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Toys R Us Founder Charles Lazarus's DC Connection
Last edited Tue Mar 27, 2018, 01:57 PM - Edit history (1)
Charles Lazarus, who turned a Washington bike business into Toys R Us, dies at 94
By Harrison Smith and Ellie Silverman March 22
harrison.smith@washpost.com; ellie.silverman@washpost.com
Charles Lazarus, who transformed his father’s Washington bicycle business into Toys R Us, a retail giant that rivaled Santa Claus’s workshop as one of the world’s largest distributors of games, dolls, stuffed animals and other children’s goodies before it declared bankruptcy in September, died March 22. He was 94.
....
Mr. Lazarus had weathered countless industry changes over the years to become one of America’s highest-performing, best-paid business leaders. A hands-on executive who once tested baby toys by hanging mobiles over cribs, he steered his company from bikes to baby furniture to toys, later adding children’s clothes and video games.
He had served as an Army cryptographer during World War II, and after returning home he decided to sell cribs and cradles from his father’s Adams Morgan bike shop, now the site of Madam’s Organ, a popular bar and restaurant. An uncle was in the baby-furniture business, and Mr. Lazarus said he anticipated a postwar baby boom. He soon took over the space entirely, turning the storefront into a shop named Children’s Bargain Town, flipping the Rs in reverse in a whimsical touch that he later used for the signage of Toys R Us.
“The toy business was kind of an accident,” Mr. Lazarus later explained to the trade publication DSN Retailing Today. “I started out selling a few baby toys and realized that customers didn’t buy another crib or another high chair or playpen as their family grew, but they did buy toys for each child.” ... Mr. Lazarus opened his first toys-only store in 1957 in Rockville, Md., taking on the name Toys R Us in part because the letter “R” helped fit the store’s name onto signs. He modeled his locations after the New York chain Korvettes, in which a large variety of products were stocked in long aisles, easily accessible by shopping cart. By 1966, he had four stores and $12 million in sales.
....
Charles Phillip Lazarus was born in Washington on Oct. 4, 1923.
....
Harrison Smith is a reporter on The Washington Post's obituaries desk. Since joining the obituaries section in 2015, he has profiled big-game hunters, fallen dictators and Olympic champions. He sometimes covers the living as well, and previously co-founded the South Side Weekly, a community newspaper in Chicago. Follow @harrisondsmith
Ellie Silverman is a metro reporter covering crime and courts. She has previously contributed to the Seattle Times, McClatchy, the Hill and the Capital Gazette. Ellie graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for The Diamondback and conducted the independent student newspaper’s first Ouija board interview. Follow @esilverman11
By Harrison Smith and Ellie Silverman March 22
harrison.smith@washpost.com; ellie.silverman@washpost.com
Charles Lazarus, who transformed his father’s Washington bicycle business into Toys R Us, a retail giant that rivaled Santa Claus’s workshop as one of the world’s largest distributors of games, dolls, stuffed animals and other children’s goodies before it declared bankruptcy in September, died March 22. He was 94.
....
Mr. Lazarus had weathered countless industry changes over the years to become one of America’s highest-performing, best-paid business leaders. A hands-on executive who once tested baby toys by hanging mobiles over cribs, he steered his company from bikes to baby furniture to toys, later adding children’s clothes and video games.
He had served as an Army cryptographer during World War II, and after returning home he decided to sell cribs and cradles from his father’s Adams Morgan bike shop, now the site of Madam’s Organ, a popular bar and restaurant. An uncle was in the baby-furniture business, and Mr. Lazarus said he anticipated a postwar baby boom. He soon took over the space entirely, turning the storefront into a shop named Children’s Bargain Town, flipping the Rs in reverse in a whimsical touch that he later used for the signage of Toys R Us.
“The toy business was kind of an accident,” Mr. Lazarus later explained to the trade publication DSN Retailing Today. “I started out selling a few baby toys and realized that customers didn’t buy another crib or another high chair or playpen as their family grew, but they did buy toys for each child.” ... Mr. Lazarus opened his first toys-only store in 1957 in Rockville, Md., taking on the name Toys R Us in part because the letter “R” helped fit the store’s name onto signs. He modeled his locations after the New York chain Korvettes, in which a large variety of products were stocked in long aisles, easily accessible by shopping cart. By 1966, he had four stores and $12 million in sales.
....
Charles Phillip Lazarus was born in Washington on Oct. 4, 1923.
....
Harrison Smith is a reporter on The Washington Post's obituaries desk. Since joining the obituaries section in 2015, he has profiled big-game hunters, fallen dictators and Olympic champions. He sometimes covers the living as well, and previously co-founded the South Side Weekly, a community newspaper in Chicago. Follow @harrisondsmith
Ellie Silverman is a metro reporter covering crime and courts. She has previously contributed to the Seattle Times, McClatchy, the Hill and the Capital Gazette. Ellie graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for The Diamondback and conducted the independent student newspaper’s first Ouija board interview. Follow @esilverman11
