Posted on 03/21/2018 7:31:01 AM PDT by fwdude
I still remember experiencing the wonder of walking up and down the aisles of Toys R Us as a child visiting America from New Zealand. To be honest I think my parents were as awed as I was at the rows and rows of Barbie dolls and Ninja turtles, especially coming from a country that did not yet have such a huge range of mass-produced toys available.
It was a time when the age of mass materialism was only just upon us and held wonder and magic. I ended up buying a Little Mermaid sheet set and giant, long, variously coloured ice-blocks which we savoured all that summer, though I do now question my parents’ use of suitcase space.
However, Toys R Us has obviously not managed to maintain the magic. As it prepares to close its doors, people are questioning what went wrong for the once mighty, culturally emblematic business.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercatornet.com ...
Toys R Us demise was caused by stupidity because it supported the murder of it’s own customer base (Planned Parenthood)!
Not just video games - TABLETS
One used to see kids playing with action figures and toys at restaurants, waiting rooms, etc.
Now, all you see is kids with tablets. Parents have found a wonderful, horrible babysitter for kids’ idle minds. Download a movie or a brainless app, and your kid will never need his own imagination ever again.
Plenty of Sinclair gas stations still around (and still with green Dino icon!) ... located in the states centered around Sinclair, Wyoming where their big refinery is:
https://www.sinclairoil.com/customers/locations
“Hard to find a TV & radio repair shop nowadays, too.”
If a modern TV goes bad and it’s out of warranty, the cost to repair is prohibitive, even under warranty they usually just replace.
Oh, and what’s a “radio”?
I think that Burger Chef merged with Hardee’s.
Tower Records was a victim of Amazon.
Competition. Capitalism. Consumer preferences.
You don’t adapt, you die. It’s that simple.
Exactly. Toys R us did not successfully adapt to the changes in their market niche.
Thank you. It’s true. By contributing mightily to Planned Parenthood, Toys r Us financed their own demise.
Population was only one factor.
1. The “birth rate factor” has been in the handwriting on the wall for quite some time, since they peaked in the 1990s, but maybe Toys R Us bricks and mortar footprint did not shrink as fast as the birth rates declined. In fact it expanded all through the decade from the 1990s into early 2000s.
2. Bain Capital did not “rescue” Toys R Us. Toys R Us would have been better off with major strategic downsizing and not all the debt Bain’s “leveraged buyout” placed into the company. Debt service is an issue with a pile-on affect to birth-rate-driven declines in revenue. When capital is needed for restructuring due to declining birth rates, Toys R Us is saddled with higher debt costs (to Bain) than its competitors.
3. Has the online partnership with Amazon helped or hurt Toys R Us? Whose been profiting most from it?
Lastly. 1. The “holiday season” represents a HUGE percentage of toy sales annually. The buyer and current owner of the K B Toys store brand is looking at stepping into the loss of Toys R Us with “pop-up” stores that can come and go seasonally. 2. Electronics have eaten more than many thought into “Toy” sales. I see more and more kids at younger and younger ages getting electronic games and equipment as gifts, and a lot of it sold in stores like Best Buy and others. 3. Toy sales as whole are NOT “down”, they have increased even if slower than previous years. That also points to Toys R Us problems being a lot more than the birth rate.
Does anyone remember the 5&10 cent stores? Simple toys on the cheap, and lots of them. It was my guilty pleasure as a kid.
I’m surprised they didn’t try to blame climate change.
Schwinn bicycles went into a steep decline moving into the 70s, but they were saved somewhat when the bike riding craze took place in the 80s. They now make more adult bikes than kids bikes.
Gerber baby food also felt the pinch and so in order to stay afloat with their investors they branched out into insurance.
I often think of what our country would have been like had we not been trying to control births through pills and abortion.
One thing is for sure, we would have no jobs for foreigners to take away from our native-born citizens.
I guess Ben Franklins (five & dime stores) were replaced by K Mart, and now Dollar General.
The safety nazis ruined childhood. Kids can't go outside and run around like wild indians anymore. I feel sorry for anybody who grew up after 1988. Freedom died when Reagan left office.
IF birth rate is the only reason, Chuck E. Cheese should be next and Disney park(s) would be thinking twice about charging for parking at their hotels now .
And the birth rate has been there for all to see for years.
Also, if you know demographics are changing, you adjust your product line. My son at age 23 still builds 3500 piece Lego sets. We buy them from Lego not Toys R Us.
The company took on too much debt and could not pay the bills as the retail market changed.
I disagree - Amazon doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that the local Toys ‘R Us is dirty, disorganized, and has never had what I wanted to buy. Since my grandson was born, I have gone many times. I always try to buy local before ordering online. When they didn’t have what I needed, and the other stores I try didn’t, THEN I have gone Amazon.
The answer for the US is that we just import children from elsewhere - and these companies push it.
My understanding is that they originally sold items through Amazon but because they wanted to be the exclusive toy seller the deal fell apart - Amazon was unable to sell things Toys R Us didn’t stock.
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