A Boxing Day Farewell
Of all the days to close, it had to be Boxing Day.
The Toys R Us on Macleod Trail shut its doors for good on December 26th, and with it, Calgary lost its last location of the legendary toy store. No announcement. No farewell sale fanfare. Just a quiet goodbye on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
A store clerk confirmed the news to a shopper just an hour before the lights went out for the final time.
Growing Up in Aisle 7
If you grew up in Calgary anytime between the 80s and early 2000s, chances are Toys R Us was part of your childhood. Maybe your parents took you there before your birthday and told you to "pick one thing" an impossible task when you're surrounded by walls of LEGO, aisles of action figures, and bikes you'd never stop asking for.
That store on Macleod Trail saw it all. First bikes. Last-minute Christmas Eve panic runs. Kids losing their minds over Pokémon cards and Beyblades. Parents pretending they weren't just as excited about the Nintendo section.
It wasn't just a store. It was a rite of passage.
So Where Do We Go Now?
Calgary proper is officially Toys R Us-free. The only location left in the area is out at CrossIron Mills technically Rocky View County, about 25 minutes north of downtown.
It's still there, and it's worth the trip if you want your kids to experience what a real toy store feels like. But let's be honest it's not the same as having one in your own city.
Retail's Quiet Fade
This isn't just about toys. It's about how we shop now. Online carts have replaced shopping carts. Algorithms decide what your kid sees instead of them discovering it on a shelf. The experience of wandering, touching, imagining that's harder to find.
Toys R Us has struggled globally for years. The Canadian stores survived longer than their American counterparts, but the writing has been on the wall. This Macleod Trail closure is just the latest proof that the era of the big-box toy store is fading.
One More Time
For anyone who ever ran through those automatic doors with birthday money burning a hole in their pocket, this one stings a little.
So here's to the Toys R Us kids the ones who grew up and are now taking their own kids to whatever's left.
CrossIron, you're up. Don't let us down.
