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Toys "R" Us

Toys "R" Us (often typeset as Toys "Я" Us to fit their logo) is a toy store chain based in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The company operates 587 stores in the United States and nearly 600 stores are operating in 29 other countries, some of them under franchises or licenses. The flagship store in New York City's Times Square is the largest toy store in the United States, featuring a colorful ferris wheel.

Charles Lazarus initially started Toys "R" Us (LTD) in Washington, DC during the post-war baby boom era in 1948 as a baby furniture retailer known as "Children's Bargain Town". Its first location was at 2461 18th St, NW, where the nightclub, Madam's Organ Blues Bar is currently located. Lazarus began receiving requests from customers for baby toys.

After several major missteps in the marketplace, mainly precipitated by the removal of one of the Board of Directors, Toys "R" Us experienced difficulty. In an effort to shore up their enterprise, the Board of Directors installed John Eyler, formerly of FAO Schwarz. Eyler launched an unsuccessful, and very expensive plan to remodel and re-launch the chain. Blaming market pressures (primarily competition from Wal-Mart and Target Stores), Toys "R" Us considered splitting its toys and baby businesses. On July 21, 2005, a consortium of Bain Capital Partners LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), and Vornado Realty Trust completed the $6.6 billion acquisition of the toy giant. Public stock closed for the last time at $26.74, just pennies from the 52-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.

The yellow reverse "R" in quotation marks, which is similar to the character "ya" (Я) in the Cyrillic alphabet, imitates a small child's backward writing of "R", which is short for "are". The "R" is the most distinctive part of the retailer's colorful kid-friendly logo. The current, modernized Toys "R" Us logo was introduced in the 1980s, a blue star was added to the logo in 1999. The "R Us" name was derived as a pun on the founder's first name, Lazarus. It has been imitated by many other businesses.

In the 1960s, an anthropomorphic cartoon giraffe character was introduced as Toys "R" Us's mascot. His name, Geoffrey the Giraffe, followed in the 1970s, after a "Name the Mascot"–type contest. He was later given an extended family: his wife Gigi, his daughter Baby Gee, and his son Giga Biter. He was re-introduced in 2001, not as a cartoon character, but as a real-life giraffe who talks; an animatronic version of Geoffrey the Giraffe (created by Stan Winston Studios), was voiced by Jim Hanks in commercials for radio and television.

In the UK, the Geoffrey mascot has been phased out in favor of the star.

Source: Wikipedia - News Reports

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