In 1998, Toys “R” Us, the number one toy retailer in the United States, suddenly fell
into second place. The 41-year-old chain had been surpassed by Wal-Mart in the battle for toy
supremacy. Toys "R" Us was finding it increasingly difficult to compete with big-box retailers.
However, Wal-Mart and similar big-box stores were not the only cause of the chain’s
decline. Customers viewed Toys “R” Us stores as dirty warehouses, with no character or charm.
On top of this, the management and service at stores was less than stellar. Recognizing this,
the board of directors of Toys “R” Us looked to another toy chain that was known for their quality
and class, FAO Schwarz. The famous toy stores were experiences in themselves, and the chain was
ingrained into popular culture after appearing in the 1988 Tom Hanks film Big. FAO Schwarz had just
the strategy that Toys “R” Us needed, so the board of directors recruited their chairman John Eyler
to be Toys “R” Us’s next chairman and CEO. To assist him, Eyler brought with him Joanne Newbold,
a designer that had helped him construct 25 stores for FAO Schwarz. Of the move, Newbold said,
“We call it going over to the dark side.” Despite the difficult task ahead, Eyler referred to his
plan for Toys “R” Us as “Mission Possible.” To improve the reputation of the chain’s stores,
he approved an ambitious redesign that favored visual aesthetics over everything els. In order
to improve customer service, Eyler approved wage increases for Toys “R” Us employees,
but this was just the beginning. The most ambitious of Eyler’s ideas was to open a brand
new flagship Toys “R” Us store in the crossroads of the World, New York City’s Times Square.
On August 1, 2000, just months after Eyler and Newbold had joined Toys “R” Us, the company
announced the construction of the new Times Square location. The space was 101,000 square feet split
throughout four stories. The owner of the real estate Charles B. Moss Jr. had been holding onto
the space throughout a rapid revitalization of Times Square, seeing the area turn from a dirty,
seedy tourist trap to a premiere shopping district. Stores like The Gap and Virgin Megastore
moved in, and rents began to skyrocket. Moss was waiting for the right partner to rent his real
estate, which sat on the corner of Broadway and 44th Street, and when Toys “R” Us made an offer,
he accepted it. The resulting Toys “R” Us would be the largest toy store in the world and the
largest retailer in Times Square, one third larger than the Virgin Megastore. The location
would cost $35 million to build. It was to be “The Center of the Toy Universe” according to Eyler.
Designing Toys “R” Us’s Flagship Store was no easy task. Not only was Newbold designing in some of
the most lucrative real estate space in the world, but she was designing far more than just a store.
Toys “R” Us Time Square would be part store, part mall, part theme park, and part event space.
The store was constructed throughout the fall of 2001, with a grand opening date set for November
17, 2001. On November 14, three days before the grand opening, Toys “R” Us held its first
event. A key aspect of the plans for Toys "R” Us Times Square was for the space to be a stage for
toy manufacturers to hold launch events. The first of these would be for the XBox,
with Bill Gates himself present to launch the console and hand it out to the first lucky gamer.
Three days after this, Toys “R” Us was ready to open to the public. To celebrate the store’s
opening day, an hour-long character procession was organized. At 9 am, over 50 beloved children’s
characters would walk hand in hand from 48th and Broadway to the store. The four-block parade
featured such beloved characters as Spongebob Squarepants, Bert, Ernie, Barbie, Shrek, and Elmo,
which must have been awkward considering there were at least three other Elmos roaming the area
at the time. After the parade, the ribbon was cut, with Toys “R” Us’s mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe
dressed to the nines. The Toys R Us International Flagship Store was officially open to the public.
As guests approached the store they were greeted by an impressive video billboard
display with 165 panels, cycling through various advertisements and interior views of the store.
As guests entered the store, they were immediately confronted by Geoffrey the Giraffe, welcoming them
to the store. The most striking element of Toys “R” Us Times Square was its main attraction,
a 60 foot tall Ferris Wheel, which was placed in the store’s atrium and spanned
all four stories of the store. The Ferris Wheel featured the chain’s signature backwards “R”
in the center with 14 themed cars, all featuring famous characters from toys,
movies, television, and more. The cars included a Pokemon car, a tonka truck,
a Toy Story car, a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head car, a FisherPrice car in the shape of a Lil Snoopy toy,
a Matchbox Fire Truck, a spaceship, with E.T. on one side and Geoffrey on the other,
a Little Tikes car, aand a Nicktoons car featuring multiple characters, including Jimmy Neutron,
Blue, Spongebob Squarepants, Tommy, Chuckie, Reggie, and Little Bill.
The cars to the ferris wheels were, according to Newbold, a “tortuous exercise in design.” Newbold
admitted that the final result of some of the cars was less than ideal. She said that the Mr. and
Mrs. Potato head car specifically looked off, and that, to her eye, “Mrs. Tate looks way too much
like Bette Midler.” The licensing agreements for each car was for two years, and most of the
companies chose to renew the license again and again. However, sometime between 2001 and 2007,
two cars were replaced. The Pokemon car was replaced with a Scooby-Doo car, and the Tonka
Truck was replaced with a My Little Pony car. Sometime after this, the Barbie car’s design was
changed to the Glam Convertible, and Fisher-Price car replaced their Lil Snoopy with a School Bus.
The store’s street-level floor was actually its second floor, and in order to board the Ferris
Wheel, guests had to take an escalator down to the first floor. Also on this floor were video
game displays, an ice cream shop called Scoops “R” Us, and a UPS Store. The UPS Store allowed
shoppers to purchase toys and immediately ship them as gifts to friends and family. The third
floor featured the majority of the store’s retail space. An elevated ceiling was painted yellow,
and from it, models were suspended. One depicted Superman saving shoppers from a falling truck.
The other was of Spider-Man, swinging from webs above the heads of guests.
The third floor also featured an elaborate Lego section, with sculptures of prominent New York
City icons. Nearby was the Candyland candy store, which brought the famous board game to life.
One of the most popular spots on the third floor was a two-story, 4000 square foot walk-through
Barbie Dreamhouse. This impressive feature could only be overshadowed by the third floor’s
signature feature, a robotic 20-foot tall Tyranassorus Rex that moved and roared. This
was part of a Jurassic Park display, and the dinosaur weighed 5 tons. During construction,
an entire side of the building had to be left open to install the creature. Finally, the fourth floor
was much smaller in comparison in order to allow for the high ceilings of most of the third floor.
Its main feature was the Pepsi-World soda fountain. Also on the fourth floor, off limits
to guests, was a boardroom for meetings that had an incredible view of the store and Times Square.
As aforementioned, Newbold and Eyler designed Toys R Us Times Square with built-in stages for toy
unveilings. Toys R Us Times Square did hold many product launch events, bringing in big crowds and
rolling out celebrity guests. In retrospect, some of these events were quite interesting.
Nate: And now…Some of the Product Launch Events Held at Toys “R” Us Times Square,
“or” One of the First Times the Early 2000s Unique Visual and Cultural Aesthetic Can Be
Viewed in Retrospect “or” Oh my God, Am I Nostalgic for 2003?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with celebrity guest, audiobook narrator Jim Dale
The VideoNow portable video player with celebrity guest Hillary Duff
iZ, the musical robot thing with celebrity guest Rihanna
Rubiks Revolution with celebrity guest Vanessa Hudgens
Dolls from the TV show Lost with celebrity guest Jorge Garcia.
Deal or No Deal merchandise with celebrity guest Howie Mandel
Miranda Cosgrove’s debut album Sparks Fly with celebrity guest Miranda Cosgrove
Twilight New Moon merchandise with celebrity guests Nikki Reed and Kellan Lutz
EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 with celebrity guest Tiger Woods
The Tamogachi Connection virtual pet with celebrity guest Ryan Cabrera
VideoNow Color with celebrity guests Hillary Duff again and Tony Hawk
The store was also used as a location for open auditions for
child stage shows such as Dora the Explorer Live and Blues Clues Live.
As far as design and implementation went, Toys “R” Us Times Square appeared to be a massive success.
However, there were many other factors to consider. The first was rent. The space alone
would cost Toys “R” Us $12 million a year, over $100 per square foot. On top of this,
the store opened in November 2001, just over two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
American’s willingness to travel was greatly impacted by the events, especially travel to
New York. Sales in Times Square specifically were down 40 percent. However, Elliott Whale,
General Manager of Toys R Us Times Square said, “If the traffic numbers are off in Times Square
we are certainly not feeling it. Based on the circumstances you are seeing a lot of folks
just wanting to have a good time.” Toys “R” Us estimated that their flagship store would draw in
20 million visitors a year, two-thirds of the total traffic of Times Square at the time.
However, the first year’s numbers, in part due to the attacks of September 11, were reported to be
nearly half that, with roughly 10 million shoppers visiting the store in its first year of operation.
Toys “R” Us Times Square enjoyed an eventful existence. In 2003, the store was featured
in the 2003 Disney television film, Eloise at Christmastime. That same year was the beginning of
the flash mob craze that swept the nation for some reason, and nowhere was safe, especially not Toys
“R” Us Times Square. In August of 2003, a large group of people went to the store’s third floor
not to perform a choreographed dance, but instead to kneel in front of the T-Rex and scream for a
very, very long time. Every holiday shopping season was a busy, eventful, and sometimes
dangerous event for Toys “R” Us. On November 27, 2004 at around 3:25 PM, a rush of holiday shoppers
were overwhelmed with pepper spray, which was discharged from an unknown person within
the store. Three people had to be taken to the hospital, and all 3000 shoppers were evacuated.
By 2004, Toys “R” Us’s hopes of overtaking Walmart had been dashed. When asked whether
Toys “R” Us was still focusing on reclaiming the #1 spot, vice president Ursula Moran said no,
adding “We’re number two.” In 2005, Toys “R” Us was bought by three investment companies
for $6.6 billion dollars. Of this capital, 80% was borrowed, and as a result of the leveraged buyout,
Toys “R” Us was now 5 billion dollars in debt. Eyler stepped down from his role as CEO after the
buyout, and Toys “R” Us began a new, uncertain, debt-ridden future. On top of all of this,
the Times Square location had still not turned a profit, although Moran said that it was “pretty
close to making money.” Toys “R” Us continued to operate the location off of the idea that
the prestige and elegance of the location and experience was worth accepting the losses from the
store itself. However, this concept was becoming more difficult to sell as the corporation as a
whole continued to lose market share and close stores across the country. By 2007,
alternative revenue streams were considered for the Toys “R” Us Times Square location, namely
children’s birthday parties. Utilizing the fourth floor’s office space, the store created birthdays
packaged for children, including the Dancing Divas party and the Pirates Passage package.
In 2009, on a seeming-crusade to acquire as much debt as possible, Toys “R” Us acquired
FAO Schwarz. With the acquisition, Toys “R” Us now operated the two most famous
and popular toy stores in New York City. In 2010, The Delicious World of Wonka, the
first ever Wonka retail experience, opened on the second floor of Toys “R” Us Times Square. A short
time after this, the space on the fourrth floor was replaced with a new attraction, the Rcade.
A sort of annual tradition at the store for a few years was the anti-war-toy protest put on by the
Granny Peace Brigade and the Raging Grannies, two protest groups composed of old women. Every year,
the grannies would march throughout the store, protesting violent video games and toys that
glorified weapons and war. The first year of the protest the grannies commandeered the Ferris
Wheel and waved banners off of it. However, they failed to account for their escape route,
and being on the Ferris Wheel, it didn’t take long for employees to stop them and
promptly escort them out of the store. The third year they decided to switch it up, spreading
out throughout the store and waiting until a specific time to reveal their granny protest,
a "grambush" if you will. Every year the grannies would be rounded up and escorted out of the store,
where they would continue their demonstration next to the unlicensed street characters.
On the subject of Times Square streetmosphere, in 2012, in classic, Times Square fashion,
a man dressed in a knock-off Elmo costume was arrested outside of Toys R Us after he
began screaming anti-semitic rants. The man’s name… Adam Sandler. But not that Adam Sandler.
By 2015, Toys “R” Us was continuing to struggle with its debt. The company made the decision to
close the famous 5th Avenue FAO Schwarz store in July citing high rents. However, the fifth avenue
FAO Schwarz was not the only casualty of Toys “R” Us financial troubles, because not long after,
Toys “R” Us announced that it would not be renewing its lease on its Times Square location.
The rent was set to quadruple, and it was now being marketed for $2,500 per square foot,
and it was estimated that Toys “R” Us’s second floor, the street-level floor, was worth $42
million a year in rent alone. The massive hole in real estate would be filled in part by the Gap
and Old Navy, which combined would fill 60% of the space, with no plans for the remaining 40%.
And thus, Toys “R” Us Times Square, the company’s flagship store and the tentpole
of its early 2000s revitalization effort, was officially ending its run, and it didn’t take
long for the autopsies to pour in. The general consensus was that in spite of Toys “R” Us’s
aspirations to gain prestige from their flagship store, the benefits did not outweigh the costs.
After news was announced that the store was to be closed, thousands of visitors poured
into the store to ride the Ferris Wheel, see the Tyrannasorus Rex, and tour the Barbie Dream House
one final time. Crowds flocked the store in its final days, clearing out the shelves. Toys “R”
Us Times Square officially closed on December 30, 2015 after a 14 year run. The interior was
promptly demolished, and construction on the Gap and Old Navy began in early 2017,
with the stores debuting to shoppers later that year. In 2018,
McDonald’s took 7000 square feet of the remaining space, opening a two-story restaurant.
Toys “R” Us remained out of Times Square for just 18 months, before the toy chain returned with a
new, two-story pop store open for the holiday season. The new store, while much smaller,
also featured elaborate toy displays and, in a nod to the original store, a smaller dinosaur robot.
The store was planned to stay open until the new year, but it lasted a few months longer,
continuing its run into 2018. Less than one month after the pop up location opened, on September 18,
2017, Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy. The company began liquidating assets, and after
a disastrous 2017 holiday season, the chain had no hope of recovering. By May of 2018, all of
Toys “R” Us’s domestic stores had been closed. The brand would see a small-scale revival effort
within the past two years, but as of now, there have been no more ventures into Times Square.
Many wondered what became of Toys “R” Us Times Square’s most beloved attractions,
such as the dinosaur animatronic. When asked, the president of the construction company tasked with
demolishing Toys “R” Us Times Square said ““The dinosaur? We shredded it and burnt it to pieces.”
The Superman figure saw a better fate, and it would re-emerge on a collectors site with a hefty
price tag of $9.800. The best preservation of Toys R Us Times Square however would be
that of the Ferris Wheel, with many of the character cars being transported to Orlando,
Florida, where they would become parade floats at Give Kids the World Village.
Due to licensing issues, E.T. had to be covered up with a gift bag.
Toys “R” Us Times Square did not save the company, and it was not a profitable venture. However,
it was successful in creating a memorable and beloved location for tens of millions
of shoppers and tourists from around the world. It was far more than a store or even an attraction.
It was an experience. But it takes a lot more than creative toy displays, a unique location,
or even a Ferris Wheel to elevate a store into something more meaningful. It takes people.
And the employees of Toys “R” Us Times Square were given a tall order. They had to raging grandmas,
pepper sprayers, flash mobbers, holiday shoppers, stage parents, anti-semitic Elmos, and millions of
more people, but despite the challenge, the team at Toys “R” Us Times Square was able to deliver
a unique and memorable experience to millions. Joanne Newbold’s brilliant store design would
have never been appreciated in full without the work of these people, many of whom were there
from the store’s opening in 2001 to its closure in 2015. There is no better summation of the weird,
chaotic, and special experience that was Toys “R” Us Times Square than the one that was provided by
Customer Service Manager Johnny Tammaro on the store’s final day of operation.
Johnny: "Fourteen years. That's how long we've been here. That's how long this store has been an
amazing place for millions of people from all over the world and all over the country and all over
the city. Who else do you know in your life that either lost their job or their job was finished
and the whole freaking world knew about it? Not too many people."
Worker: "We're famous fires!"
Johnny: "We're famous fires!
*crowd laughs*
Johnny: "I have a list of things I won't
forget! Number one, do you know where the bathroom is? Number two, is this candy free?
Number six, well can't you check the back room? Number eight, how do I get out of here?
Those are things I will not miss. I got a list of things I will miss.
It's just one word. You.