live near a Toys Arw Us…but we made one very memorable pilgrimage there once with my dad. He said the kids could,get any gift of their choice. And he told me to keep my mouth shut 
Within five minutes, DS had a $100 Lego something or another…probably some special castle or something.
In the meantime…DD was roaming up and down the Barbie aisles…two LONG aisles. She was all of five years old. I suggested that if she wanted a Barbie, she should maybe look for one that was different from the many she already had. She proudly came to the register with the bride and bridesmaid…and ring bearer…and they were URM. I have to say…she loved those dolls…and my dad was so happy to buy them for her.
The last time I was in a Baby’s R Us was to get some some baby clothes for a new Rwandan baby…it was August and all of the summer things were in sale. Well…it’s always summer in Rwanda! I totally hit the jackpot!!
We used to have a fabulous local small toy store near us. The owner was amazing…you could go in and tell her the age of the person you needed a gift for…and she always had several great choices. And she custom goftwrapped in bags…personalizing them for,the recipient.
Now THAT I miss!
My daughter loved what she called “the girl aisle” when she was 6 or so. She didn’t like dolls particularly (until the AG dolls but that was a few years later) but she loved animal toys and she knew they were in the girl aisle.
Ugh, I always disliked that store… piles of cheap, plastic, made-in-China junk. It always sent me to catalogs or to small independent stores where you could actually buy classic wooden, or just high quality, toys. To me Toys R Us was like Walmart or Kmart – a place to be avoided at all cost.
My girls had a lot of AG dolls and all the accessories. They could be worth a lot of money now.
Are the AG dolls your daughters have still being sold? If so, increase in value is just whatever the price increases has been. If they are dolls that are no longer sold (girl of the year dolls only available for a year) and were popular, value is often higher. My daughter still is a big AG fan. She can tell you which ones have increased in value.
I do not believe they are being sold any more. Maybe I should consult your daughter.
I have to say I never had a positive experience in their stores. I didn’t like a single thing about them, not even the name.
We have AG Samantha…and everything that was ever made for Samantha. It’s the only thing my DD wants us to save of hers. So…we have it all.
I see tons of American Girl stuff for sale online in facebook yard sale pages in my community. A lot of the retired dolls in good condition are listed in the $60-75 range and aren’t flying out the door.
Depends on what is being sold. I have a tough time telling various dolls apart. My daughter knows all of them by name, time period, clothes, collections, etc. She would be a dream salesperson in one of their stores (and I don’t want to count how many of their stores we have been in though if we ever traveled near one, we likely were stopping). Not everything that is retired is valuable. Original boxes are important. As well as either never opened or mint in box. Big issue for dolls that were played with is often the hair. Easy to get it very messed up.
But in the end, not an investment. Buy them to enjoy using them. Maybe learn a little history along the way.
I kind of liked our store but it was replaced about 20 years ago with a Best Buy. I thought that was symbolic.
One of the funniest things I’ve seen is when I was going into the toys-r-us store one day about 20 years ago and a little boy with his father was at the front door. The boy was about 4 and dressed completely cowboy- jeans, belt, shirt, boots, hat as was his father. The real thing. And the father said very seriously ‘Now son, this is a toy store.’ They walked in the door and the boy’s eyes were completely wide eyed and he had a very amazed look! Yes, we live out in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. That was priceless!
I shopped for my grandson age 1 there recently. I had not been in there in 20 years. How am I going to see the actual toys to see if they are up to my standards!
I can remember walking into a Toys r Us store for the first time (probably in the 80s) as someone who still is a kid at heart and thinking it was totally awesome. A huge store filled floor to high ceilings with nothing but toys. What could be better? Times change. There are other competitors. Online is huge in terms of competition (other than food, I rarely go into a brick and mortar store anymore). Some businesses are able to adapt with the times and continue but others do not and can’t. I would expect Toys r Us to continue but with a different model (and certainly a different capital structure).
Decades ago my mom and I were holiday shopping at Toys R Us. The corporate Lego rep was updating the floor displays which involved removing the Space Shuttle display. My mom hit suck up mode chatting about my dad’s years working at NASA and my son’s love of Legos. Thanks to “Lego Bob” we walked out with a nifty and free Christmas present for DS.
Okay, this is more of a shout-out to Lego… but I do have fond memories of the Toys R Us days. But not so much when kiddos were in tow.
I distinctly remember when I was a kid in the mid 90s and going to the Toys R Us by my house and HATING the fact that there was just SO MUCH PINK. I hated pink and purple as a kid. I still hate pink. I never liked dolls or anything “girly.”
I don’t even know where there’s a Toys R Us around us now. We have a few toy stores nearby that are mom and pop shops. That’s where I try to get most of my gifts for my nephew & cousins’ kids.
D also hates pink and “girly” except when she’s in the mood to deck herself out in that manner. She’s always enjoyed playing with most all toys, especially those involving building–lego and wooden blocks and wooden trains, swords and capes. Polly Pocket and My Little Pony were mostly kept in her drawers.
D2 LOVED Polly Pocket. They kept her quiet on so many plane rides. Purple is D2’s favorite color, everything purple, but not pink.