A couple of weeks ago while flipping through an old newspaper I accidently found a Kids ‘r’ us 1-year anniversary ad. So right away I thought to myself, if I go back one year then I’ll most likely find the original opening ads, and I did! I found the pre-opening ads, the grand opening ad, and a few more and uploaded them all onto Flickr to be downloaded freely in full resolution.
Kids ‘r’ us officially opened on November 10th, 1983. According to the ads it was the largest toy store in the region at that time with over 10,000 toys. The original store was located in Dajeej near where Sears is right now. That location was destroyed during the 1990 invasion but post-invasion they had a smaller store in old Salmiya where Xcite is at the moment. Kids ‘r’ us was an Alghanim Industries concept, the same Alghanim that has Xcite and Chevrolet today.
If you want to check all the ads out, click here.
11 replies on “Kids ‘r’ us Opening Newspaper Ads”
I can’t remember how old I was, but I do remember being a raffle drawer in one of their events, it was in Al-Andalus Cinema (Where Muhalab Complex is located),I remember the gigantic Yellow Kuala Bear Mascot, the thousands of kids (they seemed like that lot), The toys I got to go home with, Ahhh..Good Times..
Those are some pretty steep prices for 1984 me thinks.
KD1.750 for a Transformer toy sounds steep to you?
By 1984 expat salary standards yeah probably (maybe not for the transformer toy lol).
I saw an old video about cars in mid 80s Kuwait where a brand new Audi is like 3.5k and a Toyota is like 1.5k. It’s just a matter adjusting for inflation and my math is probably wrong but you get the idea.
From what I remember, the showroom in Salmiya was there before the invasion.
Yup I just meant after the invasion they still had that location around
Anyone know why they never reopened again? (Or closed down)
I just love these nostalgic posts. Keep’em comin Mark 🙂
I actually need to stop and go back to posting current stuff 😅
“but post-invasion they had a smaller store in old Salmiya”
That smaller store was there pre-invasion too.
Yup