This one got more mainstream news reporting than perhaps every other business on this list put together, and that might because it felt like a knife through the heart of our childhoods! Toys R Us had been struggling for a while; yet another company that Amazon and firms like it had taken market share from. Somehow, we never believed they'd really close, but after filing for bankruptcy in 2018, all 735 stores in the US shut down almost overnight. Toys R Us was gone.
The liquidation happened rapidly and rippled across the world. The bankruptcy was filed in February 2018. By April, every Toys R Us store in the world had closed down. There may yet be a twist in the tale though; in late 2018, the bankruptcy auction of the company's remaining assets was called off, and rumors circled that a buyer had been found. We may not have said our final goodbye to Geoffrey after all!