Littlest Pet Shop fans here.
Oh yeah Littlest Pet Shop. Tiny animals. What could be better? Somewhere along the line I got a full set of Playmobile animals. Oh boy were those played with.
Forget my kids-- they’re past the Toys R Us stage.
My 57 year old husband will be devastated!
I always try to support the local mom and pop stores and avoid big box stores whenever possible. So my kids didn’t go to ToysRUs that often. We went to a great local toy store–Learning Express, which is still open 30-years later.
H and I did take our kids to FAO Schwarz at holiday time. My older daughter loved Madam Alexander dolls. I know the Boston FAO Schwartz closed and I think the NYC one did too.
I’m really surprised they didn’t go out of business years ago. Our store was always junky looking and over-priced. I have successfully avoided it and Babies R Us for years but went in to get a car seat that was on my daughter’s registry 2 years ago. When I finally found it in the store, it was priced $30 more than it was shown on the registry or in their on-line store. It took me almost 1/2 hour to get them to adjust the price after the sales clerk initially argued with me. I couldn’t wait to get out and would never go back, so am not sorry to see them go.
We have a small, quirky toy store a couple of towns over and I love the personal attention by the really interesting owner and the unique toy finds I see there. Plus I love going to the artsy town where it is located (Ojai, Ca.), I would much rather give them my business.
Our independent toy stores had shelves of sad looking, overpriced “educational” stuff, so I don’t feel guilty going to Toys R Us.
I think FAO Schwartz in SF shut down too. It was a gorgeous store but I never did actually purchase anything there. It seemed like a toy museum to me.
D & I walked through the American Girl store in Chicago when we were there in July. Everything just seemed a bit cheap to me compared to what it was like before Pleasant Company sold to Mattel. We have several dolls, lots of clothes, accessories, furniture, & the books, so I hope D will have a little girl someday.
Competing with online toy sellers is very tough for bricks & mortar stores.
I never really enjoyed my shopping experiences at Toys R’Us but it was a good source when you needed a variety of presents for kids birthday presents for lots of kids parties plus when my kids were little, they were the best place for diapers, etc. Went to the closest one to us about 2 years ago for a birthday gift for friend’s grandson and found the place disorganized, dirty and freezing. It was a cold winter day and all the staff had winter coats on as either the heating system was broken or just not turned on. The flagship store in Manhattan was much better having had to go there to pick up a kid’s gift on short notice but the noise volume from the sound system and the crowds were overwhelming. I prefer actually to shop for gifts either in my local store which is over-priced but gift wraps nicely or go to Barnes & Noble and use my member discounts. The store in Union Square as do many others I am sure, has a great inventory of educational toys. books, etc. Borders used to as well.
Hasn’t the whole FAO Schwartz chain closed?
My kids used to look forward to getting the “Big Toy Book” around Christmas, and indicating what they’d like (and changing their minds multiple times - these were very big decisions).
One of the “saddest” days I remember with my step-daughter is when we went to Toys R Us to let each kid pick out something they would like, and she cried and cried because after looking through the entire store there was nothing there she wanted.
Staples of my son’s childhood were Lego, Playmobil, Brio (especially Thomas the Tank Engine), Ravensburger games and puzzles, and books.
I was so naive, I remember being shocked that one of his pre-school classmates gave him a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figure for his birthday. 
Yes, the Big Toy Book! Scoutson’s birthday is in November, so that came just in time for him to pick for birthday and Christmas. I remember him carefully deciding which stickers to put on which toy. A fun memory, but wow, did our relatives waste too much money on his toys!
Toys R Us was a 45 minute drive so going there was not our usual spot to by gifts. We had a couple of nice stores that had different toys and gift wrapped. Oldest D was not into dolls but loved Muffy Bear and Hoppy the rabbit. They were stuffed toys that came in various outfits. My D still has them stored in her closet at my house. My other D loved horse toys another item not readily available at Toys R Us. Though one year she wanted a Barbie playhouse. It was hard to find and I remember racing down to Toys RUs to buy it before they sold out. Also did that one year for my S to get him a XBox console.
A highlight for my kids was stopping at Toys RUs on our way home from Christmas at Grandma. They would have some cash and my S would study the Lego aisle and in later years pick up the lastest XBox game he wanted. My D’s liked to buy My Little Pony sets and my youngest Polly Pocket or a new Barbie. I always hated the store (might be the same one that @takeitallin went to) it was dirty and the lines were long.
We have I think a mini Toys R Us in the mall. My kids used to love to go to the KayBee toy store. Another store I hated. Filled with a lot of junk, crowded and unhelpful clerks. I think they might also have gone bankrupt.
I like to give books when I give a gift. I’m happy that my girls also tend to give books.
We, and our children were spoiled by my uncle. He owned 2 toy stores. He carried Madame Alexander dolls, brio, lots of toys from Europe. He still has a huge inventory of items in storage, much to my Aunt’s displeasure!
We have a Toys R Us near us. It seems to be different from the stores in many of your locales. Ours is quite clean. It stocks toys that I like for young children, such as Playmobil (plastic, but high quality in my opinion) and Thomas the Tank Engine railroad sets (wood), in addition to Legos, science toys (a nice selection), good bikes in various sizes for children, wagons, outdoor large-scale plastic items for toddlers (playhouses, short slides), wading pools, books, baby items, a large selection of children’s videos, and helium tanks for helium balloons. Even the “pink aisles” are not overwhelmingly pink.
It allows for a pleasant and uncrowded shopping experience. The clerks are all fine. There is a large parking lot, and the lot has entrances from three sides. I have not had difficulty in finding a parking spot, even right before Christmas. If I buy heavy items, one of the clerks will help me carry the items out to the car.
I suspect that some of the difference is due to locale. Living in fly-over country has some benefits. The stores here can be larger for the same investment in the property, which allows for wider aisles as well as more space overall. That keeps people from being on top of each other when they are shopping, and also makes it easier to keep the store clean.
If our local store were to close, I think it would be because the population has aged in the area, and quite a few of the children are grown-up now. If the store (and the customers) can hang on for eventual grandchildren, this may resolve itself.
We also had a charming local specialty toy store that stocked only very high-end toys. I was in there once and saw an small Asian doll (about 8") with a number of outfits and a trunk. $600. I didn’t need it by any means, I had no one to give it to, and I couldn’t afford it. But when the store closed, I was sorry that I could never purchase that doll–can’t even locate anything remotely like the doll on Ebay.
We also had an educational toy store in the area, locally owned. It had less expensive toys than the specialty shop I just mentioned, but with a very high emphasis on cognitive development. It has also closed. This is probably due to the same “people with adult children and no grandchildren yet” demographic that is prevalent in the area.