“Kids, who needs ‘em?” - Generation Whine
I haven’t been in a toys R Us in many years. My kids are grown and I really didn’t like shopping there when they were younger. I never liked the vibe of the store.
Anyway, I was in need of a high capacity, full automatic assault squirt rifle so off to the local Toys R Us I went.
Amazingly, in mid summer, nary a one was to be found. The store manager was even helping me look.
Huge distribution warehouse close by...huge number of illegals employed there....oh well...
Toys R Us also didn’t price match with Amazon in order to remain competitive, like some b&m stores such as Best Buy and Target do, who still seem to be surviving in an Amazon world.
My first job was at Children’s Palace at Christmas time. Made $3.35 an hour. Job ended after Christmas season but it was the only minimum wage job I ever had.
No, killed off because the stores are dirty and disorganized. I almost never find what I want there. When I do, it takes forever to find it.
Parents in a hurry to buy groceries and other necessities can find a variety of cheaper toys in Walmart etc.,
Specialty stores were the first losers to Amazon. It will continue.
Costco might be the way to go.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon actually looks at buying some of Toys ‘R’ Us assets. Especially its distribution system.
J.C. Penney, Sears, KMart, Macys, Gymboree, Payless, RiteAid, Toys R Us, Gap, Banana Rep., Sams Club, Michael Kors, Guess,
Crocs, J.Crew, The Childrens Place.
The massive inventory killed them.
To bad, I like going to Toys R Us with my girls.
Not too happy about this.
But, the good news is this may be a boon for local small toy shops. We’ve had some crop up recently.
The bulk of kids are not coming from a healthy middle class, but from poor immigrants. All the healthy retail business went away after the baby boomers grew up and we got WalMart, then Amazon, and now buying local retail merchandise is a thing of the past.
Pretty soon we won’t even have curios in minimarts for tourists.
KIlled off by not really carrying anything but main stream stuff and charging far too much for it.
I am willing to spend a bit more for something from a specialty store, but I also expect to be able to find things there I can’t find at Walmart.... When I walk in the door to find something and the only thing you have on your shelves for a toy line is the exact same things I find in an aisle at WalMart, and you want more for it, there is no reason to even come back.
Yes I understand you need to carry the same things, as they are popular, but the fact you carry NOTHING ELSE in addition to it, that’s a problem.
It was kind of their own fault. Toys R Us partnered with Amazon in the early 2000s and didn’t sell from it’s own website. That was the beginning of the end of Toys R Us.
One of the two in my area closed at least five years ago.
I live near a one-stop-shopping Fred Meyer, and they are in the process of reducing or eliminating their non-food sections.