Bargain Town/Toys "R" Us

Surprised this didn't get brought up yet considering most of us grew up during this era and fondly remember those stores well.

Basically share your memories of Toys "R" Us [[recall the brown roofs all of them used to have?) in Metro Detroit pre-2000 and predecessor Bargain Town [[anyone remember seeing these ads all over the kid's shows that 2, 4 and 7 ran, especially the announcement that they were now Toys "R" Us?)

Here are two blogs to provide some background to this.
http://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com...rt-i-1978.html
http://pleasantfamilyshopping.blogsp...toys-r-us.html

The Southgate store opened as a Bargain Town in 1969 and became Toys "R" Us early in the 1970's. It kept the old Bargain Town design as late as 1981, then sometime afterward it received the brown roof, of course only to loose it ten years later.

Detroit proper had a Toys "R" Us and Kids "R" Us from 1985 [[the time Bel-Air Centre was constructed and opened) until the early 2000s with the old-skool design/layout.

It's now Forman Mills.

Well I guess the Toys R Us at TEL-12 shut down in the past six months, I only noticed it last week. I wonder how many other stores will close in the state. I guess online toy shopping is a major competitor, though TRU has had its own online ordering for some years now.

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Originally Posted by Hypestyles

Well I guess the Toys R Us at TEL-12 shut down in the past six months, I only noticed it last week. I wonder how many other stores will close in the state. I guess online toy shopping is a major competitor, though TRU has had its own online ordering for some years now.

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Besides that, at least for the past 10 years, Walmart has surpassed Toys "R" Us as the world's largest toy retailer.

It's kind of like the GM of Toys these days.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hypestyles

Well I guess the Toys R Us at TEL-12 shut down in the past six months, I only noticed it last week.

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That particular location opened in 1970 as one of ten Bargain Town stores opened nationwide that year. When was that location remodeled to receive a brown roof and then from that into the white facade?

Remember Circus World?

There was one at 13 and Schoenherr for a few years in 70's. Sort of the prototype for large TRU-stye toy stores.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hypestyles

Well I guess the Toys R Us at TEL-12 shut down in the past six months, I only noticed it last week. I wonder how many other stores will close in the state. I guess online toy shopping is a major competitor, though TRU has had its own online ordering for some years now.

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I saw that, as well. Toys R' Us has been in decline for the last 12 years. The one on Michigan Ave. is highly underpopulated. I remember the brown roofs, and it seemed there was a location in every city [[Livonia, etc.). I recall it being the go to place for toys as a kid [[you can also run ahead and ditch your parents while scoping some items out). They used to have a huge Lucite case for video games which had the boxes covers [[with those awesome and imaginative Atari 2600 illustrations which reflected none of the actual boxy game graphics) displayed, and you had to get store assistance to unlock them to get a cartridge. I remember going to my first sleep-over, and I needed a sleeping bag. We saw a Raiders of the Lost Ark one heavily discounted; it made me the hit of that sleep over, I tells ya'. I sadly recall remembering it was rather easy to steal Dungeons & Dragons dice from the boxes there, if you lost them at a friends house. My pull back into LEGO was they would sell these small cheap bags of "Santa Claus" LEGO kits right at the cashiers; the same were sold at K B Toys, which brings me to...

K B Toys closed up and left the malls around the time Waldenbooks did. They were kind of messy and always trying to push their weak flipping dog or RC tank toys they had up in front of the store. Fairlane had an educational toy store [[with safe wooden toys) and a few mainstream ones there next to the monorail. I always wished they would do well, but they weren't as popular as K B.

I think Circus World predated them, and I remember the odd colorful hopscotch pattern carpet [[most vividly I had this memory during a colorful snowy Christmas display on the second floor of a multi-level mall like 12-Oaks or Oakland Mall-maybe Fairlane) and the clown with inflation stem for balloons in front [[afraid of it for many reasons and had to step around it on far side of the entrance to the store). I think Northland had one that sold "Goofy Gags" in a box there [[fake peanut butter and squirting hanky and such-good luck finding it online). You can find many articles about Circus World, and one commentator even pointed out the carpet pattern and balloon pump clownhttp://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2...in-desoto.html.

There was a huge box store that opened up on the outskirts of the Fairlane Mall [[where the A&W and other restaurants linger) between the times that Revenge-er-I mean-Return of the Jedi and Ghostbusters were released. It was called Children's Palace. They had a great selection of Star Wars toys, Halloween masks and gear, and NES video games later on.

Ah, the over-indulgent memories of a Middle American toy-consuming youth.

Does anyone remember the circus-themed restaurant on Van Dyke near 15 Mile Rd.? They had a tightrope and trapeze set up out in the parking lot. Didn't last long at all...