See inside the abandoned Toys R Us store that was transformed into a spooky haunted house to bring the retail apocalypse to life

Shoshy Ciment

Oct 31, 2019, 21:44 IST

See inside the abandoned Toys R Us store that was transformed into a spooky haunted house to bring the retail apocalypse to life

Shoshy Ciment/Business Insider

Much of the abandoned Toys R Us was still intact.

An abandoned Toys R Us store in Queens, New York, is the site of a haunted house for the Halloween season.
Co-creators Luke Tinari and Peter Rivera have converted the 50,000-square-foot site of a closed Toys R Us store into a spooky maze filled with zombies and gore, as well as remnants of the toy retailer that used to inhabit the space.
Toys R Us liquidated in 2018. A new company called Tru Kids Brands has announced plans to resurrect the brand.
"I would say the story line would be: Toys R Us went out of business and this is what happened to all the retail workers and the store," Tinari said of the haunted house.
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Toys R Us is coming back to life - this time, as a haunted house full of the undead.

An abandoned Toys R Us store in Queens, New York, is the site of a 50,000-square-foot haunted house, where the retail apocalypse has come to life in the most visceral way.

The haunted house, dubbed "Zombies Are Back," has combined two kinds of apocalypse - zombie and retail - into one 15-minute journey, complete with blood, gore, a "Stranger Things"-themed section, and about 15 live actors that jump out at various points in the maze.

"I would say the story line would be: Toys R Us went out of business and this is what happened to all the retail workers and the store," said Luke Tinari, who is running the haunted house with his partner, Peter Rivera, for the second year in a row.

After filing for bankruptcy in 2017 and liquidating in 2018, Toys R Us was absorbed by Tru Kids Brands in February.

We visited the Toys R Us-themed haunted house and saw something spookier than zombies or evil clowns: It was the retail apocalypse in its rawest form.

Here was our experience:

We approached the site of the haunted house as the sun began to set. The site of the old Toys R Us store was in a plaza adjacent to a Party City.

We were already feeling spooked before we entered.

A massive banner let us know that we were in the right place. Looking closer, we saw the iconic "R" from the Toys R Us sign sticking out from behind the banner.

Once night fell, it looked even spookier.

We walked through the dimly lit building and were surprised to find so many aspects of the abandoned store still in place.

The floor and ceilings looked like they had not changed at all since the Toys R Us store was open ...

... and the checkout lanes were still eerily in place, as if still clinging on to some chance of use.

Some of the lights were flickering and showing signs of life.

A lot of the interior was cordoned off with yellow caution tape, which made the store seem like it was the center of a crime scene.

At the front register, we met our first zombie, who seemed to be waving hello.

Before we entered the site of the actual haunted maze, remnants of the building's former inhabitants were represented at every corner.

Actual retired shelving units and advertising material gave the site a genuine spookiness.

And a few extra add-ons took it from spooky to terrifying.

There were even some monitors located throughout the store.

After a short wait, it was time for us to enter the main event: the haunted maze.

With the aisles and shelves still intact, the former structure of the Toys R Us seemed like the perfect location for a haunted house.

There were plenty of ghosts of the retailer's past, from a sticker advertising the store's app ...

... to shopping carts that were likely used by customers at some point.

In a normal retail context, this would have appeared depressing, but normal. But the price tags and aisles took on a darker meaning when combined with the creepy elements of the haunted house.

Overall, the Toys R Us debris and zombie-takeover narrative seemed practically made for each other.

The idea of a retailer closing before its time is spooky enough. The addition of blood-hungry zombies to the story made it all the better.

We also found some ominous messages under blue light that, in another setting, might have been seen as optimistic for the struggling retailer.

In one section of the maze, a swamp was growing from the depths of the store. The display here was surprisingly — and disturbingly — detailed.

In another section, we found a zombie emerging from a toy "Bargin Bin."

Our favorite section of the journey was by far the "Stranger Things"-themed area.

Here, we ran into some characters from the hit Netflix show, including a spooky-looking Eleven and a Demogorgon.

We found another zombie behind the doors of an area labeled "Employees Only."

Sometimes it was hard to tell whether a zombie was an actor or fake, which made the journey that much scarier as we tried to figure out who would jump out and scare us.

The live actors were strategically placed in areas that enhanced the storyline. We found this female zombie near the toys that seemed to be meant for young girls.

By the time we exited the house, the sky was completely dark — and we were spooked to our core.

The experience at this abandoned Toy R Us was more than a haunted house. This was the retail apocalypse in its rawest form.

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