RIP Toy's R Us
- Thread starter Agent Orange
- Start date
russ69
Backside Slider
Retail is changing, the industry is having trouble keeping up. Retail stores, malls, strip malls, and Mom and Pops, are dying a slow death. Times are changing and nobody knows where it's going, although Amazon has a clue but the technology is still emerging.
AbsolutEnduser
Throttle Pusher
I actually hate that. I've never been a fan of malls but I've been a fan of retail in cities. There's like a total point lost in living somewhere, in some kind of a society, if you don't have such focal congregation places such as retail.
This reminds me I really need to return the last pair of pliers I bought from Amazon.. the junk came with the two jaws not matched (misaligned vertically:wtf)
littlebeast
get it while it's easy
my only memory of them was many years ago - out Christmas shopping with my little sister, her husband and two young sons. the boys were misbehaving badly and she was pulling her hair out that they were uncontrollable. i persuaded her to let the boys come with me - took them to TRU - and told them to have at it. they went nuts playing with all of the toys, including a fight fest of lobbing stuffed animals at each other and at everyone else in the vicinity. it was full on chaos that required serious restitution at the cash register. the toy equivalent of a food fight. afterwards, i returned them to her calm and exhausted. she didn’t ask any questions. and me and the boys didn’t tattle to their mom. she would have shit twinkies if she knew.
Just a counter point, how do they compete with the us consumer that decided they what cheap habor freight shit over more expenive USmade tools (craftsman)?
CoorsLight
Well-known member
Climber
Well-known member
Scale down, if necesary.
There are very, very few things I would buy at Harbor Freight, I barked my fingers in sub-freezing temps because sockets broke on me several times in my early 20's and would never go with cheap shit since when it comes to tools. Lesson learned.
Sometimes you just have to let people learn the hard way.
Climber
Well-known member
People are going to do what they're going to do, you just have to adjust your business to account for that. Nobody said it was easy, making a lot of money shouldn't just be a given.
HappyHighwayman
Warning: Do Not Engage
Sears has been run into the ground for years, the CEO is a crazy person.
295566
Numbers McGee
Sad. My parents have a neighbor who's mentally challenged son has worked at Toys R Us for 20+ years, because that's the only job that he was able to land. It's the only thing that he has going for him, keeping him somewhat self reliant. Still lives at home and is dependent on parents for a lot, but having a job that he rides his bike to and from a few times a week was huge for him.
Over the past 10 years or so they cut his hours in half basically, because they couldn't afford to keep him on the floor (his measly raises every year or so, over more than 20 years, meant they were paying him more than almost everyone else in the store, including managers). Still though, he loved the job, loved seeing the joy on the kids' faces when in the store.
Sad to see this opportunity for him close, after being such a big part of his life for so long. I sincerely hope he's able to find something similar soon.
Over the past 10 years or so they cut his hours in half basically, because they couldn't afford to keep him on the floor (his measly raises every year or so, over more than 20 years, meant they were paying him more than almost everyone else in the store, including managers). Still though, he loved the job, loved seeing the joy on the kids' faces when in the store.
Sad to see this opportunity for him close, after being such a big part of his life for so long. I sincerely hope he's able to find something similar soon.
AbsolutEnduser
Throttle Pusher
A trend (*?) of detached, wild, executives spotted--just as in the United thread where they decided to eliminate their bonus and make it a 'fun lottery' and lots of averse fun ensued...
* - trend or expected reality, UBTJudge
yodaisgod
KHAAAAAN!
Toys "R" Us' debt problems date back to well before Amazon was a major threat. Its debt was downgraded to junk bond status in January of 2005, at a time when Amazon's sales were just 4% of their current level.
A year later the company was taken private by KKR, Bain Capital and real estate firm Vornado. The $6.6 billion purchase left it with $5.3 billion in debt secured by its assets and it never really recovered.
When Toys "R" Us filed for bankruptcy in September 2017, it disclosed it had about $5 billion in debt and was spending about $400 million a year just to service that debt.
source: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/news/companies/toys-r-us-closing-blame/index.html
littlebeast
get it while it's easy
yes - very sad. we have a neighbor with almost the exact same story - adult son who lives with his elderly parents, mentally challenged (and also has a physical disability). a few years ago he got a job watering plants in the garden department of the local home depot. it changed him a major way - i’m sure from feeling useful and getting to see people a lot - which he loves. his face lights up when he talks about his job - and he LOVES to talk about it. i can’t even imagine how devastated he would be to lose it. that and his little dog are far and away the biggest two things that make him happy.
wazzuFreddo
WuTang is 4 the children
My childhood memories of Toys R Us is seeing their ads on TV but not being able to go to one because their closest store was 140 miles away. :laughing
It made 6 year old me into the bitter man I am today.
It made 6 year old me into the bitter man I am today.
Mike95060
Work In Progress
My childhood memories of Toys R Us is seeing their ads on TV but not being able to go to one because their closest store was 140 miles away. :laughing
It made 6 year old me into the bitter man I am today.
I never went to a Toy's R Us as a kid either. We had "Lionel Kiddie City" that was about an hour away. I never went to that one either.