At one time, the trope was in danger of becoming a Forgotten Trope, since Toys "R" Us ceased operation in the United States late in The New '10s. Canada, Asia, and Oceania still have their stores and are still going strong, and the brand name's franchising and licensing deals (in Asia, the brand's franchiser bought the exclusive rights to the brand in the region). It was saved when Toys R Us started reopening stores in the US under new management in late 2021.
Call this trope "Phonies R Us".
A Sub-Trope of Bland-Name Product. The store with the name scheme can be a Severely Specialized Store.
Examples "R" Us:
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Comic Books "B" Us
- Early issues of Invincible have a toy store named "Toys B We".
- One issue of Marvel's G.I. Joe comic features a (possibly) tongue-in-cheek reference to "Dossiers 'R Us".
Comic Strips "R" Us
- Doonesbury: When Zonker Harris learns that he can become a member of the British peerage simply by filling out a form and paying a nominal fee, he flies to England for just that purpose. The head of "Lord-R-Us" duly dubs Zonker as Viscount Saint-Austell-in-the-moor Biggleswade Brixham with a golf club.
Films "R" Us
- The Flintstones has "Toy-S-Aurus", a toy store seen in the background in a few scenes. A toy version of this store was featured in the McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in.
- Marci X has a band called "Boyz R Us", featuring Matthew Morrison.
- Rampage (2018) features a group of mercenaries called "Killers-R-Us".
- Sharknado 2: The Second One features bags labeled "YOLO B US", in the same font as the real business, carried by the protagonist and the woman following him in a rooftop scene.
- In UHF, a fake ad advertises "Plots R Us", a service that offers funeral plots, along with "plenty of free parking" and a salad bar.
- Wrongfully Accused: The hospital has a section labeled "Limbs 'R' Us".
Literature "R" Us
- One of the books in The Clique series is called Boys R Us.
- Dork Diaries:
- Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life has Nikki imagine herself disguised the next time she goes to a clothing store, carrying a bag from Cheap Fashions "R" Us.
- In one book, Nikki imagines her whole family as clowns, and the illustration is topped with the caption "Clowns R Us".
- One background in The Dumb Bunnies has a store called Toys "Am" We.
- Everybody Loves Large Chests has a demon contacting agency called Demons R Us.
- Revenge R Us, a Goosebumps book in which Wade Brill goes to the titular company to get revenge.
- Spells R Us is about a magic spell shop of the same name.
- Chicago Sun-Times journalist Zay N. Smith had a recurring feature in his "QT" column entitled "QT Grammar R Us Seminar on the English Language."
- The Discworld novel Pyramids features Herme Krona's Camels-R-Us Livery Stable.
Live-Action TV "R" Us
- Birds of a Feather: In "A Brush with the Law", mention is made of Sharon's new potential romantic interest Colin the policeman and DS Trewin going to an antiques store called "Antiques 'R' Us".
- In the Small Wonder fourth-season episode "Battle of the Sexes and Robot
", the Lawsons encounter a "Mules R' Us" salesman.
- In the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Beebo the God of War", Martin Stein in 1992 is searching for a Beebo in Toys Are We.
- The toyshop with the rocking horse in Hogfather is named in the TV adaptation as Toys Is Me (proprietor Joshua Isme).
Music "R" Us
- Accept's "Guns 'R' Us" from the Death Row album.
Puppet Shows "R" Us
- An episode of Allegra's Window is entitled "Bandages R Us".
- The Mr. Potato Head Show: In "Royal Pain", Queenie Sweet Potato goes on a website called "Ancestors R Us" to see if she's descended from royalty. When Queenie finds out she's descended from the Egyptian King Yaminhotep, she lets the power go to her head, but at the end of the episode, a news report reveals that Ancestors R Us was shut down on charges of 7 million counts of fraud.
Video Games "B" Us
- In Big Nose Freaks Out, right next door to the Savings and Bones bank is a store called Bones "R" Us.
- Bloons Tower Defense 5: The Specialty Building for Spike Factories is called Spikes R Us.
- Heretic: The second level of difficulty is called "Yellowbellies-r-us".
- Hypercharge Unboxed has a toy store called We "R" Toys, whose logo font even resembles the one from Toys R Us.
- Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama: In the game's opening cutscene, after the goddesses of the beach get captured by alien invaders, the beach becomes empty and a sign advertising the grand opening of the Noxious Fumes "R" Us toxic dump gets put up.
- In Serious Sam II Sam summons the level boss of the Magnor planet by calling Boss 'R Us.
- Saturday Morning RPG: In the fourth episode, "Ho Ho Hood", Marty is able to go south from the center of Shadow Valley, which leads to a pirate-themed Toys R Us Expy that's called "Toys ARRRRRR Us".
- Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter: Roger Wilco visits a store called Droids B Us (originally Droids R Us, but that was changed in later versions after a lawsuit) to buy a navigation droid.
Webcomics "R" Us
- The organisation Thaddeus works for in The Petri Dish is called "Clones R Us".
Web Original "R" Us
- This Drawception game features a store called "Knives R Us".
- This Very Wiki:
- The trope for heroic organisations Heroes "R" Us.
- The sandbox for pages with low-quality images Artifacts 'R' Us.
Western Animation "R" Us
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: In the movie Attack of the Twonkies, Judy throws a rock at a store named Ventriloquist Dummies 'R' Us.
- The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 has an episode called "Crimes R Us".
- S2E20 of Beavis and Butt-Head is called "Babies R Us".note
- The Baskervilles: In one episode, April mentions a company called "Lawns R Us" who gave her father the wrong product, which apparently drove him crazy.
- Darkwing Duck has an episode called "Monsters "R" Us".
- Dexter's Laboratory: In "Backfire", Dee Dee gets turned into a a car as a result of one of Dexter's experiments. While in her car form, Dee Dee takes Dexter to a toy store called Toys "R" We.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "Anti-Poof", the name of the store Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda, and Poof were exiting at the beginning is "Crowns R Us".
- Another episode had a news report playing on several TVs in a store called "TVs R Us".
- Family Guy: In "The Kiss Seen Around the World", the Griffins shop at a store called Toys R Overpriced.
- Garfield and Friends: In "The Black Book", Jon accidentally reads from Garfield's Little Black Book of phone numbers instead of his own. One of the numbers Garfield has listed is for a restaurant called Ham Sandwiches R Us.
- Goof Troop: In "Counterfeit Goof", Goofy goes shopping for wallpaper at a store called Wallpaper R Us.
- Hey Arnold!: In "Abner Comes Home", Abner wanders into a company that makes footballs called Pigskins "R" Us. The employees there try to capture him so they can turn him into a football.
- MAD had a spoof advertisement for "Toys '4' Brats", selling dangerous toys for troublemaking children. Examples include Baby Cutz-A-Lot, LECTRO-Land Playsets, and Play Don't.
- Johnny Bravo had a Toys 'R' Us Lawyer-Friendly Cameo that wasn't named explicitly in the episode "Virtual Johnny" in Season 3 but the store's layout paid Homage to the store. Johnny wore virtual reality headgear and bought it from the store in that episode.
- Ned's Newt: In the episode "Mall Good Things Come To An End", an event is being held at the mall where, if a kid can guess the right number of jelly beans in a jar, they will win a drivable toy car from "We Iz Toys".
- Episode 3 of Pixel Pinkie is called "Clones R Us".
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998) has an episode called "Ploys "R" Us", which is about the Professor unwittingly stealing toys for girls.
- The first episode of The Real Ghostbusters is called "Ghosts R Us", after a rival ghostbusting franchise formed by three ghosts.
- The Simpsons:
- In "You Only Move Twice", Cypress Creek has a "Hammocks-R-Us" in the town's "hammock district".
- In "Crystal Blue-Haired Persuasion", when Marge says she doesn't belong with all the other legitimate businesses, one of the stores shown is "Truck Nuts "R" Us".
- In "Treehouse of Horror XVI" Marge and Homer buy a robot boy from "Boys "R" Us"
- In "Clown in the Dumps", when Krusty has a Near-Death Experience and goes to Jewish heaven, he sees people walk past a store called Oys "R" Us.
- Super Mario World has an episode titled "Ghosts R Us".
- The TaleSpin episode, "The Bigger They Are, the Louder They Oink" has Rebecca buy a pig for her truffle hunting business from Hayseeds "R" Us.
- Two episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures feature Toys "R" Mine, a toy store owned by Montana Max. In "Citizen Max", the giant cutout of Monty atop the store would steal back any toy any child bought from there, and the second wraparound of "Playtime Toons" featured a commercial for the store as an Affectionate Parody of Toys 'R' Us' "I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys 'R' Us Kid" commercials, where Monty buys every toy in the store, then destroys them.
- Total DramaRama has the episode "Us 'R' Toys," in which Chef brings in his childhood toys and Gwen and Duncan get body-swapped into two toys.
- Yogi's Treasure Hunt: In "The Search For the Moaning Liza", there's a neon sign on the Louvre that says "Art Я us".
Real Life "R" Us
- At its height Toys 'R' Us actually did this spoof themselves opening sister chains Babies 'R' Us focusing on baby care supplies and the clothing chain Kids 'R' Us.
