Inspirational Quotes by Charles Lazarus (American Entrepreneur)

Charles Philip Lazarus (1923–2018) was an American entrepreneur, executive, and pioneer in the retail toy industry. He transformed his father’s Washington D.C.-bicycle business into Toys “R” Us, one of the largest distributors of games, dolls, stuffed animals, and children’s artifacts.

Born in Washington, D.C., to a Jewish family, Lazarus served as a cryptographer in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he joined the children’s furniture business. He began selling cradles and cribs inside his father’s existing bicycle store.

In 1948, Lazarus opened his first store, Children’s Bargain Town, a children’s furniture store in Washington D.C. He focused on strollers and baby cribs during his store’s first few years in business.

Anticipating a postwar baby boom, Lazarus became interested in the toy business and started a “supermarket for toys” in 1948. He opened his first toys-only store in 1957 in Rockville, Maryland, taking on the name Toys “R” Us. For the next six decades, Lazarus grew the company into an international empire with his chain’s “cookie-cutter” uniformity, one-price discount policy, and deep inventory of 18,000 individual items. Toys “R” Us expanded nearly 20 percent each year and elbowing department stores out of the toy business.

Lazarus applied his low-cost, high-volume approach to clothing and opened Kids “R” Us stores in 1983. He also started Babies “R” Us in 1996 to sell diapers, cribs, and car seats.

Aggressive incursion by the likes of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com eventually took their toll. Lazarus died one day before Toys “R” Us began liquidation sales in the United States. Toys “R” Us declared bankruptcy in 2018.

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