TOYS R US was the ultimate fantasyland for kids. TOYS R US will be no more. Any RIP's? Any good memories?

Mr. O'R,

It seems like a lot more stores than this are taking huge hits because of Amazon and internet stores.    Wal-Mart is quaking in its boots.

It surprises me that Sears wasn't able to transform itself enough to stay in business.
After all, they grew due to their mail-order catalog.  So one would expect them to be able to transition to internet sales.

Online shopping is what killed bookstores. It's been killing brick and mortar stores for years. You sit on your a** and comparison shop to get the best deal and order it. Not me. I'm a hands-on customer. But sadly there aren't enough folks like me so lots of stores have bellied up and more will belly up. Lazy people. Thank you for your reply Walt and Happy Friday! :(

Partially.

In my personal experience, the small stores that are going out of business "due to the internet" or "due to big box stores" are ones that had years of lousy customer service.  The irony of everybody complaining for years how they can't get good service from those stores - then bemoaning the fact that the store goes out of business because of competition.

Most people are willing to pay more, if they get good service.
But if you're going to get lousy customer service, you may as well shop for the lowest price and buy online / from a "big box store".

-

It also didn't help the local bookstores, that they became "shelters" for homeless people ... and then always reeked of urine and body odor.  And parents didn't feel safe bringing their children in.  Nobody wants that shopping experience.

This post was edited by Walt O'Reagun at March 16, 2018 7:27 AM MDT

You bring up some excellent points. I like to buy from a store where I can go back and return the merchandise immediately. I like face-to-face and immediate. I don't want to  have to package it up, ship it out and wait for acknowledgement and refund. KMART provided very bad customer service and they have been dying for years. We stopped shopping there over ten years ago. It was then and got worse. Otherwise I have no complaints. I never had that experience in bookstores. We'd go and browse and in some places get a cup of coffee, find a chair and read. We could spend hours there on rainy days and so did the others. We'd leave with armloads of books we had "test-driven" so to speak. You read a chapter and you know if it's your cuppa tea or not. Yes it has been years since we did that. Our lives are different now. Kids are long-grown and away. Jim plays tennis twice a week, golf once a week and then "practices" golf several times a week. I like being home. We are old you see and have to budget our energy. I'm very sad to read your description of bookstores. Very sad. Thank you for your thoughtful reply Walt. Nothing ever stays the same, It gets better or worse or ends. More's the pity! :(

There are still a couple big booksellers in Portland/Seattle areas ... mainly because they don't allow homeless people to "camp out", and keeping that family-friendly atmosphere you talk about.  Of course, being the Pacific Northwest, they have Starbucks coffee stands inside.  LOL

There are also a surprising number of smaller ones still around, if you look.  Many are for bibliophiles and specialize in things you would have a difficult time finding on the internet - and purposefully keep their inventory off the internet.  They usually have their own network of contacts, so if they don't have what you're looking for they can often find it elsewhere.  (IE: try finding a first edition of some obscure book from the 1800s online.  LOL)

That is VERY GOOD exercise wg. Congrats. I could never get the rhythm right to keep the hoop up. Good for you! Thank you for your reply and Happy Friday!  :)

Cool graphics
:)

Cool prices.

:)
:)

I did not know that Sharon. I don't remember that name.  I remember going to Toys R Us in the San Fernando Valley in the earlyk 70's after work one day around Christmas time. My then-husband and I wanted to get toy boxes for the boys so they could have a place to put there toys when t hey were done playing them. They were meant to be put at the foot of the bed. They were really nifty. We each had a son. and they were six months apart in age. So I went there because my work was just a couple of miles away, bought the boxes (knocked down of course) and on Christmas Eve after the boys went to bed and fell asleep he and I put them together! A very vivid memory of a typical activity probably being replicated in millions of homes simultneously on Christmas Eve.. Different presents but they all needed to be put together! Thank you for your reply and the graphics Sharon. I'm gonna ask a question that will surely cause much rancor among the troops. When you see it you'll know the one I mean! :)

There was a Seaquest DSV episode "Playtime" ... where the crew was transported into a future where the human population went extinct because everybody stayed on computers and didn't go out and interact.

Really?
:)
I'd have liked to have see that!
Thanks for letting me know!

I'm gonna ask a question that will raise he** among devotees of internet buying. You'll know it when you see it WQ. Thank you for your reply and Happy Friday! :)