Is Toys R Us doomed to close all stores?

originally posted by: venom79x
Ok, so many of us in the toy collecting world have known about the 184 TRU store closings for a while now, but this is new. One of the options that is on the table now, is that Toys R Us is now considering closing all of their stores in the United States. I know that they are guilty of inflated pricing. I know that you can find things cheaper online through Amazon or Ebay. I get that... How many of us have memories of walking around the store as a child, our interests absolutely piqued by what we saw? I remember full aisles of GI Joe and Transformers. These days, 75% of the toys are dumb as hell, but still. Those of us that who collect things like Transformers, GI Joe (which has barely released anything in a few years), or Hot Wheels, are pretty much screwed. We will now have to rely on Target (not bad) and WalMart (meh) for finding our collectibles. Makes me think of the days when K-B Toys was in every mall in the country, and then suddenly disappeared. The following link tells what is going on, and also contains a more in-depth link as well. www.seibertron.com... Bankruptcy, liquidation of assets... Bad times for those of us who still love this store, and the many good things that it has brought us over the years.

That's terrible. Amazon is taking away the very soul of our country.

I use to LOVE coming home from work and going to a bookstore and just walking around, spending hours there, just browsing... You'd get a coffee, maybe a donut and browse around looking for a great new book or old book, and look at the pretty girls, maybe get up some courage to say hello to one of em. Just have a great time being normal.

I know that how it was for the toys, the kids love, I'm sure doing the same thing in toys stores, now gone forever because of Amazon and their greed and so-called " technology"

What about the technology of the soul, the heart. I say the American dream is turning into a technological nightmare!

originally posted by: terrapincb
Toys has been in trouble thanks to your favorite, and my favorite, vulture capitalists, Bain Capital.

fortune.com...

Brief blurb:

"So how did Toys ‘R’ Us get here? While Amazon is an easy scapegoat, it’s not all about the rise of e-commerce.

It started in 2005, long before e-commerce started pinching profits of brick and mortar stores. That year, Bain Capital, KKR & Co., and real estate investment trust Vornado Realty Trust bought the toy chain in a $6.6 billion leverage buyout.

The deal left Toys ‘R’ Us with a $5.2 billion albatross of debt around its neck. The interest payments—$400 million a year—left the company weak and ripe for toppling."

I was just going to post, this -- it's not online shopping's fault TRU made very s#ty business moves. It's been grossly mismanaged for 13 years, Amazon did not mismanage them to death.

I just bought 2 bikes there this week for my kids. Honest to god, they were NOT our first choice to buy them at, because of a nasty interaction between my husband and a manager over WELDS on one of our daughter's previous bike coming apart, and the manager not wanting to honor the exchange warranty on it. Hubby did end up walking out with a replacement like the warranty entitled us to, but he swore them off. We didn't enter a TRU again until this week, over a year later and after both kids not finding bikes they liked at Meijer, Target, Cabela's, Dicks OR indie shops (they about drove me up the wall, 6 stores and 6 hours and constant "I don't see one I want" rebuffs, holy crap, children, PICK ONE)

As for my kids being in "wonderland" in there, not really. One kid's an artsy kid and like's browsing Michael's much more than TRU, and the other is a dino nerd. She is less than impressed with TRU's dino offerings, these are simply easier to find online than in person. It's not a matter of online being better for shopping, it's a matter of TRU just not cutting it for us, my kids just don't want what they sell. Sorry to disappoint the toy collectors by reducing TRU foot traffic, but maybe it's time the collectors started their own toy company to fill this void?

Given the amount of large retail chain stores closing down over the last couple of years, is this possibly an indicator of the public tightening belts and not spending, rather than an online shopping issue?
Wages stagnant, taxed to the hilt on everything, rising costs of everything, that’s all going to bite at some point and I think we are already seeing the consequences.

originally posted by: Britguy
Given the amount of large retail chain stores closing down over the last couple of years, is this possibly an indicator of the public tightening belts and not spending, rather than an online shopping issue?
Wages stagnant, taxed to the hilt on everything, rising costs of everything, that’s all going to bite at some point and I think we are already seeing the consequences.

A lot of things. It was mostly the retired pensioners who had time to shop on the high streets. They had savings, and used the interest on those savings to buy gifts for their children and grand-children. But the government economists knew better and slashed savings interest rates in order to kickstart the economy. Plus they froze pension payments due to "austerity measures". So those sources of spending dried up.

Then homes in the cities have been converted into buy-to-let properties for students, who mostly spend their money on pub/restaurants, books and clothes. Families get blocked from living in the cities so shop online or at out-of-town shopping centers. Also, high-street names usually made fatal mistakes by abandoning their loyal customers and trying to attract new markets. They fail at both keeping their existing customers and attracting new customers so go into a death spiral.

Then city coucils declare war on motorists with double yellow lines everywhere and expensive car parks. So when driving a car is the only practical way of going shopping with children, the high-street stores lose even more business.

They haven't changed with the times. Here in the great old middle kingdom the mall owners figured out that to compete they need to bring people to the mall. How do you do that?

Bring in different events to attract them. Every weekend the malls here in Guangzhou (and most of China) will have singers, cooking presentations, Lego booths, Hot Wheels displays, talent shows, competitions, food tastings, and other things to bring people in.

The Hot Wheels booths are awesome and my boys love them. The Lego ones aren't as good but get the job done. I can't remember ever NOT buying something for them when we go to a mall for the event(s). Give someone an experience and they'll spend money generally seems to work, there's whole businesses built on it after all.

Toys R Us could have costumed characters, demonstration events, card game competitions, board game competitions - literally for them anything could really be turned into some event and on the cheap too! Imagine checking the Toys R Us website to see what they have on around your city - stuffed animal collection display/convention, Magic the Gathering tournament, board game event, or Pokemon tournament. People would SPEND money while they are in the store! And I seriously doubt any strip mall or mall would refuse an anchor store like Toys R Us having some events to bring people in.