Here is another entry into the final days of Toys R Us as we knew it. Even though Toys R Us is coming back with small Geoffrey's Toy Box displays at Kroger stores, the big box stores are still shut down for now. This was the Beaumont Texas location which is right across the highway from Parkdale Mall. These photos were taken on the same day as the Lake Charles TRU walkthrough.
Notice the returns/exchanges part of the sign was taped over.
Some of the new merchandise was an overload of Animal Crossing Amiibos and Skylanders figures.
Here are more views of the interior of the store.
A wide view of the front of the store, with the electronics in the background.
This location still had a fair amount of video games left.
The face down Mario says it all.
Lots of drones too.
A really cool TRU exclusive R2D2.
Why yes I do need help!
Fastlane is the generic toy line TRU carried.
The bikes were still very well stocked.
This location had the new configuration of registers up front. One line that lead to a square of checkouts similar to Micro Center and many other retailers. I like this format because if you get into a normal line that gets held up you are stuck. If one register gets held up here, there are other registers that will be available without moving to a different line.
That is it for this post, sorry for the slow pace of producing new posts. I have a lot of material that needs to be put together, but I work when I have time. Thanks for continuing to support the blog and comment.
The relatively new facades of this stores almost fooled me into thinking that this might have been a relatively new location. The street sign and interior shots clearly resemble a classic Toys R Us though. Thanks for the photos, it looks like this store had not sold much inventory before you were able to snap a few pictures.
ReplyDeletePerhaps someone should have taken a "Game over" screen grab from a classic Nintendo or Sega game and taped it up in the video game department. That would have been very fitting!
I wonder how much effort TRU employees had to put in to keep the aisles and racks organized in their stores. I'm sure kids were picking up toys and just leaving them anywhere. Things look pretty well organized in your photos. Perhaps the employees worked hard to keep things straight.
I think combining TRU's new concept with Kroger is a good idea. Many people shop at Kroger and do so quite frequently. Kroger also isn't packed during the holidays like Walmart or mall stores are. Thus, it's a pleasant place to shop for things like toys compared to more bustling places. Kroger can benefit from Geoffrey's name as they don't have any reputation for toys. We'll see how it works out.
I was at a Kroger Marketplace store recently, but it was a quick stop so I didn't see the toys. The person I was with hates Marketplace stores because they are so big and are a hassle to shop in. I see their point. I think Kroger and also HEB with their Plus stores may have miscalculated the demand for stores like that.
Thanks for keeping the blog going, I certainly appreciate it. Flickr's situation is certainly highlighting the need for blogs as other forms of social media aren't as trustworthy.
There was a huge difference in the amount of inventory left from Beaumont to Lake Charles. This store was very similar to the Humble location in design and layout.
DeleteAn article nailed the impact of the TRU pop-ups at Kroger. Impulse buys for time-strapped people. Since the name is not Toys R Us, nobody really notices or has a reason to visit these pop-ups.
I wish I had more time to write on the blog. It is easy to visit stores and take photos or video, but very time-consuming to write an article and do research.
In my market, the Toys R Us never have a separate Babies R Us entrance unless it's a 2008 built store which is strange compared to how most markets did.
ReplyDeleteThis is strange, I can't think of any store besides one that has the Babies R Us without a separate entrance. It was because of how the store was facing the traffic, an entrance there would have been very dangerous.
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