Toys R Us Failed To Adapt To Changing Market: Ferak Column

JOLIET, IL - I drove over to the Toys R Us store across from the Louis Joliet Mall on Thursday afternoon in an unusual role, as a newsgathering journalist. You see, for me, like Walt's Hobby Shop across from the downtown Joliet Public Library, Toys R Us was a regular stop during my childhood. During grade school, provided that my school report cards were good, my parents let me go to the Toys R Us.

This was where I bought most of my Atari 2600 games including some of my favorites, Activision Hockey, Chopper Command and Pitfall!. This was also where Santa Claus did most of his Christmas shopping, so I figured out.

At any rate, by the time I started high school in the late 1980s, my world changed when the Nintendo came out.

I was hooked on the Nintendo sports games and The Legend of Zelda. In my mind, there was only one retail store that carried a complete collection of Nintendo games. It had an entire aisle devoted to Nintendo.

Admittedly, you didn't find many bargains at the Joliet Toys R Us store. Even the Nintendo games seemed a bit on the high side; $39.99 to $49.99 was quite a lot for a teenager back in the 1980s, but somehow we always managed to fork out the dough to buy Donkey Kong Jr., Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt and more.

RELATED: Toys R Us Will Close Or Sell Its Remaining Illinois Stores

RELATED: Toys R Us Closing: How Long Are Your Gift Cards Valid

But Thursday's visit to the store was a bit somber. I walked inside and approached the service counter. I identified myself as a former regular childhood customer, but I told one of the store managers that I was here today as the editor of the Joliet Patch. I wanted to know what the store's been told about its future.

The manager I spoke with was extremely cordial, but he informed me that I would have to call their corporation press line for any comments. Calling a press spokesperson who probably has never even visited the Toys R Us store in Joliet was not on my to-do list for Thursday afternoon. So I persisted.

I learned the employees here were still in the dark about their Joliet store's fate. They anticipated they would learn something on Friday or Monday. Whatever they learn from corporate, surely, will not be good news.

Just looking around the store on Thursday afternoon, I could not help but feel this long-time Joliet business was on its last legs. The shelves and aisles were still stocked with plenty of toys, but this place surely won't be around in the coming months. This was where many of us went to spend our allowance money or to compile a Christmas wish list for Santa Claus.

And yet Thursday afternoon was like any other day for Toys R Us. There were a couple dozen cars in the parking lot. I saw grandparents shopping and a few mothers wandering the aisles with their children. There were no signs posted around the Joliet Toys R Us store, a successful store, about a going out of business sale.

In the parking lot, I struck up a conversation with a young woman walking into the store with her two young boys. She mentioned how it's just hard to fathom the prospect of Toys R Us, nationwide, going out of business. The Joliet store, she said, was always a bit overpriced, but the trade off was the convenience factor. She's right. This Toys R Us had everything and anything, and if it was not in stock, Toys R Us managed to get the toy shipped to Joliet within days.

But times have changed.

These days, like many Americans, Toys R Us was not a part of our family's shopping habits even though my wife and I have three growing children. We do most of our toy buying through Walmart, Target and on Amazon. We live on a tight budget, like most of you probably, so we shop for the best deals.

While it's sad to see the Toys R Us retail chain going away, that's squarely Toys R Us' fault. That company, like the legacy print newspaper industry, did not adapt fast enough to their customers' demands so they lost them, even their most loyal customers.

As for me, this will be the third significant part of my life connected to the Louis Joliet Mall that is going away. At Plainfield High School, I worked at the Plainfield Road Pizza Hut. As a College of St. Francis freshman, I worked at the now-defunct Herman's World of Sporting Goods store inside the mall.

For Joliet, the Toys R Us closing will be tough, but don't forget, the Louis Joliet Mall and its surrounding retail remains pretty vibrant. A savvy commercial investor will probably snatch the property up on the cheap.

Still, when the Toys R Us sign comes down, so will a part of our youth.

Images via John Ferak, Joliet Patch Editor