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Author Topic: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.  (Read 10805 times)

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Howard_Casto

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The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« on: March 16, 2018, 01:23:58 pm »
So in case you've been in a cave, Toys R Us is going under and will eventually close all of it's US stores.  They are the last toy store, so this is decidedly bad.  Because there are many Toys R Us exclusive toys and they offer more shelf space for toy manufacturers than any other store, experts are estimating that 15-30% of toys sales are going to die off and will never come back.   What makes things worse is the fact that the toy industry in general hasn't shown much growth in the past few years.  Couple that with the sales loss and we are going to eventually see several toy brands go under. 

The games industry will be effected as well.  I've said it in the past, but one of the main reasons video game companies try to still have a brick-and-mortar presence is the free advertising.  While AAA games get tv commercials and various online advertising, the budget titles normally don't.  For them that shelf space is crucial to get the word out that their game is available or that it even exists.  It really comes back to shelf space.  The second biggest toy and video game store, Walmart along with all the lesser stores over a very limited space for games and even less for accessories.  Amiibo and Skylanders might be the first casuality as both Walmart and Target seem to be phasing out the sale of the space-hungry do-dads in most areas.  You aren't going to see a lot of specialty controllers either. 

You know the auto-industry was bailed out because it was deemed to big to fail.  I honestly have to wonder why people aren't getting worried over this one.  Forget all the fun stuff going away, this is going to cost a lot of jobs as it could destroy an entire industry. 

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2018, 01:49:50 pm »
You know the auto-industry was bailed out because it was deemed to big to fail.  I honestly have to wonder why people aren't getting worried over this one.  Forget all the fun stuff going away, this is going to cost a lot of jobs as it could destroy an entire industry.

...in China.
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2018, 02:06:14 pm »
Another casualty of Bain Capital.  They killed KB Toys, too.

Kids just want tablets anyway, no need for toys.




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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2018, 02:08:03 pm »
Figure in 2016 toy stores only accounted for about 12% of overall toy sales ( Source - https://www.statista.com/statistics/750801/toy-sales-share-by-distribution-channel/ ) - so the loss of even the last toy store will not really effect overall sales by much as 12% of sales can easily be picked up by the mass market/online sales channels. There just isn't enough profit margin in the toy sales to support a store that only sells toys to remain competitive.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2018, 02:38:36 pm »
I dont think it will kill the industry.

Toys R Us are the same as alot of the other big names that have gone under recently.

I think a combination of their own success and not willing to roll with the times has killed them off.

Ime not sure about state side but over here they were damn expensive!
I dare say the reason for that being the shear size of the place and the staff makingfor large over heads.

Why pay £40 when you can pay £20 off amazon for the same thing.

Yeah its kind of sad as you can no longer look and touch before you buy but thats just the way the modern sales industry works.

Obv car sales are a bit different as you cant really mail order a new motor for a test drive lol

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2018, 03:11:53 pm »
The games industry will not suffer.  It all goes online nowadays, and as much as I feared the practice, I find it hugely convenient.  If you wait for the sales, it's even more economical. 

The reason Walmart is dumping VG related doo-dads is because they don't sell.  If those companies want to pay for the retail space, I'm sure Walmart would figure out something for them.  Otherwise, I'm sure they can be purchased all day long on the web someplace.

And like PBJ said, try getting a kid to play with a toy for 5 minutes, when the flat, uber-stimulation device is sitting in the corner, incessantly dinging at them.   :oldman

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2018, 03:41:17 pm »
Quote
The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean?

It means nothing... literally nothing. Life goes on. If Toys R Us was supposed to have a succeeded, then it would have. Adapt or die. They chose not to. Everyone is replaceable so some other entity will just fill their void. (if there is even a void to fill)

Nobody wants to admit it but Amazon dealt the first and final blow to Toys R Us. Amazon is an unstoppable force squashing all brick and mortar stores that get in its way. And I'm actually totally fine with this.

Like it or not, retail in this "modern world" looks completely different and everyone better get on board or be squished just like Toys R Us.
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2018, 03:50:57 pm »
Toys R Us got caught up in a bad cycle of debt servicing that only an obscene amount of new revenue was going to solve.  This is not a Blockbuster situation.

Toys R Us was always a rich kids store.  I only ever bought Sega games on clearance from them.   :P



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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2018, 04:28:55 pm »
Toys R Us has been around since what? ...the 50's? They had 70 years to under their belt and just now they couldn't get their debt sorted out? Pfft....I don't buy it. The timing of EVERYONE shifting to online retail is just too coincidental. Talk to any parent and the last thing they want to do is take their kid into a toy store. LOL!

If I can buy my kid a toy from the comfort of my own home on my ipad in the middle of the night, without my kids screaming at me and other kids running around and without paying sales tax and get free shipping...you bet I'm going to do that.

It's not like Toys R Us invented toys. It's not like they brought anything proprietary to the toy shopping experience. They just sold the same toy you can get anywhere else and John Q Public finally woke up and figure that out.
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2018, 04:47:42 pm »
Toys R Us has been around since what? ...the 50's? They had 70 years to under their belt and just now they couldn't get their debt sorted out? Pfft....I don't buy it. The timing of EVERYONE shifting to online retail is just too coincidental. Talk to any parent and the last thing they want to do is take their kid into a toy store. LOL!

If I can buy my kid a toy from the comfort of my own home on my ipad in the middle of the night, without my kids screaming at me and other kids running around and without paying sales tax and get free shipping...you bet I'm going to do that.

It's not like Toys R Us invented toys. It's not like they brought anything proprietary to the toy shopping experience. They just sold the same toy you can get anywhere else and John Q Public finally woke up and figure that out.

Great video explaining how it all went wrong...


Skip to the 7 minute mark to get into the issues due to the closure.


I will say I am very saddened that my kids wont get the joy I had going to Toys R Us for a treat when I was a kid. But then again, Toys R Us was a bit different in the 80's.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 04:49:13 pm by Ian »
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2018, 04:56:01 pm »
My kids are old enough they played with toys and we loved taking them to Toys R Us to shop.  I still shop there occasionally for gifts.  I get why they are going away but it still makes me sad.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2018, 05:04:40 pm »
Toys R Us has been around since what? ...the 50's? They had 70 years to under their belt and just now they couldn't get their debt sorted out? Pfft....I don't buy it. The timing of EVERYONE shifting to online retail is just too coincidental. Talk to any parent and the last thing they want to do is take their kid into a toy store. LOL!

If I can buy my kid a toy from the comfort of my own home on my ipad in the middle of the night, without my kids screaming at me and other kids running around and without paying sales tax and get free shipping...you bet I'm going to do that.

It's not like Toys R Us invented toys. It's not like they brought anything proprietary to the toy shopping experience. They just sold the same toy you can get anywhere else and John Q Public finally woke up and figure that out.


Great video explaining how it all went wrong...


Skip to the 7 minute mark to get into the issues due to the closure.


I will say I am very saddened that my kids wont get the joy I had going to Toys R Us for a treat when I was a kid. But then again, Toys R Us was a bit different in the 80's.

Yea, that sounds like a really complicated way of just saying "they were not making money".

It's not like all the people at Toys R Us woke up one day and were like "Gee wiz! What happend? Why did all of the complicated acquisitions and buyouts suddenly threaten our business!?"

Companies can operate with debt...so long as they continue to make money. It's the "making money part" that Toys R Us wasn't doing. lol

Again, if it wasn't Toys R Us' fault...and they were just a victim of circumstances...then another entity would have swooped in to save them because the "brand name" is valuable....but NOBODY did. That right there is your answer. Everyone else sees the writing on the wall when it comes to selling toys that can be literally bought anywhere now. Faster, easier, and cheaper.

If  the concept of brick and mortar toy stores is something that people want, then it shouldn't have failed. Better yet, someone would have saved them. (or at least saved the name/brand)
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2018, 05:10:55 pm »
I recently bought a X-Wing lego set for my gran daughters birthday. (She loves legos and star wars, cool kid).

Anyway I went to Toys R Us and they only had one box on the shelf, and it looked like it had been opened. Lid was scotch taped closed.
I decided not to take a chance on it missing some parts, so I went to Walmart to find a different toy.
Walmart had the exact same set for 10 dollars cheaper. It wound up in the cart.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #13 on: March 16, 2018, 05:26:34 pm »
VR will replace toys in the next decade anyway, so it doesn't really matter...

I see it this way:  Everything consumer based will end up coming down to three ways to purchase:  Online through massive distributors like Amazon, through the big box stores like Walmart, and through the niche one-off small businesses.  The specialty chain is dying and will not make it, nor will the medium sized retailers.  Those businesses are just where people go to see stuff before they buy it online any more and their fate is already written.  But small single owner/operator stores for products we all grew up buying at the local mall or at some no longer operating regional chain are doing really well these days. 

A buddy of mine has a toy store here, and about 70% of what he sells is vintage stuff to adults.  He also carries some new stuff, but really only items that may become collectible or are hot sellers right now, like quad copters.  He is devastated at TRU closing because he is so passionate about toys and has fond memories of shopping at places like it as a kid (even though the ToysRUs here didn't open until we were parents) and he sees the toy industry losing big on this one.  But he will probably benefit from them closing on a business level.  It doesn't really matter, in 20-25 years he will be closed because the current generation of kids won't have toys they are nostalgic about, their nostalgia will be for handheld devices with "old" technology like LCD screens and like lithium ion batteries...  Nobody will care about plastic stuff in 25 years.

Personally, I'm surprised it took this long for them to close.  That place made its entire year on Christmas and I never once saw more than two cars in the parking lot the other 11 months of the year, and they are on a major street right next to WalMart with a regional consumer base of over a quarter million shoppers.  I only took my kids about 3 times over the years, because as it was said, they were too damn expensive for something my kids would play with for a week before dumping in the toy box with the rest of the junk.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2018, 05:58:14 pm »
All that vintage stuff is about to collapse.  Once the baby boomers start dying en masse, so will all those antique junk stores.  I go into them every so often, and I’m the only one under 65 to be found.

Oh well, another one from my childhood in the dustbin alongside CompUSA, Circuit City, Incredible Universe, Funcoland.....


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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2018, 06:11:12 pm »
The vintage toy market is a house of cards for sure.  Vintage gaming - that is just hitting its stride as children of the 80s like myself finally get their kids off to college and have the free time and money to buy back all the gaming crap from our long-past youth.  Arcade, pinball, and retro-consoles are at the beginning of a long interest and price appreciation cycle. 


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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2018, 07:48:31 pm »
The vintage toy market is a house of cards for sure.  Vintage gaming - that is just hitting its stride as children of the 80s like myself finally get their kids off to college and have the free time and money to buy back all the gaming crap from our long-past youth.  Arcade, pinball, and retro-consoles are at the beginning of a long interest and price appreciation cycle.

Funny enough my 9 & 11 yr old are big on NES and SNES.
Primarily the mario world games.
they will play those as long as I let them if it's put in front of them.

as for Toy's R US. my kids had some gift cards and i got them those modular nerf guns.
But other than the giant action figures there was very little of interest to them.
They don't even want to go there anymore.
The big hurt to my wallet now is gamestop.


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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2018, 08:26:41 pm »
Ya know its funny you guys saying about good memories of Toys R Us.

I was just thinking, I have none!!
I only remember going there maybe 3 times as a kid and everything being to expensive for my parents to afford to buy me.

Obviously as a kid I didnt understand and it was a giant torment. but in hindsight I get why they couldnt buy me the shiny cool toys that were all around me.

The only memory of getting anything I really wanted from there was my dad buying me a copy of Dark Wing Duck on the NES for a birthday or something.
But that was about £40 if I recall when I think most games at the time were like £25-30 new.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2018, 08:42:58 pm »
Well, they always had it, but you were always going to pay at least full retail.  I only ever went when we were buying some specific toy for some super particular birthday kid.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #19 on: March 16, 2018, 08:57:02 pm »
FWIW, the Canadian Toys 'R Us's are reportedly profitable and they're trying to find a buyer for them.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #20 on: March 17, 2018, 05:52:21 pm »
Well, they always had it, but you were always going to pay at least full retail.  I only ever went when we were buying some specific toy for some super particular birthday kid.

The thing about Toys R Us is, regardless of if you shopped there you reaped the benefits of their stores so long as you bought toys.  As I explained they had a lot of shelf space and some of it was allotted for new toy lines to try their stuff.  Lots of toy lines would have never made it without Toy R Us.   

The fact that they charged "too much" had little to do with their downfall though.  It mostly had to do with some clowns behind the scenes incurring massive debt with bad investments. 

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #21 on: March 17, 2018, 07:39:44 pm »
      Unless a toy possesses some inherent physical danger, Like burns, some nitro powered finger chomping flying device, or involves strapping bottle rockets on Barbie, for a moon walk, they are just not fun and I can see why they would close a store that was selling high priced pokeman candy.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #22 on: March 17, 2018, 07:58:23 pm »
We went to the closing sale today so my wife could pick up some things for a special needs student in her classroom.    There are some good deals if you are into action figures and collectibles.  Most things were 40% off but Nintendo Switches and Lego's were only 10% off. 

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #23 on: March 18, 2018, 08:00:23 am »
We went to the closing sale today so my wife could pick up some things for a special needs student in her classroom.    There are some good deals if you are into action figures and collectibles.  Most things were 40% off but Nintendo Switches and Lego's were only 10% off.

That legos x-wing kit was 70 bucks (+change) at Toys R Us, at walmart it was 60 (+change). Thats more than 10% just by going to a different store thats not boasting 10% off.
Now why is Toys R Us closing, again?

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #24 on: March 18, 2018, 12:08:58 pm »
There are many high street stores that I'll miss once they're gone, but Toys R Us definitely isn't one of them.

Visiting my local branch is a soul destroying experience. Last time I went the shop was completely dead - only a handful of customers, and a couple of bored looking staff who can't provide you with any information about the products they're selling. Very few of the interactive toys were being demonstrated so I was left looking at rows upon rows of sealed boxes. What's the fun in that? And as someone has already pointed out, they're very overpriced.

One other thing that irritates me is that it's really hard to leave the premises. You're forced to go through the checkouts even if you haven't bought anything, and then you have to walk down a maze of corridors before you can actually reach the exit. I presume this is to deter shoplifting, but it hardly generates a feeling of goodwill when a shop treats its customers as potential criminals.
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2018, 02:03:50 pm »
I presume this is to deter shoplifting, but it hardly generates a feeling of goodwill when a shop treats its customers as potential criminals.

That's society for you. The local Wal-Mart now only has 2 or 3 cashiers to force shoppers to use the self checkout... Then the greeter stops you on the way out to make sure you actually paid for the paper towels in your cart... ---fudgesicle--- consumerism.
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #26 on: March 19, 2018, 09:18:08 am »
The UK has other toy stores - Smyths and "The Entertainer" come to mind. Now, maybe these are ToysRUs under a different brand (but I don't think so) and if not then there is a chance they will try to break into the US market at this point, no?

Aside from that, don't people shop online now - isn't that ToysRUs biggest issue? So, people will still buy as many games just online rather than from in-store?

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #27 on: March 19, 2018, 09:41:09 am »
Nope, not really.  Yes more and more people are buying stuff online, but you don't discover new products online, especially child-oriented stuff like toys, you do that in a store where you can browse.  If you don't believe me then try to stumble upon something new on sites like amazon or Walmart.com, where the toys category can have thousands of entries. 

Also as I've said, the primary reason Toy R Us is shutting down has to do with some bad business decisions behind the scenes that incurred massive debt they could never recover from.  Toy Sales aren't down, they just haven't shown much growth in recent years, which is fine if you don't have any debt to pay off, but if you do....

In general online stores are killing brick and mortar though and the reason is that none of their online websites are structured properly.  If I order from an online version of a store, the sale goes to the website, not my local store... if they want to save the b&m store then the sale should go to my local store, even if I buy it online, even if they don't have it in stock.  If they did that then the problem would be solved.  The thing is, they don't want to do that, because it would mean the company as a whole would earn slightly less money, and CEOs are so short sighted that they can't see without the b&m stores their websites will wither and die, because the brand recognition from seeing the stores everywhere is the only reason people visit their website as opposed to more popular ones like amazon.com.  Did you know that Montgomery Wards is still in business online?  Neither does anyone else because the real stores went out of business.  The company that bought the name and continued the online catalog went out of business within 4 years, and it's been constantly changing hands ever since.  No Stores=no brand recognition. 

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #28 on: March 19, 2018, 11:10:37 am »
We made $411.20 when Montgomery Ward's went out of business.  Had a card with a $41.12 balance.  Mailed a check, they shut down, and someone punched it into their system as $411.20.  So got a refund check in the mail for the full amount.  Damnedest thing.  Did enjoy the free money, though.




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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #29 on: March 19, 2018, 11:52:58 am »
I have no data to support this but I find it hard to believe toy sales overall are not down.  My wife tells stories of having to teach kids in her classroom how to play with blocks and other toys when they have indoor recess.  They have no concept of what to do with something that doesn't have a screen on it.

Nope, not really.  Yes more and more people are buying stuff online, but you don't discover new products online, especially child-oriented stuff like toys, you do that in a store where you can browse.  If you don't believe me then try to stumble upon something new on sites like amazon or Walmart.com, where the toys category can have thousands of entries. 

I agree with this 100%.  The online browsing experience just isn't the same.  To this day I can't walk past a Hot Wheels display without at least taking a peek and still buy 3 or 4 cars a year.  Never have I browsed them on online.  Plus the visceral experience of flipping through the cars on the rack is part of the enjoyment.


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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #30 on: March 19, 2018, 12:20:22 pm »
I have no data to support this but I find it hard to believe toy sales overall are not down.  My wife tells stories of having to teach kids in her classroom how to play with blocks and other toys when they have indoor recess.  They have no concept of what to do with something that doesn't have a screen on it.

Nope, not really.  Yes more and more people are buying stuff online, but you don't discover new products online, especially child-oriented stuff like toys, you do that in a store where you can browse.  If you don't believe me then try to stumble upon something new on sites like amazon or Walmart.com, where the toys category can have thousands of entries. 

I agree with this 100%.  The online browsing experience just isn't the same.  To this day I can't walk past a Hot Wheels display without at least taking a peek and still buy 3 or 4 cars a year.  Never have I browsed them on online.  Plus the visceral experience of flipping through the cars on the rack is part of the enjoyment.


That worries me greatly...
But I cant really say I am surprised.

Still I find it really sad, having had apprentices straight out of school I have noticed their general knowledge drop year on year.
Inability to use calculators or read a rule.

But apparently they are loosing their imagination also!

Very sad state of affairs!


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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #31 on: March 19, 2018, 12:35:41 pm »
Nope, not really.  Yes more and more people are buying stuff online, but you don't discover new products online, especially child-oriented stuff like toys, you do that in a store where you can browse.  If you don't believe me then try to stumble upon something new on sites like amazon or Walmart.com, where the toys category can have thousands of entries. 

Also as I've said, the primary reason Toy R Us is shutting down has to do with some bad business decisions behind the scenes that incurred massive debt they could never recover from.  Toy Sales aren't down, they just haven't shown much growth in recent years, which is fine if you don't have any debt to pay off, but if you do....

In general online stores are killing brick and mortar though and the reason is that none of their online websites are structured properly.  If I order from an online version of a store, the sale goes to the website, not my local store... if they want to save the b&m store then the sale should go to my local store, even if I buy it online, even if they don't have it in stock.  If they did that then the problem would be solved.  The thing is, they don't want to do that, because it would mean the company as a whole would earn slightly less money, and CEOs are so short sighted that they can't see without the b&m stores their websites will wither and die, because the brand recognition from seeing the stores everywhere is the only reason people visit their website as opposed to more popular ones like amazon.com.  Did you know that Montgomery Wards is still in business online?  Neither does anyone else because the real stores went out of business.  The company that bought the name and continued the online catalog went out of business within 4 years, and it's been constantly changing hands ever since.  No Stores=no brand recognition.
   Well.... Thing is you do, Not only do kids already know what they want, via friends and interwebs, but finding it at TR/us or M/w probably a long day of futility , driving all over town and still price compare online as you shop anyway.... As for new products, well there too, just being online looking at say a cute panty set, the ads follow you around profiling you and sneaking in product placement tactics and finally pop up at sites like this in a banner ad where many choices prevail, all competing for your attention I would assume Saint would get some kind of ad generated kickback, should you not only read the ad but actually buy it through this site, Not a bad thing friend....As for Toys are Us, they can blow chunks for all I care, they stopped selling solvent based model paints and glue years ago (when the lost my business) and now Jennifer not only has choices, but can get the lowest prices, and free shipping through Amazon.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #32 on: March 19, 2018, 12:48:27 pm »
 And furthermore.... It wasn't that long ago, where 1 store was your parts supplier, now You have literally the whole world at your fingertips, Choices Man, Many, many choices. ;D

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #33 on: March 20, 2018, 11:41:14 am »
Without seeing numbers, I would also have a hard time believing that toy sales have not declined.  "Toy Sales" being any toy that is not a video game.  Without video game sales, I can't imagine the toy market is doing even half of what it was a decade ago.  Even so, if a business is not growing, it is dying.  If your sales do not at least increase at the inflation rate, you are declining as a company, and enough years of that and you will be closing doors.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #34 on: March 20, 2018, 07:02:37 pm »
My kid has way more than 15-30 percent too many toys, and we never once went to Toys R Us.
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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #35 on: March 20, 2018, 07:46:15 pm »
First thing they teach you in marketing class is “your kids are weird.”


I spent a lot of money learning that.


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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #36 on: March 20, 2018, 09:35:28 pm »
Well something interesting has come about.  Apparently Toys R Us still had the rights to the K B Toys brand, which it bought after their closure in the late 90's.  Since the last year has been a bit of a fire sale for the company, they sold the rights to one of those dead brand acquisition companies last year.  Long story short, KB Toys, a vastly superior toy store imho, might be coming back!  The announced plan is they intend to open some temporary stores this fall for the holiday season, similar to how Spirit Halloween does now.  If it goes well KB will come back with smaller stores in malls and shopping centers next year.  So I guess somebody is stepping up to fill the void. 

I frikkin loved KB back in the day.... most of my games and nearly all of my toys came from that place.  I liked it because it was a combination toy store and hobby store, so it grew with you.  Of course atm they are KB in name only, so only time will tell if they will be as good as they were in the past. 

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #37 on: March 21, 2018, 08:58:55 am »
Toys R Us only opened its first store here in 1993, which I visited around then. In my opinion, I thought the stuff was way overpriced... and never went back.

They later opened some Babies R Us stores, but I've never seen one.

We don't have any other stores or chains that exclusively sell toys, that all died decades ago.

I don't think they'll be missed.... at least as far as I can tell.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #38 on: March 21, 2018, 09:47:57 am »
Well something interesting has come about.  Apparently Toys R Us still had the rights to the K B Toys brand, which it bought after their closure in the late 90's.  Since the last year has been a bit of a fire sale for the company, they sold the rights to one of those dead brand acquisition companies last year.  Long story short, KB Toys, a vastly superior toy store imho, might be coming back!  The announced plan is they intend to open some temporary stores this fall for the holiday season, similar to how Spirit Halloween does now.  If it goes well KB will come back with smaller stores in malls and shopping centers next year.  So I guess somebody is stepping up to fill the void. 

I frikkin loved KB back in the day.... most of my games and nearly all of my toys came from that place.  I liked it because it was a combination toy store and hobby store, so it grew with you.  Of course atm they are KB in name only, so only time will tell if they will be as good as they were in the past.

Were your KB stores in a mall or stand-alone?  Ours were in the mall and their prices were very high.  Having said that we did enjoy shopping there when the kids were little.  We didn't buy much but they were great stores to browse.

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Re: The Death of Toys R Us and what it will mean.
« Reply #39 on: March 21, 2018, 09:57:57 am »
Amazon is looking to buy several of the Toys R Us locations.