Internet Reacts to Toys ‘R’ Us’ Final Days

Former toy retailer giant Toys ‘R’ Us is just weeks away from shuttering, announcing [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Former toy retailer giant Toys 'R' Us is just weeks away from shuttering, announcing last-chance going-out-of-business sales and issuing goodbye notices to shoppers.

In-store liquidation sales were announced in March and by May the company announced their intention to auction off the Toys 'R' Us name, the Geoffrey the Giraffe mascot logo, and the Babies 'R' Us logo and brand.

Some near-emptied Toys 'R' Us stores have increased their discounts to upwards of 50% and 70% off, declaring "everything must go" as business winds down. Other stores have begun to display prominent "for lease" signs as outgoing Toys 'R' Us stores ready to vacate their respective premises.

Toys 'R' Us employees met with lawmakers in New Jersey earlier this month to push for severance pay after it was learned the company would not be paying severance to its more than 30,000 workers who will lose their jobs as the retailer shuts down, The Washington Post reported.

"This is the story of a company — one of the most iconic in America — that was saddled with so much debt that it could not succeed," Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said June 1 in the parking lot of a Totowa, N.J. Toys 'R' Us store. "And now the big guys are walking away and the workers are left with nothing."

Employees lay blame on a 2005 leveraged buyout in which new owners private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital, as well as real estate firm Vornado Realty Trust, saddled Toys 'R' Us with more than $5 billion in debt.

The company filed for bankruptcy last year, citing $7.9 billion in debt against $6.6 billion in assets ahead of its March closure of all of its U.S. stores.

A revived KB Toys said in March they hope to launch new stores by Christmas and fill positions with Toys 'R' Us employees affected by the closures.

Of Toys 'R' Us' impending end, CEO Dave Brandon said the move comes "as a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years."

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