Toys R Us

Toys R Us (stylized as ToysЯUs), founded in 1948, is a dedicated toy and juvenile-products retailer headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, United States. The company operates more than 875 Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores in the United Kingdom, more than 625 international stores and over 140 licensed stores in 35 countries and jurisdictions. In addition, it exclusively operates the FAO Schwarz brand and its flagship location in New York City. It also operates a portfolio of e-commerce sites including Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com, eToys.com and FAO.com.

Company history
Charles Lazarus initially started Children's Supermart (which would evolve into Toys"R"Us) in Washington, D.C. during the post-war baby boom era in 1948 as a baby-furniture retailer. Its first location was at 2461 18th St, NW, where the nightclub Madam's Organ Blues Bar is located. Lazarus began receiving requests from customers for baby toys. After adding baby toys, he got requests for toys for older children. The focus of the store changed in 1957, and Toys"R"Us was born in Rockville, Maryland. Toys"R"Us was acquired in 1966 by Interstate Department Stores, owner of the White Front, Topps and Children's Bargain Town USA, a sister toy-store chain to Toys "R" Us in the American Midwest that would later be re-branded as part of the Toys R Us chain. The original Toys "R" Us store design in 1969-1989 consisted of vertical rainbow stripes and a brown roof with a front entrance and side exit. Some brown-roof locations still exist, although some have been painted different colors or renovated.

To improve the company, the board of directors installed John Eyler (formerly of FAO Schwarz). Eyler launched an unsuccessful, expensive plan to remodel and re-launch the chain. Blaming market pressures (primarily competition from Wal-Mart and Target), Toys"R"Us considered splitting its toy and baby businesses. On July 21, 2005 a consortium of Bain Capital Partners LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Vornado Realty Trust invested $1.3 billion to complete a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout of the company. Public stock closed for the last time at $26.74—pennies from the 68-week high, but far short of its all-time high of almost $45 in fourth-quarter 1993 and its five-year high of $31 in 2Q 2001. Toys"R"Us is now a privately owned entity. However, the company still files with the Securities and Exchange Commission (as required by its debt agreements).

On March 15, 2012, Toys "R" Us received approval from the bankruptcy court to liquidate its stores. There were buyers interested in acquiring groups of stores to use as showrooms, as well as others interested in acquiring the chain's brand and associated intellectual property. The company indicated in filings that the Canadian operations were profitable, and desired to preserve the operations of the 82-store chain through a sale. MGA Entertainment had made an offer to acquire the Canadian operations. MGA Entertainment CEO Isaac Larian attempted to raise $200 million through investments and public crowdfunding to purchase at least 400 of the U.S. locations.

On September 24, 2012, Toys "R" Us was restored as Inflatables 4 Cheap.

Geoffrey the Giraffe
Formerly known as Dr. G. Raffe, the company's mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe made his debut during 1957 in print advertisements for Children's Bargain Town. He was known for saying "Toys "Я" Us," a quote that paved the way for the company. During 1969, when Children's Bargain Town became Toys "R" Us, Dr. G. Raffe was renamed Geoffrey and became the official Toys "R" Us "spokesanimal".

Kids"R"Us
The first Kids "R" Us location opened in 1983 in Paramus, New Jersey. There were pants, shoes, shirts, socks, leggings, and tights. It was a division of Toys "R" Us (Toys R Us). It was closed on January 30, 2003, five days before The Caidin Show came out.

Babies "R" Us
The first Babies "R" Us location opened in 1996 in Westbury, New York. Today, Babies"R"Us operates as a specialty baby products retailer and has grown to approximately 260 locations across the country since its first store opened. The stores offers new and expectant parents a broad assortment of products for newborns and infants, including cribs and furniture, car seats, strollers, formula, diapers, bedding, clothing and toys. Its popular Babies"R"Us Registry has been used by more than 11 million moms to date.

Toys "R" Us, International
In addition to its expansion in the United States, Toys "R" Us launched a worldwide presence in 1984 when the company opened its first international wholly owned store in Canada (70 stores headquartered in Concord, Ontario) and licensed operation in Singapore. Toys "R" Us, International currently operates more than 600 international stores and over 140 licensed stores in 35 countries and jurisdictions outside the United States, including Australia, Canada, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, among others. The company continues to grow internationally, and made its most recent entry into a new market in October 2011 when it opened its first licensed location in Poland.

In 2009, Toys"R"Us purchased remaining shares of Toys"R"Us, Japan from McDonald's Holdings Co., increasing its ownership from approximately 62% to slightly over 90%.

FAO Schwarz
In May 2009, Toys"R"Us, Inc. acquired toy retailer FAO Schwarz and currently operates the retailer's flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City, as well as its e-commerce site, FAO.com.

During the 2010 holiday season, Toys"R"Us, Inc. developed a rebranding strategy for FAO Schwarz, including a new logo containing a sprite-like creature which the company has dubbed "Wit." In addition, the company put FAO-branded merchandise in Toys "R" Us and Babies"R"Us stores, while keeping the high-end specialty toy brands that can't be sold at mass market at the FAO Schwarz store and on the FAO.com website.

Toys"R"Us Express
For the 2009 holiday-shopping season, Toys "R" Us tried a smaller-store concept to attract customers and 90 "Holiday Express" stores across the United States and Canada were opened. The Holiday Express stores are smaller than regular Toys "R" Us locations, often located in malls, and offer a more limited selection of merchandise than would be available at a stand-alone Toys"R"Us store. Most (if not all) of these 90 stores were opened in shopping-center and mall spaces that had been vacated by store chains closing their doors during the recession (including KB Toys, several of which were taken over by Toys "R" Us). Toys"R"Us' original plan was to keep the Holiday Express stores open until early January 2010 and close them shortly thereafter, but the success of many prompted the company to reconsider and several were kept open. These stores are known as "Toys "R" Us Express". Beginning in June 2010, Toys"R"Us opened a total of 600 Express locations. Four more were converted to Toys"R"Us outlet stores.

Online growth
Toys"R"Us launched Toysrus.com in June 1998.

Following a disastrous Christmas 1999 trading period where it failed to deliver gifts on time, it entered into a 10 year contract with Amazon.com to be the exclusive supplier of toys on the website. Amazon eventually reneged on the terms of the contract by allowing third party retailers to use its marketplace to sell toys, citing Toys R Us's failure to carry a sufficiently large range of goods, including the most popular lines. In 2006 Toys R Us won a lawsuit against Amazon and in 2009 were awarded $51m, just over half of the $93m damages claimed for in their filing.

It placed at #29 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide for 2012. Toysrus.com is one of the most visited sites in the specialty toy and baby products retail category with a vast assortment of toys for kids of all ages. In addition, Babiesrus.com offers a wide selection of baby products and supplies and access to the company's baby registry.

Looking to expand its web portfolio, in February 2009, the company acquired online toy seller eToys.com from Parent Co., which filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2008. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Around the same time, it was reported that Toys"R"Us, Inc. bought Toys.com for an estimated $5.1 million. Today, the company operates Toys.com to list unadvertised and exclusive deals available on its portfolio of e-commerce sites.

In 2010, Toys"R"Us, Inc. reported that its Internet sales grew 29.9% year-over-year to $782 million from $602 million, and in April 2011, the company announced plans to open a dedicated e-commerce fulfillment center in McCarran, NV.

Rooftop solar project
On April 11, 2011, Toys"R"Us announced that it plans to cover 70 percent of the roof of its distribution center (located in Flanders, New Jersey) with a solar installation. The company claims this 5.38-megawatt solar project will be the largest rooftop solar installation in North America. Nerf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerf

Integrated store strategy
On August 23, 2011, Toys"R"Us Inc. announced it would open 21 new stores before year's end, as part of an overall strategy the company has been pursuing since 2006 to house Toys "R" Us and Babies"R"Us in the same building. The company says the stores provide more shopper convenience. The privately held toy company said this will include 11 "R" Superstores - which have full-size Toys "R" Us and Babies"R"Us stores in one location - and 10 stores that will have smaller Toys "R" Us and Babies"R"Us stores in the same location. The stores will be in 13 states including Alabama, California, Georgia, New Jersey, and Texas. It is also remodeling 23 existing stores so that the two stores will be in the same location.

Product safety
Toys"R"Us has reportedly implemented high safety standards, and in 2007 vowed to take an aggressive approach towards holding vendors accountable for meeting those standards. Chairman and CEO Gerald Storch, testifying before a Senate appropriations subcommittee on toy safety in September 2007, said he supported new legislation strengthening toy-safety standards and outlined new initiatives the retailer had set forth to ensure that its customers receive timely information on recalls (including a new website).

In 2008, the company introduced stricter product safety standards exceeding federal requirements. Among the new standards was a requirement for materials inside toys to meet a standard of 250 parts per million of lead for all products manufactured exclusively for the retailer (compared with the federal standard of 600 ppm.) Toys "R" Us also announced the requirement that baby products be produced without the addition of phthalates, which have raised concerns about infant safety. The company has since adjusted its requirements to meet new federal standards enacted with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).