Toys"R"Us

mphil

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

Corwin

Amazon. When like is too busy to get to the store online is just convenient.

I popped up to check on Pants too.

Mr_Cosmic

Walmart and Amazon..no need to make a special trip to a toy only store. It's sad though..as a kid I LOVED going to toy stores.

nweathington

First, my sympathies go out to Brian. Getting laid off sucks. Been there, done that, and don't want to go through it again.

Second, I wonder how many dominoes are going to fall in the aftermath of this—toy companies, I mean.

Matt

mphil said:

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

My wife & I do about 80-85% of our shopping online. Even groceries. We can shop online, set an appointment for pick up, then call the number when we pull up to the curb. They bring out the groceries, we pay there, & load the grocery bags. It’s a $3 extra fee, but then we don’t pick up unnecessary items. It saves us money in the long run.

I do still on occasion stop off at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us if I know the price (and availability) is better then Amazon. That’s practically always solo. It’s a quicker trip, doesn’t commit me to buy when I’m doing recon, & I don’t buy things I didn’t plan to.

mphil

Matt said:

mphil said:

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

My wife & I do about 80-85% of our shopping online. Even groceries. We can shop online, set an appointment for pick up, then call the number when we pull up to the curb. They bring out the groceries, we pay there, & load the grocery bags. It’s a $3 extra fee, but then we don’t pick up unnecessary items. It saves us money in the long run.

I do still on occasion stop off at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us if I know the price (and availability) is better then Amazon. That’s practically always solo. It’s a quicker trip, doesn’t commit me to buy when I’m doing recon, & I don’t buy things I didn’t plan to.

You're an adult. Of course you prefer convenience and don't care about browsing, you have limited free time. Kids have a lot of free time. It just seems strange to me that kids know exactly what they want to get. But obviously they must, or their parents are just not willing to take them.

nweathington

Matt said:

mphil said:

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

My wife & I do about 80-85% of our shopping online. Even groceries. We can shop online, set an appointment for pick up, then call the number when we pull up to the curb. They bring out the groceries, we pay there, & load the grocery bags. It’s a $3 extra fee, but then we don’t pick up unnecessary items. It saves us money in the long run.

I do still on occasion stop off at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us if I know the price (and availability) is better then Amazon. That’s practically always solo. It’s a quicker trip, doesn’t commit me to buy when I’m doing recon, & I don’t buy things I didn’t plan to.

I wonder how much of the nation’s domestic economy is dependent on impulse buying? I imagine the percentage is pretty high.

Hex

nweathington said:

I wonder how much of the nation’s domestic economy is dependent on impulse buying? I imagine the percentage is pretty high.

Ha! MOST of my internet purchases are impulse buys!

Also... Toys"R"Us in Canada is a separate division from the US counterpart. They are driving home the message today that they are alive and kicking, and it is "Business as usual" (for now at least). For those of you who need your fix, come visit!

Matt

mphil said:

Matt said:

mphil said:

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

My wife & I do about 80-85% of our shopping online. Even groceries. We can shop online, set an appointment for pick up, then call the number when we pull up to the curb. They bring out the groceries, we pay there, & load the grocery bags. It’s a $3 extra fee, but then we don’t pick up unnecessary items. It saves us money in the long run.

I do still on occasion stop off at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us if I know the price (and availability) is better then Amazon. That’s practically always solo. It’s a quicker trip, doesn’t commit me to buy when I’m doing recon, & I don’t buy things I didn’t plan to.

You're an adult. Of course you prefer convenience and don't care about browsing, you have limited free time. Kids have a lot of free time. It just seems strange to me that kids know exactly what they want to get. But obviously they must, or their parents are just not willing to take them.

I’m only an adult in the legal sense. Not sure your kid situation. I’ve got a 2yo & a 5yo. They want anything advertised on Nick, Jr. & the Disney channel. If we’re at a store, the bulk of what they want are things in packages; mostly figurines. They don’t really play with them before we buy them.

Matt

nweathington said:

Matt said:

mphil said:

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

My wife & I do about 80-85% of our shopping online. Even groceries. We can shop online, set an appointment for pick up, then call the number when we pull up to the curb. They bring out the groceries, we pay there, & load the grocery bags. It’s a $3 extra fee, but then we don’t pick up unnecessary items. It saves us money in the long run.

I do still on occasion stop off at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us if I know the price (and availability) is better then Amazon. That’s practically always solo. It’s a quicker trip, doesn’t commit me to buy when I’m doing recon, & I don’t buy things I didn’t plan to.

I wonder how much of the nation’s domestic economy is dependent on impulse buying? I imagine the percentage is pretty high.

Yeah. I also wonder how better personal budgets would be without impulsive buying.

nweathington

Matt said:

nweathington said:

Matt said:

mphil said:

Sad day. I hope Pants is doing well. If I wasn't a CGS listener I probably would have been shocked by this news, but hearing Pants talk about the stores trouble... I was still surprised but not as much as I would have been.

Do parents really just buy their kids toys all online now? What ever happened to going to the store and getting to try out a toy, and winding up finding something you didn't even know about? Is that just gone?

Or is it that kids just don't play with toys these days, it's all stuff on screens?

My wife & I do about 80-85% of our shopping online. Even groceries. We can shop online, set an appointment for pick up, then call the number when we pull up to the curb. They bring out the groceries, we pay there, & load the grocery bags. It’s a $3 extra fee, but then we don’t pick up unnecessary items. It saves us money in the long run.

I do still on occasion stop off at a Walmart, Target, or Toys R Us if I know the price (and availability) is better then Amazon. That’s practically always solo. It’s a quicker trip, doesn’t commit me to buy when I’m doing recon, & I don’t buy things I didn’t plan to.

I wonder how much of the nation’s domestic economy is dependent on impulse buying? I imagine the percentage is pretty high.

Yeah. I also wonder how better personal budgets would be without impulsive buying.

It depends. If you’re one of a relative few, your personal budget will look fantastic compared to others of your income level. But if everyone did that, the U.S. economy would become significantly less productive. I have to believe that unemployment would be higher as well.

Brack

KKR & Bain Capital are what killed Toys R Us, not online competition.

Also worth noting that this is the second toy shop chain Bain Capital have destroyed. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829

The idea that competition finished Toys R Us is a nice little story that helps prop up the myth of capitalism. Whereas what actually happened is a far more ugly truth about capitalism.

nweathington

Oh, Toys ‘R’ Us’s troubles started before KKR and Bain Capital bought them out—which is why they agreed to the buyout in the first place. They were already getting trounced by Wal-Mart and Target by that point. In fact, Wal-Mart started outselling TRU back in 1998. But, yeah, the buyout debt crippled the company as far as their being able to make adjustments. They still might could have righted the ship if they’d established themselves online first, maybe, but Wal-Mart and Target beat them there too, not to mention Amazon.

[Deleted User]

nweathington said:

Oh, Toys ‘R’ Us’s troubles started before KKR and Bain Capital bought them out—which is why they agreed to the buyout in the first place. They were already getting trounced by Wal-Mart and Target by that point. In fact, Wal-Mart started outselling TRU back in 1998. But, yeah, the buyout debt crippled the company as far as their being able to make adjustments. They still might could have righted the ship if they’d established themselves online first, maybe, but Wal-Mart and Target beat them there too, not to mention Amazon.

Yeah... Companies like Bain Capital don't buy companies because they enjoy buying failing companies and losing their investment by shutting them down. The idea is to RESCUE the company, return it to profitability, and sell it for a profit. This doesn't always work, and the company has to shut down and be liquidated. Before Bain came along, they were already saddled with an insurmountable amount of debt due to falling sales.

If this is the "ugly side of capitalism", people have an interesting tendency to ignore the "pretty side of capitalism" where a company like Bain swoops in, rescues the company, people keep their jobs, and everyone is happy. The other story gets more clicks.

mwhitt80

That's one thing people have forgotten about Toys R Us. It was about to be bankrupt before it was bought. Toys R Us would have been out of business a decade ago.

I don't agree with a lot of business practices of these Capital firms, but to solely blame Bain Capital for this isn't correct.

nweathington

The Babies ‘R’ Us stores were still going pretty strong at the time of the buyout—thanks to the higher ticket items, like the cribs and changing tables, etc. But that was the only real positive going for TRU back then. No other way to say it, it was a bad investment.

But let’s not kid ourselves, Bain and the other two stakeholders could have done a better job in handling TRU. They didn’t invest in the stores as far as physical upgrades or finding innovative ways of attracting customers, and most importantly they fell asleep at the wheel as far as creating an online presence. Most likely, it would still not have been enough to save the company, but it would have given TRU more of a fighting chance. At least they didn’t do to TRU what they did to KB Toys.

And speaking of KB Toys, now it’s thinking (under new ownership, same as the original ownership) of getting back in the game to fill the TRU void. They want stores open by Christmas.

mwhitt80

I'm not arguing it was managed properly. I'm arguing that Toys R Us would have already been history.
I love toys r us; it's a super fun store. My daughter was just big enough to start really loving it. I want a world with more toys and playing not less.
Things I've ordered this week. Little people, Playmobil and legos. I've never speculated on Legos, but I bought a few the Geoffrey and Friends set

nweathington

mwhitt80 said:

I've never speculated on Legos, but I bought a few the Geoffrey and Friends set

The Lego aftermarket is kind of crazy. I went into the closest TRU last week, and that whole section was wiped out except for a few Super Hero Girls sets, and you just know most of those are eventually going to be resold unopened at jacked up prices.

mwhitt80

Yep. Im a builder not a collector, but the Geoffrey sets.. one to build a few to put away.

The Playmobil toys were at a great price, and can be put away for Christmas/birthday.

nweathington

mwhitt80 said:

Yep. Im a builder not a collector, but the Geoffrey sets.. one to build a few to put away.

The Playmobil toys were at a great price, and can be put away for Christmas/birthday.

I had some Playmobil stuff when I was a kid, a cowboy set and an Indian set (hey, it was the ’70s). I liked them well enough, but never got them for my kids.

mwhitt80

nweathington said:

mwhitt80 said:

Yep. Im a builder not a collector, but the Geoffrey sets.. one to build a few to put away.

The Playmobil toys were at a great price, and can be put away for Christmas/birthday.

I had some Playmobil stuff when I was a kid, a cowboy set and an Indian set (hey, it was the ’70s). I liked them well enough, but never got them for my kids.

Those were awesome. A baby sitter had (what seemed like) a ton of the cowboys and knights from the 70s. We ended up buying a bunch from my former sister-in-law when Abigail was baby. I've not even pulled them out of the attic yet. So for like $100 we have Vikings and pirates and a castles and lots of figures.