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Looming Liquidation Sales for Toys R Us

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23 March 2018

By Alex Khalil

After the announcement of the death of Charles Lazarus earlier today, the 94-year-old founder of Toys R Us, the once high street heavyweight is set to close all of its stores in the US in the coming weeks. UK stores are expected to follow suit soon also.

According to CNN, reports have come in that the company will begin sales this weekend. Shoppers will have to be careful when going, however, given that a lot of stores have not had their stocks replenished in weeks, so a lot of popular items may already have been sold. Shelves could be completely clear by the time the month is out.

Gift cards will be honoured until 20th April. All sales will be final after it begins to go into liquidation.

https://twitter.com/ToysRUs/status/976897297836625920

In the US alone, 31,000 employees will be made redundant as the retail chain closes its stores. The story may be the same for the UK, with stores projected to close by the end of April. Things looked hopeful at the beginning of the year, but nothing could save this company from falling, unfortunately.

Lazarus came up with the idea he could sell furniture, with the name Children’s Supermarket, with the trademark backwards R, to families after the war. He then switched to selling toys in 1957, after realising ‘toys are a great kind of thing to sell because they don’t last forever.’

Charles Lazarus was 94 when he died earlier this week.

Atlantic Monthly in 1986 called Lazarus ‘the person most responsible for loosening Santa’s grip on the toy business’.

The company has struggled since he left in 1994, with the growing popularity of online services over physical stores.

Unfortunate, but not unforeseen, given their problems have come to head over the past few months. Gateshead won’t be the same without it.

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