Carbon-izer Presents Waco - Toys "R" Us with the Rainbow Roof
Toys "R" Us with the Rainbow Roof
5200 West Waco Road



From author's personal collection, 2008

Back in 2007, when "old retail" blogs were still consistently updating (DeadMalls, Labelscar, Mall Hall of Fame, MallsofAmerica, and others), one of these now-defunct sites, The Caldor Rainbow was focused on Northeastern malls and retail. As it was the Northeast, most of the content covered included defunct stores that were unheard of in Texas, like Bradlees, Ames, Hills, and the site's namesake, Caldor. However, another interest of Nicholas "XISMZERO" DiMaio, who ran the site, included Toys "R" Us stores, specifically the "rainbow roof" variant from the 1980s, which even as of the late 2000s were an increasingly disappearing species. Most were being renovated or repainted. I was able to get my pictures featured on the site under a different name than the one I use now.

From what I could tell, the store opened in 1989 (though the depictions of Geoffrey are from prior to 1988) and was co-branded with Kids "R" Us, an off-price children's clothing retailer, and although the parent company shuttered the Kids "R" Us chain in 2004, the sign continued to remain up (it wasn't any larger than the other Toys "R" Us stores), and despite the updating through the chain, the classic Geoffrey signage remained up until almost the very end when it was updated (the new entrance, and then the new Toys "R" Us logo, sans the Kids "R" Us logo). Even as Toys "R" Us has ridden into the sunset, the store hasn't been touched, and driving by on Franklin shows a merchandise pick-up sign that escaped the logo update. I took my photos in 2008; check out a few other photos on Flickr.


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