WhereIsAtlas · Toy retail
Toys “R” Us
The toy cathedral that debt killed — and nostalgia resurrected
Transformed — US stores closed in 2018; the brand was revived and returned via Macy's in 2022.
Charles Lazarus started selling baby furniture in Washington, D.C. in 1948 and soon discovered that toys were the real business. The Toys “R” Us category-killer model — warehouse-scale selection at discount prices — made it the default destination for American childhood from the 1970s through the 1990s, complete with Geoffrey the Giraffe.
The fatal blow was not Amazon but leverage: the 2005 leveraged buyout by KKR, Bain and Vornado loaded the company with $6.6 billion in debt whose interest consumed its cash just as e-commerce accelerated. Toys “R” Us filed for Chapter 11 in September 2017 and liquidated all ~800 US stores by mid-2018.
The story didn't end there. The brand relaunched under Tru Kids in 2019, opened a flagship in New Jersey in 2021, and returned to malls nationwide in 2022 through shop-in-shop locations inside Macy's — smaller, lighter, and betting that the name still means something to parents who grew up there.
Quick facts
- Founded
- 1948, Washington, D.C.
- Founder
- Charles Lazarus
- 2005 LBO debt
- $6.6B
- Bankruptcy
- Sep 2017
- US stores closed
- ≈ 800 by mid-2018
- Revived
- Tru Kids (2019) · Macy's shops (2022)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Toys %22R%22 Us — Wikipedia (2026-01-10)
- Toys R Us to liquidate US stores — CNN (2025-12-05)
- Toys R Us returns to Macy's — The New York Times (2025-12-05)
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