RIP Toys R Us

[NYLIBUD]

Welp that's it,as of today,all the TrUs shut their doors.Sad day,as they were the last big toy store.The internet kills yet another old business.I remember going there when I was a kid,and it was originally called Geoffrey's Bargain town,and was founded in the late 40s.In the beginning,they mainly sold babies clothes.I also remember that they sold great models.Oh well,like I said,another one bites the dust.

[Snake45]

AFAIC they signed their own death warrant the day they stopped carrying models. I spent a lot of money there up till then. Since then, not a dime. 

[High octane]

37 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

AFAIC they signed their own death warrant the day they stopped carrying models. I spent a lot of money there up till then. Since then, not a dime. 

I don't believe that at all, do you? It's a toy store and not a hobby shop. Even the Walmarts don't carry models around here anymore and they're doing great. In fact their stores will be "packed" this weekend.

[OldTrucker]

I haven't been in a Toys R Us since they stopped selling plastic.

[Joe Handley]

Here's my old store as it sits right now. Didn't grow up shopping there, but I spent 5 years working there. I went in there once when it was a Savers and the only things I recognized were the bathrooms and the hallway to the breakroom then the compactor that I could see through the doorway into the store room. I hate seeing it there, empty and looking like this, just hate it.

 

[Tom Geiger]

I went to Staples this afternoon and the Toys R Us is right next door.  This one must've closed earlier.  I looked inside and it had been picked clean of product already.  Appeared they were disassembling fixtures.

[High octane]

Yep from what I've seen on TV tonight, is that the shelving and all other fixtures are on the way out just like the toys were. GONE!

[NYLIBUD]

9 hours ago, High octane said:

Yep from what I've seen on TV tonight, is that the shelving and all other fixtures are on the way out just like the toys were. GONE!

Yea they are selling everything.All the shelving,and show cases.I have a couple of friends who own stores.They purchased a bunch of shelves,and other store items.Most of the toys were cleared out awhile ago when they were being discounted up to 80-90%.I bought a bunch of expensive Lego sets for my nephews.

[crazyjim]

The local news reported ToyRus going down and said several stores in Europe would remain open.

[Can-Con]

Toys R us Canada is heavily advertising that they're not going anywhere for the last few months. They were sold to a different company and are not closing. 

Still no kits though.

[Tom Geiger]

My sister in law did her college internship with Toys R Us main office.  To graduate she had to do a business proposal, so we created  "Geoffrey's Hobby Shop",  as a branded aisle.  This was 30 years ago, back when they still carried models.  She not only graduated, but they gave her a job.  She rose up through the ranks in marketing, usually working six months ahead on the sales flyers.. like she would've been working on Christmas right now!

Toys R Us was riding high back then, and she made out like a bandit on their stock plan. She bought her house by cashing in her winnings.  Good thing, since it later went south!

My older daughter was young then, so she used her in store advertising for Kids R Us and Toys R Us.  For the Little Tykes yard products, instead of having actual product on the store floor, they used large photos of each item with kids playing on them, like the Little Tykes playhouse.  My daughter was in all those photos, which were used for many years!

Another benefit was when there were hot Christmas toys, she'd requisition them for us right from their main warehouse.  We also benefited from advertising samples that needed to be discarded.... like a full size swing set.

She left the company to raise a family maybe 19 years ago when my twin nephews were born.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joe Handley]

26 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

My sister in law did her college internship with Toys R Us main office.  To graduate she had to do a business proposal, so we created  "Geoffrey's Hobby Shop",  as a branded aisle.  This was 30 years ago, back when they still carried models.  She not only graduated, but they gave her a job.  She rose up through the ranks in marketing, usually working six months ahead on the sales flyers.. like she would've been working on Christmas right now!

Toys R Us was riding high back then, and she made out like a bandit on their stock plan. She bought her house by cashing in her winnings.  Good thing, since it later went south!

My older daughter was young then, so she used her in store advertising for Kids R Us and Toys R Us.  For the Little Tykes yard products, instead of having actual product on the store floor, they used large photos of each item with kids playing on them, like the Little Tykes playhouse.  My daughter was in all those photos, which were used for many years!

Another benefit was when there were hot Christmas toys, she'd requisition them for us right from their main warehouse.  We also benefited from advertising samples that needed to be discarded.... like a full size swing set.

She left the company to raise a family maybe 19 years ago when my twin nephews were born.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How is she holding up with this?  From what I've seen elsewhere, I'm not the only former employee that finds this loss "difficult"

[NYLIBUD]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

Toys R us Canada is heavily advertising that they're not going anywhere for the last few months. They were sold to a different company and are not closing. 

Still no kits though.

Yea,that's what I heard,that these closings are mainly effecting the U.S stores.But come on,what am I going to do,take a ride to Canada to buy a toy for my kids.It just stinks that they are shutting down.Reminds me when the book store Borders went under.Never understood why that happened.I believe it had something to do with Amazon,and Borders upper management screwing up some how..Borders was a great store.But we still have Barnes and Noble.

[Rob Hall]

2 minutes ago, NYLIBUD said:

Reminds me when the book store Borders went under.Never understood why that happened.I believe it had something to do with Amazon,and Borders upper management screwing up some how..Borders was a great store.But we still have Barnes and Noble.

I was a huge fan of Borders, but the move to online ordering, ebooks and emagazines left them behind... Amazon ate their lunch.. 

[Joe Handley]

2 minutes ago, NYLIBUD said:

Yea,that's what I heard,that these closings are mainly effecting the U.S stores.But come on,what am I going to do,take a ride to Canada to buy a toy for my kids.It just stinks that they are shutting down.Reminds me when the book store Borders went under.Never understood why that happened.I believe it had something to do with Amazon,and Borders upper management screwing up some how..Borders was a great store.But we still have Barnes and Noble.

Not sure what happened to Borders, but it's not incompetence at the top like Sears and K-Mart.  about 12 years ago a few vulture capital companies, including Bain Capital took $6b out in loans to help help broker a stock take over of TRU and then dumped the costs of the loans on the company to pay off, they finally lost that battle, employees lost their jobs, we as consumers lost the only place that actually had a good selection of toys you could go in and look at before buying and children lost another store that was dedicated to them.

[Tom Geiger]

1 hour ago, Joe Handley said:

How is she holding up with this?  From what I've seen elsewhere, I'm not the only former employee that finds this loss "difficult"

I just texted her...  reply...  "Forever a Toys R Us kid"  (with hearts)

Another thing that killed Toys R Us was that many of the large brands..  Fischer Price, etc made retailers stock their entire lines.  They exempted Walmart from that, and Wally's only stocked the hot items and discounted them right under what Toys R Us could sell them for.  Amazon sellers who bought distressed inventories and store return pallets at pennies on the dollar...   which leads me to wonder where the Toys R Us inventories went...  our store is cleaned out completely... and how that will all affect the toy market in the next year...

Edited June 30, 2018 by Tom Geiger

[Joe Handley]

1 minute ago, Tom Geiger said:

I just texted her...  reply...  "Forever a Toys R Us kid"  (with hearts)

Another thing that killed Toys R Us was that many of the large brands..  Fischer Price, etc made retailers stock their entire lines.  They exempted Walmart from that, and Wally's only stocked the hot items and discounted them right under what Toys R Us could sell them for.  Amazon sellers who bought distressed inventories and store return pallets at pennies on the dollar...   which leads me to wonder where the Toys R Us inventories went...  our store is cleaned out completely... and how that will all affect the toy market in the next year...

Saw that in person, Used to work the service desk in my store (hated that and the R-Zone there) and we would have people complain about the price difference vs the Walmart across the street for the Hot Wheels cars.  One day I was bored and poking around in the system at the time (we were still on the orange and black screens and satellite data transfer at the the time) and found we were paying $.67 a car and selling them for $.99, while Walmart would sell them for $.69/ea. 

[Tom Geiger]

Joe, this has been going on as long as there were chains with buying clout.  My grandfather and his brothers ran a local jewelry store that their father had founded in 1910. In the early 1960s  a big department store for a regional chain called "Two Guys" opened up in the city.  He went snooping and saw they were selling Timex watches cheaper than his wholesale price!  When they put them on sale, he'd swoop in and buy them up.  Timex had a fit and threatened to take away his dealership!

My grandfather was a good businessman, so he shifted the business to selling and servicing high end jewelry.  That got them through their retirement in 1973, where nobody in the family wanted to pursue the business.

As for today, both Walmart and Amazon are getting to the point of dominating the retail marketplace.  Remember back when the government thought AT&T had a monopoly and broke it up?  I think it's time.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Tom Geiger

[HomerS]

TRU was their own worst enemy as well:

Hot wheels (locally) were $1.09-$1.19 but more importantly several cases behind the WalMarts in the area so most of the stuff was peg warmers

I collected McFarlane NHL goalies and they rarely made it to the sales floor.  One of my last instances when asked if I found everything today, I answered no and said the goalies were gone.  A young cocky manager came over and basically told me I didn't look for them in the right place.  I said if you have that issue in the back still in the case, I will buy the box of six (only one was the goalie).  He came up five minutes later....empty handed.

Shelves frequently looked like they haven't been straightened in weeks....and the store only opened five minutes ago.

The worst was the check out.  Six lines, one open and five customers deep.  When you did make it to the counter came the barrage of questions...need batteries, have frequent shopper card, want to sign up, want a TRU credit card, want to donate to....., etc.  Can you scan it so I can pay and I go.  (I LOVE the U scan check outs!!)

Babies R Us

I was in the management office years ago and we had one in the complex.  They were far better organized except every time the fire department for came through for routine inspections they were bad for stacking stuff to the deck in the warehouse which was above the sprinkler system.  

Edited June 30, 2018 by HomerS

[Mark]

36 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

Joe, this has been going on as long as there were chains with buying clout.  My grandfather and his brothers ran a local jewelry store that their father had founded in 1910. In the early 1960s  a big department store for a regional chain called "Two Guys" opened up in the city.  He went snooping and saw they were selling Timex watches cheaper than his wholesale price!  When they put them on sale, he'd swoop in and buy them up.  Timex had a fit and threatened to take away his dealership!

My grandfather was a good businessman, so he shifted the business to selling and servicing high end jewelry.  That got them through their retirement in 1973, where nobody in the family wanted to pursue the business.

As for today, both Walmart and Amazon are getting to the point of dominating the retail marketplace.  Remember back when the government thought AT&T had a monopoly and broke it up?  I think it's time.

Two Guys was based in New Jersey (original name: "Two Guys from Harrison").  They didn't operate all of the departments in their stores; if you remember that far back, at first some departments had their own cash registers within the store.  They probably didn't operate the jewelry/watch department, as they started out selling TV sets.  Two Guys came to my area around 1967, had two stores here that I know of.  One of the hobby wholesalers in my area operated the toy/hobby department in the stores here, as well as in another department store based here that operated in much the same way as Two Guys.  Both Two Guys and the local operation closed all of their stores in the early Eighties; both reshaped themselves as real estate management operations, and both are still in business doing just that.  

[Tom Geiger]

23 minutes ago, Mark said:

Two Guys was based in New Jersey (original name: "Two Guys from Harrison").  They didn't operate all of the departments in their stores; if you remember that far back, at first some departments had their own cash registers within the store.  They probably didn't operate the jewelry/watch department, as they started out selling TV sets.  Two Guys came to my area around 1967, had two stores here that I know of.  One of the hobby wholesalers in my area operated the toy/hobby department in the stores here, as well as in another department store based here that operated in much the same way as Two Guys.  Both Two Guys and the local operation closed all of their stores in the early Eighties; both reshaped themselves as real estate management operations, and both are still in business doing just that.  

Two Guys did have a great hobby department!   

The company is known as Vornado Reality Trust today.  Originally the chain made sure they owned the property at their locations, rather than leasing.  Over time they became property rich, that part of the business was worth more than their waning retail business.  So they shut it down, and did very well leasing out their properties to others.   Smart business.

[DrSprue]

Please guys, hold your super fast palm computer device (cell phone) in your left hand and point to any store these days with your right hand and think. The webs gonna stop every kind of retail... eventually. All of them.... Goodbye shack, hobbyshops, Toys-r-us, Sears, etc... Goodbye to you all!

 

I have no Idea why this pi**** me off but it may look ok for us to do this with web purchasing and waiting for the mail to get stuff, but something is gonna kick us in the ass because of it down the road.  

Edited June 30, 2018 by DrSprue

[Luc Janssens]

17 hours ago, Joe Handley said:

Here's my old store as it sits right now. Didn't grow up shopping there, but I spent 5 years working there. I went in there once when it was a Savers and the only things I recognized were the bathrooms and the hallway to the breakroom then the compactor that I could see through the doorway into the store room. I hate seeing it there, empty and looking like this, just hate it.

 

Believe me, when I say, that I know how you must feel, cuz a year or so ago I passed the old GM Plant-2 here in Antwerp where I worked for over 20 years.....it shut down in the winter of 2010, in it's heyday 14.000 people worked there, the biggest annual output was 240.000 units.

 

Edited June 30, 2018 by Luc Janssens

[Joe Handley]

7 minutes ago, Luc Janssens said:

Believe me, when I say, that I know how you must feel, cuz a year or so ago I passed the old GM Plant-2 here in Antwerp where I worked for over 20 years.....it shut down in the winter of 2010, in it's heyday 14.000 people worked there, the biggest annual output was 240.000 units.

 

Hey Luc, did you stop at any of the Toy's "R" Us stores when you were here in Chicago about a decade ago?  The TRU I posted the picture of was just across the street from the strip mall the  Hobby Town I worked at in St. Charles was at the time.

[Luc Janssens]

3 minutes ago, Joe Handley said:

Hey Luc, did you stop at any of the Toy's "R" Us stores when you were here in Chicago about a decade ago?  The TRU I posted the picture of was just across the street from the strip mall the  Hobby Town I worked at in St. Charles was at the time.

It was 2010, and we probably did, cuz picked up a toy truck for my then 2 year old son, in '15, I was again in Chicago and we again went to one, remember we were checking out the camper kit from the Breaking bad series,..