Toys R Us Fans Disappointed as 'Geoffrey' to Go Away in Liquidation Sale
With the closing of their stores, the popular life-size statue of mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe will also go.
Toys R Us fans had expressed their dismay when the parent company announced their shutting down. They closed their e-commerce websites Toys R Us or Babies R Us a month ago and now the brand has planned to shut down all their branches in the United States. The development comes after the retailer filed for bankruptcy. With the closing of their stores, the popular life-size statue of mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe has also been announced in the liquidation sale.
The life-sized Sulley model from the Monsters Inc film will also be taken away along with a giant Minion figure. The firm has included all of it in their sale among office equipment and furniture. They took to Twitter with pictures of everything that is on sale. Twitterati couldn't hide their disappointment while only hoping all their favourite toys find new happy homes.
The Happy Geoffrey!
"Not Geoffrey," a Twitter user responded to one of the tweets with a crying face emoji. Another tweet read, "Geoffrey deserves to be bought or donated to a local children's hospital so ill children can look up to him and smile!"
Sky News quoted R Us chairman and chief executive Dave Brandon as saying, "I want to thank our extraordinary team members who helped build Toys R Us into a global brand." He said he was "very disappointed" the business was shutting up shop. Brandon added saying, "I also want to express my appreciation for my colleagues on our board who have continued to provide support to sustain the brand and our operations throughout the restructuring process."
A total of 735 branches will close in the US and a further 100 in the UK. The firm later announced its plan to auction off the rights to the Geoffrey the Giraffe logo and the Babies R Us brand to raise money to pay creditors. Brandon also said, "I would also like to thank our vendors who we owe a great deal of gratitude to for their decades of support. This is a profoundly sad day for us as well as the millions of kids and families who we have served for the past 70 years."
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 03, 2018 05:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).