A reminder that two of those three didn't fall, they were killed by vulture capital

And another one bites the dust

"Fun" fact: Bain Capital killed both TRU and KayBee Toys.

Once again “the earth” is supposedly synonymous with “that one country in North America”…

1 of the three was killed to make some hedge fund richer. Toys r us would not have died if it hadn't been shorted in to oblivion.

I never understood circuit city. The local one ran prices 10-20% higher then best buy a few blocks over. You'd only ever go there when best buy ran out of dvd-r's.

That being said whoever worked in their gaming section and kept updating the demo kiosk with every game now labeled a "hidden gem"... Props because those were always fresh picks.

They didn't fall, they left.

You can blame BCG and shitty hedge funds for that

Some empires that ought to fall... google, facebook, microsoft

Stahp I just watched a 2-hour video analysis of liminal spaces I can only get so hauntological

Toys r Us is still going strong in Canada

I miss Fry's Electronics Stores

What's the one on the bottom right?

Look up on my works ye mighty and despair

There is a Toys R Us a few blocks away from me that I used to go to as a kid and it's wild to me that only in the last year has anything been done to it and all that was done is someone erected a chain link fence around the property to keep people out because it was pretty popular for hooking up and selling drugs given in its in a sparsely populated area and has absolutely no lights around. Like it still has the sign and shit, the building has just sat completely abandoned for over a decade since TRU went bankrupt.

We had Blockbusters and Circuit City and even a Mervyn's here. The buildings have all been re-used though. Just the TRU and the Orchard Supply next to it have sat unchanged over the years, like ruined relics of the past.

Look upon my works and despair.

I miss my frys electronics and their goofy buildings

At least microcenter will come to my hometown soon

Like the Pizza Hut turned Bank turned Chinese Food Restaurant turned Fed Ex Pack and Ship

The giraffe still lives.

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

There was always a certain ambiance in Circuit City that I found to be appealing. At least on my local one before it closed down. It was like the lights were dimmed way down, but it was still bright enough to see. I guess you would call that "cool temperature" lighting, which is definitely not fashionable anymore. Everything nowadays seems to follow Apple's store design which is this sterile eggshell white, bathed in neutral or warm temperature lighting. I find it kind of boring, but I understand why they do it that way.

Plus, I loved how instantly recognizable their old stores were. The big red block turned at an angle for an entrance was brilliant imo. They used it a lot in their television commercials and made it look like a plug end or a battery coming down from the sky.

Plenty more...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_the_United_States

Also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_department_stores_of_the_United_States

Empires bought by investment groups that fire all the employees, sell all the assets, and over leverage on too much debt till bankruptcy.

Portugal still has multiple very successful Toys R Us stores, most of them more than 20 years old at this point