Posted on 09/19/2017 5:00:06 AM PDT by C19fan
Toys ‘R’ Us Inc, the largest U.S. toy store chain, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. This is the latest sign of turmoil in the retail industry caught in a viselike grip of online shopping and discount chains. Toys ‘R’ Us said it received a commitment for over $3billion in debtor-in-possession financing from lenders including a JPMorgan-led bank syndicate and certain of the company’s existing lenders.
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I think their problem was demographic. The bulk of their customers aged out.
Screw them and their no concealable weapons signs. I won’t go in there.
I don’t think it’s so much a “preference” for shopping on line, as it is the personal safety factor. I no longer go to malls, or big box stores because of the gangs, and crime. If I can find what I need on line, then I order it. That, and smaller, independent retailers are trending back to the forefront.
I’m also tired of lazy, rude, store personnel, with attitudes. If the CEO’s of the world remain blind to this impediment, then they’ll be out on their keisters pretty quick.
It was reported here yesterday that operations were profitable but not profitable enough to manage the debt from acquisitions.
us too!
plastic crap ....
ToysRUs and several other toystore chains suffered badly when Walmart and Target took off. The Big Box stores often had nearly the same selection, at better prices and usually the store was closer to the customers. The arrival of Amazon put the final nail in the coffin by making it possible to locate otherwise-scarce products that the Big Box stores either ran out of quickly or never stocked due to low volume. Between the BB stores and Amazon, I’m surprised ToysRUs lasted as long as it did.
BabiesRUs on the other hand will probably soldier on. While Amazon is great for buying toys and clothing, customers much prefer to buy things like baby furniture and strollers in person where they can get their hands on them and try them out. It’s hard to determine how sturdy a crib is, or how easy (or frustratingly hard) it is to fold a stroller, based on a picture. Plus, when Junior somehow manages to break said sturdy crib or stroller, you don’t want to wait 3-4 days for the replacement to arrive.
How is K-Mart/Sears still in business?
Chinese plastic crap ....
Toys we ain’t
Dunno, but where I live, their store-announcements are in Spanish. :-/
I hate to sound like a technoscold but with even babies engaged in hours of ‘screen time’ on iPads etc. videos and video games have supplanted actual toys hence the financial problems.
This is, for obvious reasons, a very bad trend. Toys and play serve an infinite amount of purposes from developing coordination to imagination to, crucially, dealing with disputes even if the result is a shouting match or a physical fight.
Much of today’s snarky, passive-aggressive churlish youth got that way because they have had little or no experience in conflict resolution. Cyberbullying is a silly term and a silly concept but for kids who exist mostly in cyberspace I suppose it has deep meaning for them.
It goes without saying that the parade of fat kids walking around are spending hours seated or even lying down using phones and tables. These hours used to - and should be - spent on bicycles or in pickup ball games and not just because it’s what we used to do but because it’s 1000x healthier in mind and body.
I think Drudge has a piece today that says today’s children are effectively three (3) years behind the children of the past developmentally despite all the worldly knowledge at their fingertips. Helicopter parents and nanny staters are extending childhood and kids are literally robbing themselves of the best years of their lives by living an unchanging existence between elementary, middle and high school and even secondary education.
The riots, protests, occupations, petitions, etc. of today are mob behavior brought on by existence within a (virtual) mob for most of their lives.
Ironically, they have been fed self-esteem pablum for so long if you asked them ‘are you an independent thinker?’ 100% of them would answer with an unhesitating ‘yes’ despite the fact that they are neither independent nor thinkers.
The point of all this is that the Information/Technology Age has been quite handy in fending off leftist media dogma and damaging their brands but when toys go out of style we have a serious problem because toys are a means to an end.
I wouldn’t blame online shopping. I would blame their prices.
And are now grandparents. I spend a lot on my granddaughter but I like good prices.
I shop Toys R Us with my daughter and I gotta tell you - no self-respecting gang banger would be caught dead in there.
Actually I have to disagree with your hands on theory. I go by reviews of others on Amazon. If others say something sucks, I don’t buy it. Babies R Us just has high prices but the one where I shop has great customer service.
I agree. Ipads to 50 inch screens do the babysitting when kids are home. Screens in cars for trips so the kids will be settled. Underimagination and overstimulation is not developing children and preparing them for life.
Perhaps they should have considered celebrating Christmas...the holiday that pays their bills...instead of being pc. Just a thought.
Not to belabor the point but I believe the problem is so widespread that it’s one major reason Hollywood types are literally unable to produce a single new idea and rely on decades-old comic figures and/or remakes of films.
George Lucas devised Star Wars after long hours of thinking, walking his dog, etc. I’m not a huge Stephen King fan but I can almost guarantee that he did the same.
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