You run to your car and get your seatbelt on, eager to get to the toy store, knowing all the aisles are filled with endless amounts of fun. Toys ‘R’ Us has always been a place to roam around and get that one special toy you will play with for a couple weeks and forget about. Unfortunately, future generations will not feel the joy of running into a toy store because online shopping has taken over, and Toys ‘R’ Us has filed for bankruptcy. Last year alone Toys ‘R’ Us lost 953 million dollars. Due to this they were faced with a tough decision; they had to close or sell all of their US stores.

What sparked the sudden downfall is competing industries. Online shopping has made people’s lives easier and for this, actual stores are having trouble keeping up. Amazon, Walmart and Target are some of the biggest competitors. According to The Washington Post,  “Target, Walmart, Amazon — they’ve smelled weakness for some time, so they’ve stepped it up in their toy selection.” Another issue Toys ‘R’ Us was facing was lack of customer satisfaction. “We know that customers are willing to pay more for an enjoyable experience — just look at the lines at Starbucks every day — but Toys ‘R’ Us has failed to give us anything special or unique,” said Kelly O’Keefe, a professor of brand management at Virginia Commonwealth University, in a Washington Post article. Customers were bored and uninterested in what Toys ‘R’ Us had to offer. They were not keeping up with customer needs and desires, causing them to lose nearly all customers in general.

It certainly feels like a loss with Toys ‘R’ Us closing, even locally her at Farmingdale High School. “Toys ‘R’ Us was always a family outing, something for kids to look forward too,” says Physical Education teacher Ms. Weinsheimer. Most kids will not know what it is like to run into a toy store. They will look forward to a package coming in the mail or going to the several aisles in target. Times were changing and, unfortunately,  Toys ‘R’ Us was not.