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 ...
Thinking the same thing. Demographics certainly seems to be part of it. Perhaps bad business practices are part of it.
But I used to get toys and play outside with lots of them. Cowboys and Indians, Street Hockey, model rockets, all kinds of stuff. Or board games -- kids would go to other kids houses and play indoor games for hours.
Today, with an Xbox and a stack of games, and you can sit in a dark room and play with people you will never meet.
Who needs a toy store?
Declining birth rate?
My wife and I did all we could to fight that off!
Couple that with what we know and what we suspect about modern sexuality among kids and younger adults ... ?
I think ... yup .
Your son is exactly right.
Toys R Us was the most expensive store at which to purchase toys. My family turned to purchasing at Walmart and Target and even the dollar stores at times. We also found whatever Toys R Us had, online, at Walmart online and Target online, and Amazon (though I’ve found Amazon to be almost as expensive as Toys R Us). If we could not find what we wanted (actually, what our kids wanted) Toys R Us became the store of last resort.
Toys R Us was great at marketing and advertising, but, the greatest marketing strategy of all, is LOWER PRICES. Toys R Us never understood that formula. That and the fact that they didn’t understand that they were being slowly eaten alive by the online stores, and they never got a good online presence to battle against Walmart and Target and Amazon and Ebay and others.
I agree... it's always a sad day for me when such a major entity goes belly-up.
Some of the best memories of my life were from around 25 years ago, when my two sons were 3 & 5 years old. Each year, early in December, I would take a day off work and my wife and I would drive to Houston for a fun day of buying Christmas toys, MOSTLY from Toys 'R Us.... and, some clothes from the mall, and then have a nice lunch at Bennigans... the place where "Potato Skins" were invented.
The mall is the only thing still there... on life-support. Won't be long before it converts to a Mexican flea market.
bingo !
It's the new SEARS Catalog...kids can look at pages and pages of toys for hours and hours, and make wishes and wishes...times do change. As kids we used the Sears catalog at Christmas...toys were NOT purchased at other times in the year. Now, I go into a young relative's bedroom, and it's mayhem with toys....
There is an answer for the US: print more money.
On line sales had nothing to do with it…right.
Amazon and internet shopping has a lot to do with it, likely more so than the birthrate.
>>Radio Shack
JJ Newberry
Woolworths
Montgomery Ward<<
White Front
Gemco
FedCo
Rexall
True.
They will have more flexibility after the next election.
Blame, Blame, Blame. Toys R Us made the mistake that most big chains do. They sacrificed uniqueness and instead chose all mainstream toys. They didn’t have anyone readily available to talk about the child you’re purchasing for and what they might enjoy. As a result, people buying toys for children go to smaller stores with an individual touch to find interesting toys for children. For the generic mass-produced stuff, they’ll buy it online. It’s cheaper, it’s delivered to your door, and it hasn’t been mauled in a retail environment.
Online, you only find what you’re looking for. On a real shopping expedition one has the opportunity to fall in love with the unexpected. Online shopping is not an improvement for those who like the experience of discovering something new to them.
Howard Johnson, A and P supermarket, Grand Union supermarket, Sinclair gas stations with their dino dollars contest,
This sort of list could be very long. Point being, we’ve all seen many once prominent businesses fall by the wayside, unable to compete in a changing marketplace.
Adapt or Die!
How was their online presence, pricing and delivery? Did they compete online with Amazon for toys (where they should have had a volume pricing advantage)? I’m guessing no.
I know, right? Hard to find a TV & radio repair shop nowadays, too.
Toy selling is a seasonal business. There are two big seasons - Christmas and Easter. A dedicated toy store thus has to carry overhead for the rest of the year. It’s much more efficient for a big box store to just expand the toy section for those times of the year or for online retailers which don’t have to bear the cost of bricks and mortar. Toys R Us has a business model that is simply outdated.
“Toys R Us always gave off a creepy vibe.”
So did their other chain store brand, “We B toys”.
That brand didn’t last long either/S
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