The lights are on but no one’s home anymore at the Toys R Us on OST, shuttered along with the rest of the chain’s 18 Houston locations (including Babies R Us stores) since the end of last month. Flyers advertising everything-must-go-style sales have come down from the building’s front windows — and they weren’t exaggerating: restroom signs, cash registers, and other normally priceless appointments were pawned off during the store’s last days, reported KHOU’s Jessica Borg.
But not all of them. A few extra glances through the glass fronting the parking lot reveals a good deal of hardware that last-minute shoppers didn’t manage or didn’t care to get their hands on:
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In Houston, the closures put 673,000 sq.-ft. of total retail space on the market.
Nationally, about 800 stores shut down altogether.
- Customers, employees nostalgic on Toys R Us closing day [KHOU]
- Previously on Swamplot: Your Guide to the Houston Toys R Us Stores Now Getting Ready to Close
Photos: Swamplox inbox
One of the best career moves I ever made was getting out of an industry right before Amazon was entering.
Back to the topic, how much for that fire extinguisher?
Doesn’t look much different than when it was open.
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Use Aliexpress folks. Might as well cut amazon the middle man out of the picture altogether.
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@TimP – Agreed, congrats to amazon and their many $MM’s spent lobbying against online sales tax collection allowing them to reach a critical mass in the 00’s to disrupt an entire industry. And then, hats off to amazon once ellipsing that critical mass to then spend $MM’s lobbying FOR online sales tax collection to further entrench themselves and inhibit competition. Of course their retail division is run at a loss anyways so thanks to congress for forgetting what antitrust even means.
This store is in a prime spot: corner of OST and Kirby; within walking distance of Reliant Stadium; and lots of parking.
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Not sure who or what may move in but I can see someone buying the whole lot, knocking down the store, and putting up a shiny new mid-rise apartment building. Granted, there’s one across the street but there’s always room for one more mid-rise inside the loop.
Joel,
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toys r us and other businesses like them are dying for the same reason IBM doesn’t sell personal computers any longer.
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Arrogance.
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“Who will want to shop online, when they can come to the store and interact with our lovely sales associates, and touch the merchandise?”
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Failure to read the market trends until it is too late. And when they do start interacting in the newer disruptive way, they do so without really giving it a chance.
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Look at Amazon’s site, see how it is set up, buy something, then go to a competitor and see if it is equally easy to buy something.
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When I think to myself at the office “I need to buy a few batteries” I don’t go to walgreens website and order batteries to be delivered 2 hours later, mainly because I can’t, but even if I could, I wouldn’t consider it because that’s not what walgreens is known for. Amazon is, and they do it for free (provided I have a prime account).
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I do enjoy aliexpress, unless I need something tomorrow, then I don’t. Getting product from them is a 3 week process.
Bain Capital was the demise of ToysRUs.
Maybe Amazon was a factor but not the full reason for the shutdown. The obtained so much debt in mid-2000s. Poor investing and management was the downfall.