Toys R Us' founder has died just one week after the company announced plans to close or sell all of its US stores

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• Charles Lazarus, founder of Toys R Us, died on Thursday.
• Lazarus stepped down as CEO in 1994 and served as chairman for four years after. 
• He did not have a stake in the business at the time of his death.

Charles Lazarus, the founder of Toys R Us, died on Thursday in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported, a week after the company announced it would be shutting down or selling all of its stores in the US. He was 94.

Lazarus opened the first Toys R Us store in 1957. He had been running a baby-furniture store since 1948. Toys R Us became the first retailer to mass-merchandise toys at discount prices, according to Entrepreneur.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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SEE ALSO: We visited a Toys R Us store that's about to shut down — and it was a grim glimpse of the chain's future