The Flint Township Toys R Us will shut its doors forever this Friday (6/29/18), marking the death of yet another long-standing retail giant.

I could sit here and wax poetic about childhood memories and the Flint Township Toys R Us all day. I have so many great memories of that store, as it was where I went to get toys when I was a kid, and, many years later, the place I would take my children. Now it, along with all other Michigan locations, will close permanently this Friday.

It was always more of a special occasion when we made a trip to Toys R Us, like when I had some birthday money or wanted something particular that K-Mart and Meijer did not carry, my children have a similar relationship with the store. It was a magical place to me when I was a young kid, but now it's just a giant warehouse of empty store fixtures and some Rogue One action figures. In short, it sucks.

My kids and I went in there two weekends ago to check it out. We had previously been in, maybe three weeks after they announced the closures, and there weren't really any good deals at that time. LEGO were only 10% off (pretty much the full stock remained), a lot of the good stuff was gone, and the best savings were like 25%. It was surprising to see what was left though. One thing that stuck out was that the only remaining DC action figures were characters from Wonder Woman -- arguably the best DC movie. That just goes to show you that kids are terrible critics.

Upon my more recent visit, the store was almost completely decimated (as seen in the gallery above). All of the back aisles had been emptied and the remaining stock was moved forward. All the LEGO was gone, as were most of the things kids want. They did have really good deals on board games though, and a decent selection was still on the shelves. I took some pictures, just because it looked so different. I had been coming to this store for over 30 years, and had never seen it look so empty. It was pretty depressing.

I meant to write about this that Monday, but I've been busy and it didn't really matter. The store was so empty it might as well had already been closed... unless you wanted some Rusty Rivets toys. Seriously, they had ALL of that stuff fully stocked and it looked untouched.

R.I.P. Toys R Us. I guess I have to grow up now.

More From Banana 101.5