{"id":319,"date":"2018-03-28T18:46:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T18:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/03\/28\/2018325toys-r-us-store-closings-bring-feelings-of-nostalgia-to-quinnipiac-students\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:47:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:47:48","slug":"2018325toys-r-us-store-closings-bring-feelings-of-nostalgia-to-quinnipiac-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2018\/03\/28\/2018325toys-r-us-store-closings-bring-feelings-of-nostalgia-to-quinnipiac-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Toys R&#8217; Us Store Closings Bring Feelings of Nostalgia to Quinnipiac Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">By Joe DeRosa <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>   <a id='rygtTkucQ_dQWVVsu-2nyw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/56558714' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'rygtTkucQ_dQWVVsu-2nyw',sig:'cbuGnkOxVFLwm8zCeibl0vaVDTALwZKi4F3RcUySB-U=',w:'594px',h:'402px',items:'56558714',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Toys R Us is closing its doors nationwide. While local students are disappointed about losing the experience taking a trip to the toy store, they understand the change in today\u2019s toy culture has contributed to the close. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">&#8220;I think it&#8217;s kind of sad,&#8221; said Pat Pitts, a junior journalism major at Quinnipiac. &#8220;Everything they [kids today] want is on electronics or something like that, so they don&#8217;t have that toy experience that you and I had growing up.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">In its long history, Toys R Us has emerged as an important part of the childhoods of Quinnipiac students. Ben Kuru, a freshman marketing major at Quinnipiac even had a specific memorable experience.&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">&#8220;My favorite thing there was a bike that I got to ride around there a little bit,&#8221; said Kuru. &#8220;The workers there were really friendly and it&#8217;s unfortunate that the place is closing down.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Over the past year, Toys R Us has faced a series of financial miscues that have led to the company&#8217;s downfall.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">On September 18th the company <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/09\/18\/toys-r-us-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy.html\"><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">declared bankruptcy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\"> after being over $5 billion dollars in debt. Four months later the company announced that it would be closing over 100 stores across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">By March Toys R Us <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.toysrusinc.com\/about-us\"><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">announced its liquidation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">, leading to the closure of over 700 nationwide locations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">While debt is arguably the biggest contributor to the company&#8217;s demise, some saw different reasons for Toys R Us&#8217;s decline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">&#8220;I noticed that their video game section wasn&#8217;t that drastic,&#8221; said Shannon Marmot, a junior public relations major at Quinnipiac. &#8220;They tried to base it more on board games and I feel like that was a huge downside to them.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Others saw issues with the pricing of the items in the store.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Kuru said he thought prices at Toys R Us were \u201ca little bit out there,\u201d but it\u2019s not the only reason he thought the toy store failed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">&#8220;Kids are more into technology than they are into physical toys nowadays,&#8221; said Kuru.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>   <a id='MfnG3ZeSTbZ5Z9QV382Bmw' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/521007331' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'MfnG3ZeSTbZ5Z9QV382Bmw',sig:'4r7eSXj4QcTzaaEQLPtriQHivhz5mQkWA-6-CG3BaxQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'521007331',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Lori Hershman, an employee at <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jordiestoyshoppect.com\/\"><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Evan\u2019s Toy Shoppe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\"> in Hamden, Connecticut, had similar feelings on children\u2019s shift towards technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">\u201cI see in restaurants that they\u2019re playing with iPads instead of coloring books,\u201d said Hershman. \u201cIn cars, they\u2019re watching movies or playing games instead of looking out the window.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Amy Cavallo, a sophomore finance major at Quinnipiac, said there could have been a way to save the store. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">&#8220;If debt was truly the issue&#8230;I think at that point you really need to refocus your business practice on repaying,&#8221; said Cavallo. &#8220;You could&#8217;ve invested that [money] into repaying your loans.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">With the end of the Toys R Us in sight, Hershman is concerned that the absence of the company could have a negative effect on children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">\u201cIf there isn\u2019t a toy store and they couldn\u2019t get what they want, that would be detrimental. It\u2019s important for kids to have that experience of saving their pennies and getting that toy they\u2019ve wanted,\u201d said Hershman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13.5pt\">Toys R Us has commenced liquidation sales in all of it&#8217;s nationwide locations. The company is anticipated to run out of money by May.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the closure of Toys R Us, Quinnipiac students and local toy shops alike are feeling the shift in the kinds of toys kids want to play with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142,6],"tags":[196,7,198,4,197,195],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage","category-quinnipiac","tag-evans-toy-shoppe","tag-hamden","tag-kids","tag-quinnipiac","tag-toys","tag-toys-r-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2891,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/2891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}