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Toys R Us Leaving Fowler

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By LENORA LAKE, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 10, 2007

NORTH TAMPA - Toys R Us is closing its Fowler Avenue location, where it has sold toys and baby items for more than 24 years.

The Wayne, N.J.-based company began inventory liquidation Tuesday with discounts of 20 percent to 40 percent.

The store at 1235 Fowler Ave. will close on or about Dec. 1, said company spokeswoman Katie Reczek.

The closing comes in conjunction with the opening of a new store Tuesday in The Grove at Wesley Chapel. That 65,000-square-foot store at 6105 Wesley Chapel Blvd. combines Toys R Us and Babies R Us, a baby products retailer.

Reczek said all associates employed at the Fowler Avenue location were offered an opportunity to work at the Wesley Chapel location.

Tuesday, shoppers flocked to the store to buy items for holiday gift-giving. Some left with baskets of toys, and employees assisted them by rolling bicycles to their vehicles.

Jose and Blanca Solano of Lutz were among Tuesday's shoppers. Blanca Solano said they knew the store was closing "and we came for the good prices."

She said they bought gifts for their granddaughter for Christmas and her birthday.

Toys R Us, which opened May 26, 1983, will be among a growing list of retailers that have left the area.

Kmart, Builders Square, two grocery stores and a multiplex theater closed during the mid- and late 1990s.

In 2001, Circuit City moved from Fowler Avenue to New Tampa. In 2006, Rooms To Go moved to Wesley Chapel.

Correspondent Lenora Lake can be reached at (813) 865-4851 or llake@tampatrib.com.

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