What started as a baby’s furniture store, turned into one of the largest toy franchises in the world. Charles P Lazarus founded Toys R Us, and quickly became a public company in 1978. The decline of Toys R us would begin to emerge after the birth of e -commerce.  Toys R us had many factors that contributed to the decline of the company.  Each factor falls into the main marketing environment components, making it clear what exactly caused the company to dissipate.

The birth of the internet and its online consumerism would cause competition to arise for Toys R Us. The company decided to partner with Amazon under a contract, where Amazon would sell their products exclusively. What Amazon didn’t mention was their business with competitor toy brands. Toys R Us was furious and decided to sue Amazon to get out of their contract, causing Toys R Us to loose money and time.

Meanwhile discount stores with many products began to rise in competition. These stores like Kmart and Walmart,  sold toys for discounted prices while making more sales.

These situations would be described as competitive and legal factors contributing to the fall of Toys R us.

Technology grew rapidly popular in consumers of all ages. Kids stopped wanting toys and desired tablets and video games ,causing an overall large decline in toys between 2012-2017.  This cause would be described as a competitive social factor.

In an attempt to recover Toys R Us losses in sales, the company  took out large loans. This caused more harm then good and landed Toys R Us in large debt. Once CNN publicly announced the the companies extreme financial struggles, toy brands stopped selling to Toys R Us. This was one of the last events that pushed Toys R Us into foreclosure and bankruptcy. These instances would be defined as economic and political factors.

The most significant factor that caused the infamous Toys R Us to dwindle, would be the competition. Toys R Us was met with several competitors who all found ways to attract more customers and sales continuously.