The Toys “R” Us store-in-store is now open inside of Macy’s at Westfield Wheaton Mall (11160 Veirs Mill Rd). The Macy’s locations at Lakeforest and Montgomery Malls opened their Toys “R” Us shops back in August. Macy’s has added the Toys “R” Us stores to all of its U.S. locations and depending on the success of the Macy’s versions, the company could consider bringing back standalone stores. The former Toy “R” Us location at 600 Frederick Rd in Gaithersburg has remained vacant since the company closed all its stores in 2018.
Did you know the first ever Toys “R” Us opened in Rockville?
Charles P. Lazarus is the D.C. native that founded the company now known as Toys R Us. In 1948 he opened a baby furniture store named Children’s Bargain Town. Two years later, in 1950, he introduced a few select toys to his inventory. It didn’t take long for him to realize that toys, unlike furniture, either broke or fell out of favor with kids rather quickly…so he added a lot more toys and cut back on the furniture.
In 1957 he used the supermarket model of being able to walk around with a cart and shop for whatever caught one’s eye in his first Toys R Us location…on 355 in Rockville, MD. The original location was a little further north on the Pike than the Mid-Pike plaza location a lot of folks remember, located where Mi Rancho and Chesapeake Seafood House used to be near the current location of Party City.
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