My Old Toys R Us Wrapping Paper
How a giant roll of wrapping paper from a niche toy store has lasted me 22 years
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There once was an educational toy store called Imaginarium. Where I grew up in Northeast Ohio, Imaginarium was in the “fancy” Beachwood Center mall that we only went to on special occasions. I remember having the impression of it being more pricey than the big box stores like Toys R Us where we usually shopped, and their goods were more educational and wooden than the plastic action figures and die-cast cars at other places.
My strongest early memory of Imaginarium was that it had a regular sized entrance door, and then it had a smaller “kid” entrance. I loved going through that small door, so much that I would continue to duck under it as a fourth or fifth grader who had probably long outgrown it.
I’m not sure when the Beachwood Center location closed, but it was no longer operating when Toys R Us purchased the Imaginarium chain in 1999. By then, Imaginarium had 41 stores in 13 states. At the time of the purchase, Toys R Us seemed mostly interested in integrating some of the higher end and more educational toys in Imaginarium’s lineup into their big box stores, which I’ve written about at length before.
I came to work at Toys R Us during the holiday season in 2000 as a teenage seasonal cashier. I ended up working for Toys R Us for five years, working in six different stores in three different states!
In 2003, I moved to Boston to attend college. My small liberal arts school didn’t have much housing at the time, so I had to find an off campus apartment to rent. I considered places in the North End, the South End, Back Bay, and Beacon Hill, but in my price range, they were mostly tiny walkup apartments in buildings that were hundreds of years old. I couldn’t imagine trying to move a mattress or dresser up the narrow staircases, let alone living in such cramped conditions, whilst paying steep rent to do so.
On a whim, I decided to ride the train to Brookline, which is an old inner ring suburb adjacent to Boston. The Green Line, which runs underground in Boston, emerges from the tunnel in Brookline and travels as a streetcar down the middle of Beacon Street. Brookline’s streets were clean, there were interesting shops, and restaurants from every corner of the world. Plus the rent was much more affordable.
According to the Toys R Us website, there was even a Toys R Us store in Brookline, which seemed hard to believe! I was shocked and delighted to learn that it was a standalone Imaginarium location, one of the 41 that Toys R Us had purchased and were still operating as small boutiques.
I walked inside and was instantly delighted! The floors were carpeted in a dark blue rug with a planet, shooting star, and rocket pattern in bright colors. The shelves were wooden and at eye-level; nothing like the warehouse feel of the Toys R Us big boxes. Cheerful music played on the speakers and the staff all seemed to be smiling and engaged with customers, which wasn’t always the case at Toys R Us either.
I met with the manager and inquired about a store transfer, allowing me to start working at Imaginarium while keeping my Toys R Us salary (in hindsight, that was probably a mistake because I’m sure the wage was higher in Massachusetts than what I was being paid).
Our store was in a section of Brookline called Coolidge Corner, which had a strong neighborhood vibe. Stores all faced the main street with large windows and things felt less corporate. There was an arthouse movie theatre and an independent bookstore, but Coolidge Corner had also started to get taken over by national chains. There was a Gap, a KB Toys, a Starbucks, a Peet’s Coffee, and a Trader Joe’s.
I loved working at Imaginarium. Even though my paycheck came from Toys R Us, I’m quite sure that most of the people in Brookline weren’t aware who actually owned Imaginarium and preferred shopping there because it felt like a small business. There were maybe 10 of us on staff who all rotated shifts, so we were a regular presence to repeat customers and they became familiar to us.
On nice days, our front doors were propped open to encourage people to come in and browse. Sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday, I was allowed to dress as the store mascot, who wore a white lab coat and a propeller hat. I would wave to passersby on the street and spun a Hula Hoop around my hips.
Imaginarium was often the stop for busy families on the way to a birthday party because we offered free gift wrapping with every purchase. Our paper came on a giant roll that mounted below the countertop. It was blue and white with some icons and the store name printed on it. While it was meant to be neutral enough to be used for any holiday, it was felt vaguely Chanukah, which seemed to fit the largely Jewish population in Brookline.
Wrapping gifts was new for me, but it was something that I instantly became skilled at. I first learned on easy items, like books or board games, but soon had to be taught how to adapt our free wrapping paper to accommodate oddly shaped items too like teddy bears or cylinders.
After each gift was wrapped, it was decorated with a white star, on which the purchaser would write the recipient’s name. The star was stuck to the paper along with a small piece of twirled yellow ribbon that resembled the tail of a comet.
I loved my time at Imaginarium, but it didn’t last long. Toys R Us had been surpassed by Walmart as the top toy retailer in the U.S. a few years earlier and a deal with Amazon to handle Toys R Us e-commerce was going south. Toys R Us decided to focus on its core big box business, announcing the closure of all 41 standalone Imaginarium stores in the fall of 2003.
Our location immediately began liquidating. The store’s inventory and fixtures were placed under the oversight of a liquidator. Toys R Us still paid our salary, but our store manager no longer had any real authority- the liquidator was in charge.
The usual parade of happy families that we were accustomed to seeing changed. We saw more grown men coming, presumably resellers that were trying to scoop up items at a discount to then mark up on eBay, Craigslist, or at flea markets. We could no longer accept returns and free gift wrapping ceased to be a service. The joy of working at Imaginarium was fading.
One evening around closing, my store manager asked me to help him with something. He was instructed to take our remaining Imaginarium branded wrapping paper and throw it into the dumpster since it contained Toys R Us intellectual property. I was devastated for many reasons. For one thing, it marked the end of my brief stint in this special little neighborhood toy store. For another, it felt like such a waste to toss a giant roll of wrapping paper that easily weighed 20 or 25 pounds into a dumpster when it could still be used.
I asked him if I could take it home, or at least if he could leave it near the dumpster, but not toss it in so I could retrieve it later. He agreed to let me have it, even though I’m sure if the liquidator knew, we would’ve been in trouble. He even threw in a roll of the star stickers and a roll of the yellow ribbon. It was all too heavy to carry back to my apartment on foot, so a coworker with a car gave me a ride home so that I could get my wrapping paper home.
That was 22 years ago. Here’s that wrapping paper today:
Yes, that’s right. I’ve been holding on to a giant roll of Imaginarium branded wrapping paper for 22 years. And here’s the funny thing: I use it pretty regularly for birthdays, Christmas, and nearly any other time I give a gift. I’ve been using that wrapping paper for 22 years, and there’s still a massive roll of paper left.
When I was working at Imaginarium, we would change that roll out maybe every 2-3 weeks. Perhaps the Chanukah colors aren’t coincidental: this wrapping paper feels like the oil that continues to miraculously burn in a lamp well beyond how long it should last.
I still have a giant roll of star stickers and a giant roll of ribbon too.
I was 19 years old when I acquired this roll of wrapping paper. If it lasts another 22 years, I’ll be 63 years old when it finally runs out.
My family has come to expect the paper every year, but sometimes I’ll give a wrapped gift to a friend or coworker who doesn’t know the backstory. It’s always met with a look of bewilderment and curiosity. I usually don’t talk about the source, I just play it off like it’s a completely normal way to wrap a gift.
Which I guess for me it is.
Toys R Us as a big box has vanished in the U.S. (although if you ever miss visiting the stores, Canada still has them). They have been reduced to a few mall boutiques in places like American Dream or the Mall of America, or a store within a store in Macy’s.
Yet oddly, the Imaginarium brand somehow continues to live on as the private label educational brand sold in Toys R Us locations. It’s nothing like the mall store of my childhood, with the kid’s door, nor is it like the pseudo-local-ish neighborhood shop where I worked in Brookline more than two decades ago.
Still somehow, Imaginarium refuses to ever fully fade. Much like my roll of everlasting wrapping paper.
I’m glad the paper gets used and I wonder how I’ll feel on the day when it does run out. At some point after I had departed, Toys R Us began offering a self-service gift wrap station in their stores for customers, which used the same giant rolls I was used to, albeit with Toys R Us branding.
When the big box stores were being liquidated in 2018, I briefly considered inquiring about purchasing a giant roll of their paper. I opted not to, realizing that my Imaginarium roll might outlive me. Plus, I think a part of me hoped there was some teenage kid who might go home with that paper instead and still be using it for years to come.
Somebody ended up with the wrapping paper from Toys R Us. There are folks on eBay selling small cutoff pieces and even one giant roll on offer. The price? $118, plus another $25 in shipping costs.
However you wrap your gifts, and however you mark this season of darkness and light, I wish you peace, warmth, and happiness. Thank you for reading and for your continued support!
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Related Reading
The Many Incarnations of Toys R Us
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When I wrote this piece, I had to guesstimate the weight of my roll of wrapping paper originally, which I put at 20-25 lbs.
I just placed it on a scale and after 22 years of use, it’s 31.4 lbs today. That means it was like 50-60 lbs originally!
Great story! Reminds me of my 45 years in retail. I also loved those Imaginarium stores.