Toys R Us an Aladdin's Cave no longer. Lazy bosses lost the magic and now 3,000 jobs are to go

The administrators are in as the company – along with fellow high street names Maplin and Prezzo – reaches for the off switch. But there is hope for retail yet...

Toys were us: a simple visit to a Lego store could have changed the company’s fortunes, had its bosses bothered (Getty)

They’re closing Aladdin’s Cave. Some lucky kids might get one last hurrah from the stock clearances Toys R Us administrators have kicked off, but then the lights will go out at most of its outlets.

Thing is, there probably won’t be any tears from them. Those kids long ago found a new cave. It’s called Amazon and they access it through their tablets. Or their parents’ tablets.

That’s if they’re still after physical toys at a time when apps are all the rage.

When Toys R Us burst onto the scene it was a Mecca for the overlooked. Previously provincial children had the choice of the local neighbourhood specialist or the department store.

Toys R Us changed that, bringing them unparalleled choice in out-of-town warehouses where they could spend hours staring goggle-eyed at the shelves while trying to break their parents’ credit cards with pester power.

“It’s called Toys R Us, Toys R Us, Toys R Us,” went the ads. We know that! Can we go, can we go, can we go, please, please please.

Except that somewhere along the line Toys R Us stopped being a draw. It lost the magic.

Warehouses full of toys delighted an earlier generation of children but they don’t sparkle for today’s, and no wonder. They became cold and draughty, a bit like an airport terminals, with the threat of a customs-style bag check on your way out.

It is possible to draw children away from their devices. One way of doing that is if you watch what they’re watching on them. Look at the YouTubers who are getting the action, and check out what racks up hits for them when they show it off. Then stock it, and show it off yourself.

Retailers that do that can still win even on a British High Street wracked by uncertainty courtesy of Theresa May and her angry band of Brexit monsters under the bed.

True, it might not look like that. Toys R Us had company when its bell started tolling. There was electronics retailer Maplin, which also failed to find a buyer, while casual dining specialist Prezzo unveiled plans to close 100 outlets.

Retail is a cold business to be in but there are still spots of sunshine. You might see them at, say, your nearest Lego store, where the adults sometimes seem to be having as much fun as the kids, who will happily spend hours on end in there. They sometimes even forget they’ve got tablets back home.

Toys R Us managers should have quietly spent some time there. Had they dragged themselves away from their tablets, with their spreadsheets and presentations, and checked what the kids were doing, they might have woken up to their issues.

But bosses had got fat and lazy. They started trialling new formats too late.

They also chose to forget that you can cover up a lot of failings if you acquire a reputation for competitive prices.

Now their staff members are paying a very high price. Up ot 3,000 of them face redundancy. Those that paid into the pension scheme are getting hit twice because, yes, Toys R Us was another one of those employers with an under-funded scheme that the Pension Protection Fund is having to bail out.

Someone really ought to be called to account for that because the PPF seems to end up getting called out every time a company goes belly-up. Do pensions even have a regulator?