Charles Lazarus, the 94 -year-old founder of Toys R Us, died Thursday, about a few weeks after the company announced it would file liquidation papers and likely close all of its U.S. functionings. Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in September.
In a tweet, the company announced Lazarus’ death, saying there had been “many sad moments” lately but none more upsetting than the death of its founder.
Lazarus founded Toys R Us in June 1957, nine years after he opened his first babe furniture and doll storage in Washington , D.C ., called Children’s Bargain Town. After nearly a decade operating Children’s Bargain Town, Lazarus restructured his business, decided to focus solely on toys and reformatted the storage to take after a supermarket, so patrons could see open shelves of dolls and place desired items in shopping carts.
In the ’8 0s, Toys R Us ran international, opening locatings all over the world. During the company’s closing proclamation last week, administrators for the retailer said it planned to close all 75 stores in the U.K. The widespread shutdowns will affect approximately 3,000 employees in the U.K ., and about 31, 000 in the U.S . There are 791 remaining Toys R Us locatings in America.
