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We visited a Babies R Us store that's about to shut down - and it was a total mess
We visited a Babies R Us store that's about to shut down - and it was a total mess
Jessica Tyler,Jessica TylerMar 20, 2018, 19:13 IST
Business Insider/Jessica Tyler
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Toys R Us will be closing or selling all of its stores in the United States after filing a motion to liquidate last week.
The company had announced it would close 170 stores and begin going-out-of-business sales in late January, prior to the recent report that all US stores would close.
We went to one of the Babies R Us stores that was reported to close in January to see what it looked like now. It was a disaster.
Toys R Us will be closing or selling all 735 of its US stores after filing a motion to liquidate its US business last week. The toy retailer had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.
Toys R Us had said in January that 170 of its stores would close, and many of those locations have already started going-out-of-business sales. The company's March 15 liquidation filing will trigger clearance sales that could begin as soon as this Thursday at some of the locations that had not already planned to close.
Babies R Us stores will be closing as a result of the liquidation as well, though its website will remain running for the time being.
We visited one of the Babies R Us stores that has been preparing to close since January to see what it looks like now, and to see what may lie ahead for other Babies R Us and Toys R Us stores once clearance sales begin.
The Babies R Us I went to in Downtown Manhattan had been set to close since January. Employees said it's expected to close by the end of the month.
Because of the upcoming closure, this location was not accepting returns or coupons.
Signs like these were hanging all over the store and were the first thing I saw when I walked in.
Absolutely everything in sight was marked down, often more than once.
Toys were especially steeply discounted, with price cuts of up to 50% off the original cost.
... and some toys had signs advertising additional markdowns. Even the displays the toys were on were for sale.
There were a lot of boxes that had never been unpacked, many of them torn or falling apart.
There were half-empty displays in the middle of the store ...
... and it only got worse as I went further back.
Many shelves only had one or two items on display, which looked like they were just there because there was no other place to put them.
As I ventured further into the store, I found entire rooms that were empty.
The boxes on display in this nearly empty room were torn and clearly had been moved around a lot. Many pieces of merchandise here were marked as the last of that product available in-store.
Hoping that the second floor wouldn't be depressing as the first, I went upstairs. These signs were at the bottom of the (broken) escalator, so my expectations were pretty low.
The signs weren't exaggerating. There were still displays up, but they were abandoned. It felt like the store had been closed for weeks already.
The entire floor looked like it had been abandoned. The only sign that the store was still open was the sight of an employee in a Babies R Us shirt, walking around the floor and playing music from his phone.
There were more massive sale signs, even though there was no merchandise.
I walked up to the third floor to find all of the store fixtures and displays for sale. It was a mess — the floor was literally falling apart, and I had to climb over merchandise to get around. The two employees on this floor were just sitting down and talking.
In the back corner of the store, there were tables covered in baby mannequins that were for sale for upwards of $75. A lot of them were damaged or being sold for parts — it was bizarre and unsettling.
The learning center was completely dark and eerie ...
... and I had to walk through a maze to get back to the escalator.
Along the way, I passed a few more empty rooms.
As I was walking to the exit, I noticed that even the soda and small merchandise by the register were on sale. There was no line and very few people working. The store looked like it could close any minute now, and it showed what the future may hold for the remaining Babies R Us and Toys R Us stores.
