Someone realized the name was still worth some nostalgia $$$.

creditors became the owners of the brand and are trying to extract some money out of it, but it's essentially a completely new business in virtually every respect. the name and the mascot are among the very few things that relate it at all to the former toys 'r' us business.

kinda like you can find a mini apple store within a best buy store.

i certainly agree that amazon is leading the way toward the vast majority of retail sales being made online, but for a long time, at least, they won't be able to completely replace the hands-on advantage of being able to see and touch and feel something in a real store.

brick and mortar will be a far less profitable business than it was in the past, but i don't see it completely going away, at least not for a long time.

of course, amazon is starting to expand into brick and mortar themselves....

I remember when TrU put Lionel Toys, KB Toys and others out of business by undercutting prices while ignoring uniqueness and quality. I really missed KB when it went under.

WalMart struck the first blow against the monster, and the inability of the Wall St owners to actually run a retail store kept the wound open. Kinda like what's happening to Sears now.

Barnes & Noble, too. After putting every other bookstore out of business, it forgot how it got so big in the first place and blames Amazon. Better to blame the shitload of debt that didn't let these past leaders any room to move.

Side story: One of my favorite places was Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips. Our whole gang loved the place (somewhere in Flushing, Queens) with the vinegar fries and perfectly cooked fish. Then it disappeared. A couple of years ago I saw it in a Turnpike rest stop and had to check it out-- a tiny counter at the end of a long line. Yuck! Frozen fish and fries heated up and pretty much inedible. Someone bought the name and tried to make a buck.

I'll stop now, before I start a huge rant about Home Despot.