By Staff Writer Ben Pfeffer.
It was an incredibly overdue, but also incredibly sad day for many when, a little over a year ago, Toys ‘R’ Us announced that it was liquidating all stores and filing for bankruptcy. This appears to have been a misdirection. Toys ‘R’ Us is rumored to be making a comeback under a new name: “Geoffrey’s Toy Box.”
This has all stemmed from a sighting of a giraffe costume with striking resemblance to Toys ‘R’ Us’ mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe. He was seen at the Dallas Toy Preview with words on his cape saying “Back from vacation” so it does appear that this rebranding of an American classic is more than a rumor.
Allegedly, the company had figured out that proposals from the existing term lenders were higher than any outside proposals. This led the new owners to attempt to take Toys ‘R’ Us out of bankruptcy and rebrand it as Geoffrey’s Toy Box. This attempt is currently pending approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court, according to comicbook.com.
Of course, the owners obviously want the store to come back and banks want it to make a shocking return because the bankers were kids when they could go to Toys R’ Us.
They reminisce about the good times in their life, but the question they seem to be dodging is: Should it come back?
No. No it should not come back. Toys ‘R’ Us was a great store, no, an incredible store back before there was a massive influx in online shopping. However, this is not simply because it is 2018 and most shopping is done online.
The online shopping is not the only issue with this. The store doesn’t bring a special personal touch of the toys being in person because kids can still go to Walmart, Hasbro, Target or other random stores to buy toys in the toy section if they want to buy it in person. The issue is that the store seems to be pointless now.
When you knew you wanted toys, Toys ‘R’ Us was the place to go to search for them. Now kids have the internet and specifically Amazon to search for what they want. If kids have no idea what they want, they can still go to the other stores with smaller sections of toys to search for something they might want. The massive retail store cannot possibly survive on toys alone.
I would love to see the great Toys ‘R’ Us make a return to reminisce, even if it is as Geoffrey’s Toy Box, but it seems like this store will only last a short while and then fall into bankruptcy again.
There is no path they can take to dominate the field again like back in the late 1900s and early 2000s. The online path is dominated by Amazon, and the rest of the toys are bought at retail stores with smaller sections of toys because they know that no large chain store can profit off of only toys, they need to sell other things as well. This is something that the brand of a toy store “TOYS ‘R’ Us” or “Geoffrey’s TOY Box” cannot get around. They have to sell mainly toys with a name like that.
Toys ‘R’ Us should have gone through with the decision that may have been fake and close all stores, liquidate the company, and file for bankruptcy. It was one of the best stores when it was open, but it cannot possibly make a comeback in this day and age.
The slope of the hill it has to climb is vertical. Geoffrey’s Toy Box will inevitably be short lived and fall into the same issue that Toys ‘R’ Us had. It will not attract enough customers to profit.