Toys R Us Is Closing All Its U.S Stores

rgMekanic

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Apparently there isn't going to be anywhere that a kid can be a kid soon. The Washington Post is reporting that Toys R Us is planning to sell or close all 800 of its U.S stores six months after they filed for bankruptcy. The closing will affect as many as 33,000 jobs as the 60 year old mainstay fades away. One positive note is a group of toymakers submitted a bid to buy 82 Toys R Us stores in Canada, and is looking into buying as many as 400 U.S stores, which they would still operate under the Toys R Us name.

Truly a shame, but hopefully Isaac Larian and his group can keep some of them around. I'm still bummed out about Montgomery Wards and now this. Thanks to NeghVar for this bit of nostalgia though.

Isaac Larian, chief executive of MGA Entertainment said, There is no toy business without Toys R Us,” noting that he sold his first product to the chain in 1979. “It’s a big deal and I’m going to try to salvage as much of it as possible.”
 
At 39, I still have a lot of 'kid' inside me. Especially since I have a daughter who enjoys Lego's. She inherited my 2 large Rubbermaid bins of Lego's. When my wife watches us, she often wonders who is having more fun.
I'm going to make some runs to the Toys-R-Us stores in the North Dallas/ Texas area to prep for Christmas 2018.
Most older youth and parents rely on online retail. I believe the only ones who are truly into going to the stores are younger kids. For the kids to see a store wall to wall and floor to ceiling of toys is aw inspiring.
 
Because people are go fucking stuck in best prices verses getting good service and keeping local people employed. I do not price shop a good store where I get excellent service, then go buy on Amazon. I support local businesses.
 
Years ago when my son was much younger (2-3yo) I went into ToysRus after having not shopped their in a decade, and was smashed over the face with the fact that every single item for sale is either from china, korea, or a similar region. THE ENTIRE STORE. The only thing that wasn't made in china were some (actual) wooden block type assorted shape toys for infants made in Holland or something. While the actual business might be syphoning some cash off the top from markup, I realized that ToysRus exists merely as a means for Americans to pump money straight into China. That was the last time I entered the store willingly. Ever since then I let my sons grandmother take him shopping there when she feels like spoiling him on some trivial plastic crap. She took him there this week, to celebrate the closing of the store and bought him some plug in hdmi joystock box shaped like pac man that can play a dozen or so pac man games on the big screen (stupid thing needs 4 AA batteries instead of just plugging in) and I was reminded of the crapfest I had forsaken. sitting right next to his new 'toy' is his tablet/laptop/smartphone with every emulator, the ability to stream directly to the TV, and assorted bluetooth controllers, joysticks, adapters that he could already play all of those games, in much higher fidelity, with better quality equipment. I can see China sitting in the corner with a shit eating grin.
 
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Oh don't fret; the vulture capitalists that bought the company and saddled it with other debt still made money from this ... just like with iHeartRadio today. :mad:

Yup...it appears that in this case, it was Toys R Us that got played. :yuck:
 
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Reason: Kids don't play with toys anymore, they have smartphones, tablets ect. Toys R Us was a great store back in the 80's & 90's.
 
A part of me died when i heard this news. I remember as a kid how my parents would take me there and my eyes would light up with wonder. My daughter will be turning 4 in April and I just visited my store this past xmas for gifts. It felt good knowing that this place would bring happiness to her too. I spent more time in there then intended just looking around at all the cool toys kids have now. I will always be a Toys R Us kid!!!!!!
 
A part of me died when i heard this news. I remember as a kid how my parents would take me there and my eyes would light up with wonder. My daughter will be turning 4 in April and I just visited my store this past xmas for gifts. It felt good knowing that this place would bring happiness to her too. I spent more time in there then intended just looking around at all the cool toys kids have now. I will always be a Toys R Us kid!!!!!!

Yep, and will forever have the Toys R Us song in my head. I can still recite it word for word.
 
This also affects Babies R Us too. A family member who works in one told me that even though they are the profitable side of the company they just couldn't pull the weight of Toys R Us.
 
Years ago when my son was much younger (2-3yo) I went into ToysRus after having not shopped their in a decade, and was smashed over the face with the fact that every single item for sale is either from china, korea, or a similar region. THE ENTIRE STORE. The only thing that wasn't made in china were some (actual) wooden block type assorted shape toys for infants made in Holland or something. While the actual business might be syphoning some cash off the top from markup, I realized that ToysRus exists merely as a means for Americans to pump money straight into China. That was the last time I entered the store willingly. Ever since then I let my sons grandmother take him shopping there when she feels like spoiling him on some trivial plastic crap. She took him there this week, to celebrate the closing of the store and bought him some plug in hdmi joystock box shaped like pac man that can play a dozen or so pac man games on the big screen (stupid thing needs 4 AA batteries instead of just plugging in) and I was reminded of the crapfest I had forsaken. sitting right next to his new 'toy' is his tablet/laptop/smartphone with every emulator, the ability to stream directly to the TV, and assorted bluetooth controllers, joysticks, adapters that he could already play all of those games, in much higher fidelity, with better quality equipment. I can see China sitting in the corner with a shit eating grin.

China isn't the problem here; they aren't responsible for our bad choices. They just make what we choose to buy.
 
Best toys you can ever play with are sticks & rocks. Proudly made in America :)
 
Because people are go fucking stuck in best prices verses getting good service and keeping local people employed. I do not price shop a good store where I get excellent service, then go buy on Amazon. I support local businesses.

Uh what? No they failed to keep up with the times. They made very little (too little too late) investment in having better stores or better employees. Did you even read the article?

"It doesn’t offer the low prices or convenience of some of its larger competitors, nor the fun-filled experience that many smaller outfits do, some analysts have said."
 
In this day and age, the internet dictates the success of almost every business...and TrU's website sucked.
 
I can remember when my local Toys R' Us burned down.That was not a good day. Van Nuys, Ca. But they rebuilt it to be the present day dump it has become. I miss the place. Bought my first NES, Commodore 64 there and other dumb toys. It's sad to see them go but most kids these days don't give a shit. I have Ebay... The Internet's largest flea market. I bought an SNES classic on launch day at a Toys r US and have the receipt and new in the box. I wonder if it will be worth more now that toys r us is done. time will tell.
 
Surprised China didn't buy them out, what with TrU being essentially a Chinese product retailer anyhow. Maybe Walmart can pick up the slack.
 
I support local businesses.

As a general rule I support this but that does not mean paying upwards of 30+% more for identical products. Also, TRU staffed their stores (at least the ones I've been in) with kids who could have cared less about customer service. I should say most kids, there were exceptions. So, buy local makes a good line to toss out there but they have to earn it. At least my business. Support mediocre if you want to... Not me.
 
Oh don't fret; the vulture capitalists that bought the company and saddled it with other debt still made money from this ... just like with iHeartRadio today. :mad:

that is what happen. They were bought out and took public, then given 6.5 million in debt.
 
Ahh, full circle.
Seventeen years ago eToys.com went belly up because nobody was buying toys on the internet. After a few ownership changes the domain was eventually acquired by Toys 'R' Us. Now internet sales are killing Toys 'R' Us.
 
Why is it every company I worked for goes out of business!?.....

Lechters Housewares.......... gone
Fun N Games SE........... gone
Toys R US....... gone, soon
Sweetbay Super Markets....... gone
Nature's Health Foods....... pretty much on it's last leg

If I weren't an Atheist, I'd say I'm cursed.
 
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Why is it every company I worked for goes out of business!?.....

Letchers Housewares.......... gone
Fun N Games SE........... gone
Toys R US....... gone, soon
Sweetbay Super Markets....... gone
Nature's Health Foods....... pretty much on it's last leg

If I weren't an Atheist, I'd say I'm cursed.

Hmm someone should weaponize you.
 
Honestly, I have not seen Toys R Us really embrace modern brick and mortar business practices. I'm not surprised their archaic business model fell apart.

We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas! Cheese it!
 
I will be interested to see how all brick and mortar chains fare over the next 20 years .I hope they don't all go the way of TrU.
 
Why is it every company I worked for goes out of business!?.....

Lechters Housewares.......... gone
Fun N Games SE........... gone
Toys R US....... gone, soon
Sweetbay Super Markets....... gone
Nature's Health Foods....... pretty much on it's last leg

If I weren't an Atheist, I'd say I'm cursed.

Please go work for facebook or twitter.
 
that is what happen. They were bought out and took public, then given 6.5 million in debt.

My understanding is that they were public and were taken private using outside capital. Essentially, some investors bought bought a ton of shares for 6.5 billion (5 billion of which was not their money), which saddled them with debt that cost the them 400 million a year in interest, which prevented them from being profitable and/or investing in their stores/employees.

This is what ultimately killed Toys Я Us.
 
Please go work for facebook or twitter.

Lol, that would be great, but I'm on 30 day banned for saying "F*** Islam" on a fellow Atheist page's post about how Atheists and those that leave the Islamic faith are to be put to death.
I just like it when FB doesn't read the OP why or read what Islam orders it follower to do.

I wonder if I could be banned for saying "F*** Nazism, capitalism, Racism, ect ect" because they have people that might be hurt what I say?
 
Because people are go fucking stuck in best prices verses getting good service and keeping local people employed. I do not price shop a good store where I get excellent service, then go buy on Amazon. I support local businesses.

while the service might be good, who ever manages their stores suck ass.. every toy's r us i've seen on the west coast is always in the worst looking buildings in those cities.. even the old kmarts look better and that's saying a lot. i'll support local business but toy's r us was never going to be one i'd support, sucks for the employee's but i can't be bothered to support a company that doesn't even attempt to maintain their stores appearance.
 
In my day the supreme toy store was Children's Palace. A huge toy store with a castle facade. It was awesome for a kid. Bought my first Avalon Hill board game there which led to many, many more. I never thought Toys R Us matched up with quantity or selection. But it's still a loss I think.
 
My understanding is that they were public and were taken private using outside capital. Essentially, some investors bought bought a ton of shares for 6.5 billion (5 billion of which was not their money), which saddled them with debt that cost the them 400 million a year in interest, which prevented them from being profitable and/or investing in their stores/employees.

This is what ultimately killed Toys Я Us.

Sorry, i did say that backwards. I meant to say they brought out and took private.
 
Damn sorry to hear this but saw it coming. I remember going straight to the Lionel trains when I was a kid and had pocket money to spend. After the trains, it was to the plastic model planes and cars. Pick up a model and some Testors (I think it was called) glue, paint or paint kits.
 
Why is it every company I worked for goes out of business!?.....

Lechters Housewares.......... gone
Fun N Games SE........... gone
Toys R US....... gone, soon
Sweetbay Super Markets....... gone
Nature's Health Foods....... pretty much on it's last leg

If I weren't an Atheist, I'd say I'm cursed.

Be sure to post your next job after Nature's Health Foods so we can all buy some Put Options on your employer.
 
Because people are go fucking stuck in best prices verses getting good service and keeping local people employed. I do not price shop a good store where I get excellent service, then go buy on Amazon. I support local businesses.

Sadly in many places the idea of support local has completely went away for everyone. Even the local business themselves. If they can save a few dollars in any way they will jump at the chance. They are just as much always looking for the best deal as everyone else.

That said i don't like the price shopping thing. Although I also am not in the a place that I have to care about a few dollars. If i already took the time and energy to go to a store I am going to buy said item there. I don't care if i know it would be a little cheaper somewhere else. The only exception would be something too large for me to fit into a vehicle and I need to order to have delivered. Although even in those two cases of having done that I ordered on the site of the place I was at. I have only ordered I think 3 things on Amazon.
 
Star Wars toys holiday sales bombing because Last Jedi was a Star War legacy dumping SJW mess was the final headshot that put TRU out of business.
 
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