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.
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?
Toys we ain’t
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.
Victim of online shopping? That place has been going downhill for 10 + years.
The underlying problem is that their business model needed some decisive leadership and adaptation, and they didn’t get it from their three parent companies.
This happens far too often to companies that are well run until sold for way too much money to buyout firms that are strictly financial houses and have no clue how to do retail.
“We’ll pay you five times what your used Cadillac would be worth if it was new, then use it in a demolition derby.”
I tend to buy everything “on sale”. Toys R Us would have “sales” that were to buy one/get one half off of the same item or the same type of item. People mostly don’t need two of the same toy. There was no incentive to go there.
Sent me FEDEX overnight letters for 3 months.
Finally left me alone when I asked them whom they were suing for naming dinosaurs with names ending in "rus?"
Bain Capital-—think Mitt Romney—was one of these ‘lenders’. Bain’s main business is taking apart failing companies & piecing out all their assets.
I spent a summer at Toys R Us...it was great, but I go to independent hobby shops for train accessories and toy stores for quality learning toys. Last time I was in TRU was a few years ago..and it was video games mostly. When I worked there, they had RC cars, slot cars, model railroad accessories..I didn’t see that my last visit.
They aren’t a victim of online shopping or discounter. They’re a victim of not bothering to understand the market. They were very successful as small stores in the mall. Then they made the move to go grocery store sized outside the mall. It was always kind of a weird move, is there really that much toy market. For a short time the answer was yes, but not anymore. Part of it is demographic change, the upcoming generation just isn’t as stuff oriented, they don’t try to buy their kids love with toys. And of the toys they do get the department stores offer plenty of selection. They should have smelled this coming 5 to 10 years ago and adjusted. They didn’t.
So why do businesses get special protection from creditors that an average Joe would not?